Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Crisco Cookbook 1912.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|right|alt=Antique book cover: Tested Crisco Recipes|[[To Serve Man (The Twilight Zone)|It's a cookbook!]] {{nobr|(But Wikipedia}} is not)]]

# '''Instruction manuals and cookbooks''': while Wikipedia has descriptions of people, places and things, an [[WP:WIAA|article]] should not read like a "how-to" style [[owner's manual]], [[cookbook]], [[advice column]] ([[Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer|legal]], [[Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer|medical]] or otherwise) or [[suggestion box]]. This includes tutorials, instruction manuals, game guides, and recipes. Describing to the reader how people or things use or do something is encyclopedic; instructing the reader in the [[imperative mood]] about how to use or do something is not.<ref>The how-to restriction does not apply to the [[Wikipedia:Project namespace|project namespace]], where [[:Category:Wikipedia how-to|"how-to"s relevant to editing Wikipedia itself]] are appropriate, such as [[Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Dia]].</ref> Wording can easily be modified to avoid advising the reader: {{!xt|Do not give aspirin ...}} ⇒ {{xt|The WHO advises against the use of aspirin ...}}. Such guides may be welcome at [[Wikibooks]] instead.

# '''[[Travel guide]]s''': an article on Paris should mention landmarks, such as the [[Eiffel Tower]] and the [[Louvre]], but not the telephone numbers or street addresses of the [[WP:POV|"best"]] restaurants, nor the current price of a café au lait on the [[Champs-Élysées]]. Wikipedia is not the place to recreate content more suited to entries in hotel or culinary guides, travelogues, and the like. Notable locations may meet the inclusion criteria, but the resulting articles need not include every tourist attraction, restaurant, hotel or venue, etc. While travel guides for a city will often mention distant attractions, a Wikipedia article for a city should list only those that are actually in the city. If you <em>do</em> wish to help write a travel guide, your contributions would be more than welcome at our sister project, [[Wikivoyage]].