Wikipedia:Did you know

Did you know?
Introduction and rules
Introduction	WP:DYK
General discussion	WT:DYK
Guidelines	WP:DYKCRIT
Reviewer instructions	WP:DYKRI
Nominations
Nominate an article	WP:DYKCNN
Awaiting approval	WP:DYKN
Approved	WP:DYKNA
April 1 hooks	WP:DYKAPRIL
Holding area	WP:SOHA
Preparation
Preps and queues	T:DYK/Q
Prepper instructions	WP:DYKPBI
Admin instructions	WP:DYKAI
Main Page errors	WP:ERRORS
History
Statistics	WP:DYKSTATS
Archived sets	WP:DYKA
Just for fun
Monthly wraps	WP:DYKW
Awards	WP:DYKAWARDS
Userboxes	WP:DYKUBX
Hall of Fame	WP:DYK/HoF
List of users ...
... by nominations	WP:DYKNC
... by promotions	WP:DYKPC
Administrative
Scripts and bots	WP:DYKSB
On the Main Page	T:DYK
Main Page errors	WP:ERRORS
To ping the DYK admins	{{DYK admins}}

The page Template:Did you know is the "Did you know" section on the Main Page.

• Add a new suggestion here: Template_talk:Did_you_know
• See Special:Newpages to look for recently created pages that could be included.
• Please keep suggestions NPOV and attempt to have items from different fields of interest in an update.
• Please read the Rules before editing the template or making suggestions.
• For exact guidelines as to how to update see the Guide to Updating DYK (still a work in progress).
• Administrators: when you add an image to DYK, you must protect it and add {{mprotected}} to the image description page, or {{C-uploaded}} if you have uploaded a temporary copy from Commons.

The Rules

• DYK is not a general trivia section.
• This section is only for articles that have been created within the last 5 days. Ideally, they should have been listed on "New Pages" during that time, but former stubs, redirects, or other short articles that have been greatly expanded are also encouraged.

Selections

• Look for articles that are over 1,000 characters in size - no stubs.
• Try to pick articles that are original to Wikipedia (not 1911 or other data sources) and interesting.
• The "Did you know?" fact must be mentioned in the article.
• Try to avoid country-centrism and topic-centrism. Wikipedia is a general-interest encyclopedia with a global audience. No DYK installment should have more than two entries relating to one country, topic, or issue, and no more than one is even better.
• Select articles which cite their sources. While this is not (yet?) a hard and fast rule it's a really good idea to do this. Over time, uncited articles are less and less likely to be chosen. At the very least, the item mentioned in the tagline should be sourced in the article.
• A suggestion rather than a rule: Admins, try to avoid picking your own nominations. Use common sense here.

Formatting

• The title of the new article should be '''BOLD''' and placed on top as the first item.
• Since the main page redesign, generally up to SIX (6) items, but whatever the case - just make sure it fits whatever else is on the page at that time. Use your common sense.

Images

• The standard image code is <div style="float:right;margin-left:1em;"> [[Image:filename.jpg|100px|ALT TAG]]</div>, but feel free to use a pixel width smaller than 100px or shift the alignment to the left.
• Sometimes new articles won't have images, but you can usually use a flag for a topic with a national connection.
• The item with an associated image should be the first item, even if that means breaking the "first in, first out" rule. Try not to add an item to the top of DYK without adding an associated image. If you add one without an image, add it as the 2nd, 3rd or 4th item or hide the picture.
• If an article does not have an image, but you use a related image to display on DYK, please add that image to the article.
• Fair use images are not permitted. Please find a related free image (PD, GFDL, CC etc.) as an alternative.

Updates

• Updates can be as often as warranted, but items removed after less than six hours don't really get a fair share of exposure, and items posted more than 24 hours seem to become stale.
• The items do not have to be replaced all at once (one-by-one additions are fine, although they make updating the archive trickier, consider leaving a commented note that you did so to help the next admin out), but keep the item that has an associated image on top.
• Please archive expired items to the list of archived items until they are stable before moving them to Wikipedia:Recent additions.