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In the Wikipedia:Glossary, an orphan is defined as "a page with few or no links from other pages." These pages can still be found by searching Wikipedia, but it is preferable that they can also be reachable by links from related pages; it is therefore helpful to adopt a page by adding links from other suitable pages. This is part of building the web.

What is an orphan?

There are several factors that can classify an article as an orphan:

Orphan: An article with fewer than three incoming links which meet the criteria for linking below
Isolated article: An article that cannot be reached via a series of links from the Main Page
Walled garden: A group of articles that link to each other, but have few or no links to them from any other Wikipedia articles. In effect, that group is orphaned. Theoretically, a walled garden could have numerous articles if they all link to each other but no others link to them.
Orphaned project page: A project page (starting with "Wikipedia:") with few or no links from other project pages. Essays are most likely to be orphaned.
Orphaned image: An image not used on Wikipedia

What is the problem with an orphaned article?

A company with no advertising will not be known to others, and as a result, will get few if any customers.

Likewise, orphaned articles, since they have few links to them from other pages, are difficult to find, and are most likely to be found only by chance. Because of this, few people know they exist, and therefore, they get less readership and improvement from those who would be able to improve them.

In particular, if the topic is more obscure, this may make it difficult for many to locate. If not for links to a page, the only way such an article can be found is by a person who knows the topic entering it into Wikipedia or doing a web search, browsing a category in which it is contained, looking at the edit history of a contributor to the page, or having it show up as a random article.

Criteria

An article is orphaned if fewer than three other articles link to it. This is a strict definition of the term and there is still discussion regarding whether to have a more relaxed definition in order to clear the backlog of orphans. Currently our priority is to focus on orphans with NO incoming links at all.

For the purposes of the strict definition, the following pages do not count toward the three:

Ideally, except for disambiguation links, disambiguation pages should be orphaned. The only pages that should link to them are articles bearing the title (via templates such as {{otheruses}} and see also sections of other disambiguation pages (when separate disambiguation pages are created due to long length or variances in the titles). Please do not place the {{orphan}} template on disambiguation pages.

{{surname}} and {{given name}} pages, and Set indexes ({{SIA}}), should usually be orphaned, as incoming links should usually be amended to target one of the items listed. Please do not place the {{orphan}} template on these pages.

Sections of a long list (see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (long lists)), other than the first or entry section are not orphans as long as they are linked to from the entry section.

Suggestions for how to de-orphan an article

Step 1: Finding an orphaned article

Lists of orphaned articles can be found in the following places (in order of priority):

Category:Orphaned articles from November 2024 - This category holds the latest articles marked as orphans.
Category:Orphaned articles, to find orphans from prior months.
Category:Attempted de-orphan. This category holds articles which someone has tried to de-orphan, but was unsuccessful. These can be ignored in favor of orphans which have not yet been attempted.
Lonelypages This toolserver page gives you access to every single orphan in the English Wikipedia, per our criteria. It also gives you the ability to filter the list, so if you want to look at all orphans with two links that bear an {{orphan}} template, you can do that. The list is updated once daily.
Untagged orphans This toolserver page is for those who want to put the {{orphan}} template on pages that are orphans but aren't tagged yet. It consists of a list of 5,000 orphans from Lonelypages that is automatically re-checked for orphan status every 15 minutes. Furthermore, you can force a manual update to make sure the items in the list are still orphans. Good for bots or AutoWikiBrowser.

Step 2: Finding related articles

If the article has an {{orphan}} or {{do-attempt}} tag, then you can follow the hyperlinked words "related topics", which will take you to a Google site search of en.wikipedia.org. This will produce any articles which mention the name of the orphaned article without linking to it.

If the page lists other names or has redirects, consider searching for those terms as well.

If this doesn't help, then a little more research is required. First, read the article. Then, follow some likely-looking outgoing links from the orphan to other articles, and do a Web-wide Google search for the article topic. Doing these will give you a much better idea of what it relates to. Not only will it probably give you information you can use to add meaningful links from other articles, but it will probably give you enough info to flesh out and improve the orphan itself. (This is, after all, the main purpose of the 'pedia.)

Read the article, follow some likely-looking outgoing links from the orphan to other articles, and do a Web-wide Google search for the article topic. Doing these may give you a better idea of what it relates to.

Step 3: Adding links

Be careful to check that the search results refer to the topic of this article, and not something else of the same name. When you find an appropriate parent, insert a meaningful link to the orphaned article.

When adding a link to an orphaned article, please use this edit summary:

Adding link to orphaned article, Wikiproject Orphanage: [[WP:ORPHAN|You can help!]]

Step 4: Remove the orphan template

Once the article has three or more links that fit the criteria, remove the {{orphan}} tag, if one is present. You may use this edit summary:

Successfully de-orphaned! Wikiproject Orphanage: [[WP:ORPHAN|You can help!]]

