Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia essays

message: The only thing which actually does more than describe what essays are is a mention that MFD can be used to delete them, which doesn't need a new guideline for. What is proposed? -Amarkov moo! 05:07, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: *Redundancy is non-meaningful; much of the content of Wikipedia guidelines are redundant to others. The WP:POL page only describes the "The differences between policies, guidelines, essays, etc." It does not do a particularly good job of delineating the utility of essays, or the misuses.  The only other place where there is a description of "essays" is at :Category:Wikipedia_essays, but category-space is not where guidelines should be placed. --LeflymanTalk 22:03, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

text: **And why would we need a guideline delineating the utility of essays, or the misuses? Is there any particular problem that this proposal intends to alleviate? Is there actually such a thing as "essay misuse", and is it worthwhile to define that term? >Radiant< 08:50, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: There is nothing actionable here

message: If there's anything wrong with this page as it stands, I'm not aware of it. If you'd like to inform me why it should be redirected, explain here.-h i s   s p a c e   r e s e a r c h 17:02, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Stop redirecting this page to the essays category, please

message: Essays are not there for freedom of speech. They are there to describe how wikipedia works, just like policies and guidelines. There is something seriously fubared about everyones constant attempts to deprecate the value of essays, especially since people have not been moving or removing essay tags much at all.
If we are to actually believe this essay, then we need to start removing many essay tags, as many pages so tagged do not fall under this definition! --Kim Bruning (talk) 20:49, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I haven't scrutinized your changes, but they look to me to be an improvement.--Father Goose (talk) 02:51, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

text: Okay, now I've scrutinized them.  This is as wrong as the other version was.  But it is shorter, I'll give you that.  The most clearly wrong thing is "The long term intent of any essay is that eventually it will become policy, after all."  There are essays that aren't any form of guidance, and never will be, but that still belong in the Wikipedia namespace.  The bits about consensus are either contradictory or a tautology, I'm not sure which, and don't explain things well.--Father Goose (talk) 08:36, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  It was very wrong before. Now it's just not nuanced enough yet. Feel free to  further. :-) --Kim Bruning (talk) 00:39, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Roger wilco.  No, I don't know who Wilco is and why we're supposed to roger him.--Father Goose (talk) 05:33, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Page is also wrong 

message: I just got reamed by an abusive admin for mistaking an essay for a guideline or policy. Sure it says so in that box on top, but people don't read the boxes all the time, do they? Why not put essay in the title? Where do I have to go to get this done?? CarolMooreDC (talk) 13:09, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Essays need Essay in title

message: This pargraph:
:Essays that are in the Wikipedia project space (prefixed by "Wikipedia:" or "WP:") should ideally represent a consensus amongst the broad community of Wikipedia editors.  Those that reflect the beliefs of a limited number of editors should be edited to present a view more representative of the community.  Poor candidates for broadening should be userified — relocated to a subpage of the user that authored them.  Such "user essays" are categorized into :Category:User essays.
...contradicts official current policy Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines#Essays:
:An essay is a page reflecting the views of an editor or a group of editors. The term is used for many opinion pages that do not fall into other categories. Essays may become guidelines if they have sufficient support, although in practice this happens rarely. A link to an essay should not imply that it represents a policy or guideline.
Essays need not be proposed or advertised; you can simply write them, as long as you understand that you do not necessarily speak for the entire community. 
I think this contradiction should be worked out before this text is reinserted. Ikip (talk) 02:51, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: My impression was that a mainspace essay, while it may not have widespread consensus, should not go against such either, and one found to be doing so should be userfied. This principle would give a long-standing essay a bit of weight when dealing with a recurring problem. See, for example, how an essay which went directly counter to WP:DTTR was userfied, while DTTR was kept. PSWG1920 (talk) 19:23, 3 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  I think it's fine to go against policy in an essay. User space is only for essays that should not be edited by others. I agree though that essays that directly oppose consensus without making this very clear in the text need some sort of remedy. Worse, though, are the essays (like this one) that replicate policy, or are redundant, or give helpful official-seeming advice, but which themselves have little basis in policy. The potential for abuse is rather high. The potential for 'what the hell, why is there so much stuff that I have to read before I can even get started??" is even higher.    M   19:58, 3 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Moved from main space

message: Would some uninvolved editor please look at  and, if you agree that a template that begins ""While this essay is not a policy or guideline itself..." and places the essay in the relevant essay cats is really, truly an essay tag, please mention it on this page?  
There's a remarkably silly dispute at OUTCOMES on whether its (presumably accidental) exclusion from this page is important evidence that it can't be used to tag essays.  I think it might be cleaner if I don't add it to this page myself while that dispute is active.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:44, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Template:Supplement]] 

message: WP:TR, a rebuttal to WP:DTR is a long standing essay in the user page of a apparently not longer active editor. I'm interesting in extending it (slightly). Is their a protocol for moving it into the WP space? Gerardw (talk) 13:07, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think there's an official method for doing this.  Have you tried e-mailing the user?  E-mail is enabled for the account, although it may go to an account that s/he no longer has access to.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:50, 11 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Moving essay protocol? 

message: Following my thoughts at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Monty845/Sanctions against editors are punishment, I think we need a  template that emphasizes the possible disputed and single author nature of a user essay.  Also, maybe we could use  for these few essays that express an opinion disputing policy.  More than rarely MfD sees such policy-disputing essays nominated for deletion on the grounds that they could seriously mislead an unsuspecting reader.  This says that there is a need for a clearer tag.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 00:16, 14 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  New templates:  User Essay; Policy dispute essay 

message: #s are awesome.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.231.176.35 (talk) 20:22, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  #s 

message: I didn't know about Wikipedia essays until I googled tl;dr and the essay came up before the article. Thinking the essay was the article, I was surprised to find that what I believed to be an article was so free with opinion--certainly not NPOV. I wouldn't want to share that essay with a colleague, for example, because it's so specific to Wikipedia and doesn't include the ironic self-mockery that tl;dr can convey in other contexts. At any rate, I do worry that Google searches can light on essays instead of articles, and will further convince my non-Wikipedian colleagues that the site is rife with controversy and inaccuracy. I have no suggestions for action, at this point; my note is merely a request for discussion and information. Thanks. Gcampbel (talk) 19:16, 12 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia essay as genre, and possible need for disambiguation 

message: , an WP:SPA left a paragraph here that looks like it was intended for article space, not as a contribution to how WP:Wikipedia essays should be used.  I've put it in a hide box.  If no one defends its presence here, I suggest it be excised, as off-topic.  Excision is preferable to draftifying, as they only made the single edit, and the material would require a 100% complete rewrite to meet our inclusion standards.  Geo Swan (talk) 15:29, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  TPE Sex Dolls