You brought up a valid question  The main answer the Wikipedia article in Wikipedia is one of the four currently permitted exceptions to WikipediaAvoid selfreferences in finished articles per Writing about Wikipedia itself  I have some additional justifications and think of the Wikipedia article in Wikipedia as each of the following A Help About page for itself  Lots of software has such a feature to answer the question What is this A reference for all the mirrored or forked versions A link httpenwikipediaorgwikiWikipedia to give to newbies on other sites or in email who ask Wikipedia whats that  Think WPBITE in a global sense Wikipedia is certainly a free online encyclopedia worthy of note in any new encyclopedia  See WPNOT