 | This page documents an English Wikipedia content guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Disclaimers should not be used in articles. All articles are already covered by a general disclaimer. |
A disclaimer in a Wikipedia article is a statement or warning that the article is not appropriate, suitable, or guaranteed for some specified purpose. There are disclaimers linked at the bottom of all pages on Wikipedia.
From time to time, editors insert additional disclaimers into an article either as text or as a template like:
 | Spoiler alert This article contains spoilers for [insert media here]. |
| Warning This article contains vulgar, profane, or otherwise offensive language. |
| Content warning This article contains media that may potentially trigger seizures for those diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy. |
| Malware warning Opening this link may expose you to malware. |
 | This article contains content that is suitable only for ages 18 and older. Viewer discretion is advised. |
While ideas like this have been continually proposed, the consensus is that they should not be used. Additional disclaimers in encyclopedia articles should generally be removed, and disclaimer templates should be removed and deleted.
Acceptable disclaimers
editThere are a few notable exceptions:
- "Technical" disclaimers assisting the user with display problems, such as {{Contains special characters}}. These do not refer to article content but to issues related to the proper display of article content.
- Current event and temporal templates such as {{current}} or {{recent death}}. These alert the reader that the article content may be subject to a flux of recent and upcoming significant changes for reasons beyond the control of Wikipedia.
- Cleanup templates, such as {{POV}}, {{original research}} or {{cleanup}}, are by design temporary. They point to deficiencies in the article that should be corrected promptly.
What are disclaimers?
editFor the purpose of this guideline, disclaimers are templates or text inserted into an article that duplicate the information at one of the five standard disclaimer pages:
- Wikipedia:General disclaimer: Wikipedia makes no guarantee of validity
- Wikipedia:Content disclaimer: Wikipedia contains content that may be objectionable
- Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer: Wikipedia does not give legal opinions
- Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer: Wikipedia does not give medical advice
- Wikipedia:Risk disclaimer: Use Wikipedia at your own risk
Why disclaimers should not be used
edit- They are redundant with the disclaimer linked at the bottom of every page.
- Wikipedia is not censored.
- Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a how-to guide.
- It is hard to define which articles should have a disclaimer (e.g., what defines an "adult content" article, which varies dramatically by culture and individual). Allowing some disclaimers would generate a significant overhead of disputes regarding where to draw the line; this draws editors away from more productive tasks.
- The lack of the disclaimer on certain pages as opposed to others might open Wikipedia to lawsuits.
- They take up large amounts of page space when used in banner form.
Dissenting opinions
editDissenting arguments in favour of disclaimers have included:
- Certain content may offend certain people; disclaimers could help those people skip content they prefer not to see.
- The benefits of disclaimers are immediate, frequent, and obvious, whereas lawsuits are distant, rare, and hypothetical.
- To inform readers that all content on Wikipedia can be edited and modified by anyone, so Wikipedia can't provide any claim to the accuracy of content.
Status of this guideline
editThis content guideline represents a solid and longstanding consensus on the English Wikipedia. It has not been elevated to the status of policy, because of the few possible exceptions listed above, and a certain room for disagreement about precisely how far these exceptions should be taken.
Unlike the fundamental policies of WP:NPOV, WP:V, and WP:OR, the current consensus on disclaimers is still negotiable. Indeed, several non-English Wikipedia projects do allow certain disclaimers which this guideline precludes (e.g., de:Vorlage:Gesundheitshinweis and it:Categoria:Template disclaimer).
Nonetheless, any future modifications of this guideline should be implemented only after consensus for the change has been achieved.
Previous discussions
editA short list of discussions from 2004 and 2005 is at Wikipedia talk:Risk disclaimer/Archive 1 § More disclaimer templates. Some older discussions are at Wikipedia talk:Risk disclaimer or in the templates for deletion archives.
See also
edit- Wikipedia:Perennial proposals
- Wikipedia:Spoiler
- Wikipedia:Templates for discussion
- Wikipedia:Content labeling proposal (failed proposal)