Wikipedia:Did you know/Admin instructions

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}}

Administrators are the final and most important check in between anything and the Main Page, and DYK is no exception. This page will tell you what you need to look out for when putting anything on DYK, and then tell you how to queue a prep, which is how most things make their way onto DYK. There are also a few sets of manual instructions, in case you need to step in for a bot or script that isn't working right. If this is your first time queueing a prep or doing some other admin function at DYK, and it looks daunting: don't worry, it really isn't. The actual instructions for the move are only four steps. If any of the other stuff goes wrong, there are plenty of people who'll catch it.

Required checks

Any boldlinked article, hook, or image that you are placing on (or queueing for) the Main Page must go through these checks. They can be performed before or after the technical steps have been completed, depending on whether you want to take precautions against edit conflicting with other admins or erroneously putting something on the Main Page. Most admins promote to queue before undertaking the checks to prevent edit conflicts. Many of the admin checks listed below are repeats of checks required at earlier points in the process of review and promotion; these are specified because some workers at DYK may be new or inexperienced here.

If you can't fix a concern yourself, bring it to Wikipedia talk:Did you know, providing a link to the nom template, the formatted hook, and pings to nominator/reviewer/promoter in your question. You can also switch the problematic hook with one from another preparation area and perform the same checks on the new hook. You are required to check ...

• ... that each hook is cited, neutral, and BLP-compliant.
• ... that each hook is interesting and properly formatted. You are not a rubberstamp; however, keep in mind that at least three other editors – the nominator, reviewer, and prep builder – have designated this hook as interesting.
• ... that the credits of each hook have been properly formatted.
• ... that no outstanding issues have been raised about any hook at Wikipedia talk:Did you know.
• ... that each boldlinked article is new enough.
• ... that each boldlinked article is long enough.
• ... that each boldlinked article is well-sourced, neutral, BLP-compliant, and free of obvious copyright violations. You can use Earwig to make the copyright check.
• ... that each boldlinked article contains the hook fact and the appropriate citations for it. This is a check that is especially helpful on a good article, as GA does not require this direct a citation and many inexperienced DYK reviewers may assume a GA is automatically ready for DYK.
• ... that each boldlinked article is presentable.
• ... that each boldlinked article has not been substantially edited since promotion. If it has been substantially edited, you can verify the changes yourself or send the hook back.
• ... that the image is properly captioned and freely licensed.
• ... that the image is protected if it is on Commons.

Helpful if you have time

• Check the prep set for a balance of hook lengths and subjects. This is primarily the responsibility of promoters as they build a prep, but sometimes hooks will be swapped, throwing sets into imbalance. The links in the prep areas that read "see how this template appears on both today's Main Page and tomorrow's Main Page" can help with adjusting for length.
• Read article and copyedit; this is especially helpful for new (rather than GA) articles.

Automatic instructions

Updates to the Main Page and the protection of images are handled automatically by bots on English Wikipedia and Commons, respectively.

Moving a prep to queue

If you have WP:PSHAW installed on your common.js page, you can execute the move semi-automatically:

1. Navigate to the prep you wish to promote.
2. Under the "more" tab, select "PSHAW".
3. Click "Move to queue".
4. Reload both the prep and the queue to verify that the move was performed correctly.

