[WikiEN-l] HOWTOs/Recipes/Instructions and other imperative content

[Ray Saintonge]

David Friedland wrote:

> The following seems to be the general idea that people have about 
> how-to type content on Wikipedia. i.e. that it belongs on wikibooks, 
> not wikipedia. I couldn't find anywhere where this was written out as 
> policy, so this is my proposed addition to [[What Wikipedia is not]]:
>
>  Under what Wikipedia articles are not:
> * Instructions. Wikipedia seeks to be informative, not instructional. 
> Therefore, things like how-tos, recipes, and other types of 
> information that provide instruction on something are not appropriate 
> on Wikipedia. They are appropriate, however, on Wikibooks, and 
> articles that contain only instructional material should be moved to 
> the appropriate area on Wikibooks. It is possible that information 
> about instructions are appropriate on Wikipedia, but it should be 
> presented in the indicative mood, and not the imperative mood that so 
> distinctively marks instructional material.

IIRC when I first joined up there were some wishful comments from Jimbo 
about having practical information on Wikipedia, but Wikibooks did not 
yet exist.  I have no problem with Wikipedia articles using an 
instructional imperative.

Ec