Introduction to Structurism

(English) This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some Wikimedians but may not have wide support. This is not policy on Meta, but it may be a policy or guideline on other Wikimedia projects. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes.

Structurism is a broad editing philosophy emphasizing interconnection, organization, and uniformity as the best way to improve the usefulness of content across all Wikimedia projects. Structurism provides five interconnected advantages to users and editors, by making Wikipedia:

The five goals of structurism (Clockwise from top: Navigability, Intelligibility, Translatability, Editability, and Accessibility)

1. Navigable

Allows users to find relevant content quickly and easily

2. Accessible

Allows all users—including impaired and mobile users—to access content

3. Intelligible

Allows users to understand content

4. Editable

Allows users to improve existing content (for example, by identifying gaps and redundancies)

5. Translatable

Allows users (and bots) to parse and migrate content to other languages and sister projects

Types of structurism

Inter- (navigational) vs. intra- (informational)

• Inter-structurism constitutes "building the web"—making connections between content pages.

• Intra-structurism constitutes the way content is organized for presentation within content pages.

Exo- vs. meta-

• Exopedian structurism is concerned with the application of structure to encyclopedic content.

• Metapedian structurism is concerned with the application of structure to the practice of encyclopedia-building itself.

Tools and techniques

Wikipedia provides a large array of structural tools. To become a more effective structurist, familiarize yourself with these tools and apply them as appropriate. Some tools, like wikilinking and categorization, will apply to nearly every page you work on. Others, like maps and tables, will only apply to some pages. (Note that several of the links below are specific to the English-language Wikipedia; guidelines for using these tools may vary between languages and projects.)

Inter- Connecting related articles Wikilinks Categories Navigation boxes/Article series Books Portals Wikidata relationships Interlanguage links Interwiki links Helping the reader find the right article Disambiguation pages Anthroponymy pages Set index articles Redirects

Intra- Types of articles with different purposes Broad-concept articles Glossaries List articles Outline articles Ways of structuring information Accessibility Infoboxes Images and diagrams Embedded lists Graphs and charts Maps Summary style Tables Wikidata

Meta- Cleanup tags Maintenance categories Policies and guidelines Talk pages Information pages WikiProjects

Display your philosophy

Join the Association of Structurist Wikipedians, and display the {{User structurist}} box on your userpage!

Relation to other wiki philosophies

Mediawikianism is a related philosophy that emphasizes the role of the Mediawiki software in organizing and improving the encyclopedia.

Structurism does not entail any specific position with regard to deletionism vs. inclusionism, mergism vs. separatism, immediatism vs. eventualism, or any of the various philosophies of wiki governance.