Manual instructions

Posting an update to the Main Page

1. If anything going on the Main Page is not from a queue that has been stamped by an administrator, perform the required checks on it.
2. Update Template:Did you know from the current queue by copying/pasting the hooks code from the top through <noinclude>.
3. Purge the cache of the Main Page to make sure the new entries appear. (Instructions there.)
4. Reset the DYK time. (Instructions there.) Note that the timestamp you will paste is the current time, indicating that you just posted the update – not the time for the next update.
5. Increment the next queue pointer. Reset it to 1 rather than increasing to 8.
6. Copy the previous set of hooks (not the new set just promoted to the front page) to the archive. Be sure to copy the final revision of the set (it should be the last diff on the T:DYK page before your update), and place the timestamp of the DYK update you just made above it. Please include the picture/file.
7. Check if the previous picture/file was temporarily uploaded from Commons for display on the Main Page, and delete it from En if so.
8. On the local description page of the picture/file for the previous set of hooks, add {{DYKfile|21 December|2024|type=image}} (occasionally replacing image with video where appropriate). Note that, like the archives, this will create a one-day misalignment between the date on the file page and the date it actually appeared in DYK.
9. If you have time, please give out the credits for the hooks just promoted by opening the version of the queue that the main page was updated from, and using the "give" and "tag" links in the credits section, then following instructions. (These are most easily done with three windows open.)
10. Replace the queue you just promoted hooks from with {{User:DYKUpdateBot/REMOVE THIS LINE}}.
11. Congrats, you've done it! If you have time, move a prep to queue :)

Replacing a hook on the Main Page

1. If the new hook is not from a queue that has been stamped by an administrator, perform the required checks on it.
2. Navigate to Template:Did you know and replace the old hook with the new one.
3. Preview the edit. Make sure that the formatting of the set is preserved, in that the new hook begins with a bullet and there is a space between the ellipsis and the first word. Then save the page.
4. Congrats, you've done it! The previous section will tell you how to give out credits for the new hook :)

Moving a prep to queue

Please watchlist User:DYKUpdateBot/Errors, where the bot reports errors that prevent it from posting the next Queue to the main page. Sample warning of missing hooks, Sample coding error message

1. Open the prep for editing, and open the same-numbered queue for editing. Perform all checks listed above.
2. You need to remove {{User:DYKUpdateBot/REMOVE THIS LINE}} from the top of the target Queue, and replace it with {{DYKbotdo|~~~}}.
3. Copy and paste the entire contents of the prep into the queue.
4. Make sure <!--Hooks--> is at the top beneath {{DYKbox}} but above the image. <!--HooksEnd--> is on the line just after the last hook.
5. Preview (!), then save.
6. Go back to the prep template; clear all the text; copy the complete contents of Template:Did you know/Clear into it; save.
7. Edit the prep counter to bump it to the next prep set to be moved to queue.

Protecting an image

If KrinkleBot is up

1. Perform all relevant image checks.
2. Add the unprotected image to Main Page/Commons media protection. Wait until it shows up at commons:Commons:Auto-protected files/wikipedia/en before posting to the Main Page.

If KrinkleBot is down

1. Double-check the image hasn't already been vandalized. Perform all relevant image checks.
2. On Commons, download the file to your computer.
3. Back at English Wikipedia, go to Special:Upload and upload the image with the same filename. In the description field add {{c-uploaded}} and the source and license information. After clicking "Upload file", you'll get a warning the image already exists, and will need to confirm by clicking "Ignore warning and save file anyway".
4. Check if the cascading protection has kicked in. You can do this by clicking "Edit" on the English Wikipedia file page, where you should hopefully see an editnotice telling you that the page is fully protected. If not, please protect the image manually – set protection expiry to after the image is slated to leave the Main Page.
5. Congrats, you've done it! After the image comes off the Main Page, it's best to go back and delete the temporary file :)

Switching update interval

See WP:DYKROTATE for policy on when we switch update intervals. The technical process is to edit User:DYKUpdateBot/Time Between Updates to have the time (in seconds) between updates. Currently, the only two legitimate values are 86400 (one update per day) or 43200 (two updates per day). Please don't get creative. For a variety of technical reasons, you should only make a change shortly after midnight UTC.

Troubleshooting

Admins are urged to put User:DYKUpdateBot/Errors on their watchlist. If there is an error delaying the update, this bot will have in its edit summary exactly what the problem is. For instance, if {{DYKbotdo|~~~}} has been missed in the promoting from prep to queue, the update bot's edit summary will state the error and say which queue is involved. Or, if it's a missing botdo template, the edit summary will say "Queue (number) is not tagged with DYKbotdo".