Various ways to de-orphan

Check to see if there are articles about the same topic under a different name.
Consider creating reasonable redirects to the article. (Some alternative titles may already have links to them, or searching for the alternative titles may suggest other appropriate links.)
Place the article name in quotation marks and click search (if the article title is a single word, quotes are not needed). This will list all the articles containing the term. Examine each one, and determine if the term in these articles means the same as the orphaned article. If it does, add an internal link.
If any related articles have a see also section, it is worth considering if the orphaned article belongs there.
Check to see if there are any lists of whatever the orphaned article is or disambiguation pages listing articles with similar titles. If it belongs, you can add it there. This does not count toward the number of links needed to not be considered an orphan, but it does help.
Identify one or more navboxes containing articles in a category common to the orphan. According to some editors, this is the very best way to de-orphan, for it provides dozens of instantaneous links. To do this, find the navbox, and add the article where it best belongs. You can edit a navbox by either visiting its title (beginning with "template:") or navigating to a page containing it, and clicking the letter "e" at the top-left corner. Once you add the orphaned article to a navbox, add the navbox to that article. If no suitable navbox exists, and you have the skills to create one, you can create a new navbox for the orphan and other related articles.

While adding a navbox is very effective in increasing the number of links to a page, it is important to assure that at least some of the articles within the navbox have links from articles outside that navbox, otherwise you are left with a walled garden.

Also consider whether the article belongs in Wikipedia at all. Many orphaned articles are created by less experienced editors who do not understand that it is necessary to provide sources, links or even categories. This does not automatically mean it does not belong, but in these cases, it sure needs improvement.

Some questions to ask are:

Should it be merged with another article?
Should it be converted into a disambiguation page?
Should it be transwikid to wp:wiktionary or another wiki?
Does it meet WP:criteria for deletion?

You may also wish to deal with or flag other article issues. See Template:Article issues for a list of issues with which an article can be flagged.

What if I can't de-orphan it?

Add the date you tried to de-orphan to the orphan tag using the att parameter. Update the {{orphan}} tag with a {{Orphan|att=November 2024}} tag, or, if there are already multiple issues, use both the orphan and do-attempt parameters of the {{articleissues}} template (this is necessary to categorize it correctly). (See #Templates, below.)

In this case, please use the following edit summary on the orphaned article when recording the de-orphan attempt:

Unsuccessful de-orphan attempt, WikiProject Orphanage: [[WP:ORPHAN|You can help!]]

There are several benefits of using the de-orphan attempt (att) parameter. It is a placemarker for those trying to do initial de-orphaning (i.e., indicates that somebody tried it and when). You can be sure you won't end up looking at the same orphaned article twice because once it's tagged with att=November 2024 it gets removed from the category it's currently in (Category:Orphaned articles from November 2024) and gets placed into the attempted de-orphaned articles category (Category:Attempted de-orphan in November 2024). Or it may be a place for those de-orphaners who want an extra challenge. Also, articles where de-orphaning was tried quite some time ago may be easier now. (Many articles become easier to de-orphan once more articles in related areas have been filled in, for instance a missing genus article.)

Additionally, it may be the case that some articles currently just cannot be de-orphaned. In that case then please do not try to 'force-fit' by adding unrelated links to articles where they don't belong just for the sake of de-orphaning. Remember that our primary goal is to improve the encyclopedia. Your priority when adding links should be to maintain quality by adding relevant and useful links wherever possible.

Some types of articles that may be difficult to de-orphan are:

Biographies: Biographies of people who are not part of a group of people involved in a common cause
Companies: Businesses that are notable but have little involvement with other topics outside of themselves
Events: Notable events that are related to few if any topics that have articles

Adding an article to the list

Although a bot regularly checks articles to see if they are orphaned, you can help too. When reading an article, you can check what other pages link to it by clicking "What links here" in the toolbox. You will then be provided with a list of pages that link to that article. If it meets the criteria below, and you don't have the time or knowledge to de-orphan it right away, you can add the {{orphan}} template to the top of the page, marking it as an orphan.

Avoiding orphans from the start

When creating a new article, it is best to prevent them from being orphans from the beginning. Advice can be found at Wikipedia:Drawing attention to new pages.

Finding possible links may be time consuming. Don't worry if you cannot make all the necessary edits on the same day, as long as you keep your plans in mind.

Listings

All Orphans
Untagged Orphans
Adopted Orphans (Articles that aren't orphans, but have orphan tag.)
Category:Orphaned articles
Category:Orphaned non-free use Wikipedia files
User:R3m0t/Reports - Orphaned talk pages (project completed as of September 2005)
Special:Unusedimages

Templates

{{Orphan}} - cleanup template for orphan articles

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 Ideally, except for disambiguation links, disambiguation pages ''should'' be orphaned. The only pages that should link to them are articles bearing the title (via templates such as {{tl|otheruses}} and [[WP:SEEALSO|see also]] sections of other disambiguation pages (when separate disambiguation pages are created due to long length or variances in the titles). Please do not place the {{tl|orphan}} template on disambiguation pages.
+{{tl|surname}} and {{tl|given name}} pages, and Set indexes ({{tl|SIA}}), should usually be orphaned, as incoming links should usually be amended to target one of the items listed.  Please do not place the {{tl|orphan}} template on these pages.
 Sections of a long list (see [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions (long lists)]]), other than the first or entry section are not orphans as long as they are linked to from the entry section.