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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Wikipedia:ELF
WikiElf is a broad term for an editor who, in various degrees, works behind the scenes at Wikipedia.

How to spot a WikiElf in the wild

WikiElves enjoy the behind the scenes work on Wikipedia. WikiElves often are active in areas such as requests for comments, articles for deletion, working on templates, and various policies, guidelines and help articles. They can sometimes be bold, but rarely in highly visible places. Some enjoy creating new articles because starting an article is usually a quiet and solitary process. While they take pride in their work, they never exhibit ownership behavior for what they have started. Below you can find some of the fields and trails WikiElves are commonly found in.

Representation of a WikiElf.

A WikiElf is described as having desirable traits of an editor working behind the scenes to improve Wikipedia. Subspecies are: WikiElf; CreatorElf; PeopleElf; DeleteElf; ExpandElf; ProtectElf.

WikiElves always try and create harmony and be peacemakers when engaging with others. When they fail at this or cannot see a way to restore peace, they will often simply leave the situation. However, they usually avoid highly visible areas, preferring to keep to themselves rather than get involved in contentious issues.

WikiElves are usually friendly creatures, except when they are attacked personally, faced with overtly uncivil comments, vandalism, pointy or disruptive editing. WikiElves promote peaceful interactions and consensus building between Wikipedians, much like their kindred spirits WikiGnomes and WikiFairies, and sometimes possess the abilities of WikiEagles. WikiElves always enjoy giving barnstars to others when they see something special or just to make someone feel good.

WikiElves come in all shapes and sizes. They often work alongside WikiGnomes and WikiFairies, to whom they are often compared, but they are generally shyer and less persistent. Where a WikiGnome will often stay at a task until it's completely and meticulously done, WikiElves often will attend to the immediate task at hand and then move on to something new.

True to their helpful and behind the scenes nature, WikiElves will often work on organization, classification, and navigation areas within the encyclopedia, such as Categorization, Indexes, Outlines, Tables of Content, and hatnotes; these areas are often quiet and very helpful to readers and editors alike.

WikiElves will also often work on the appendices of articles such as Bibliographies, External Links, See also and Further Reading sections, and helping their WikiGnome companions at filling in and expanding Notes and References. Their knowledge of categories help them when working the article footers. Some WikiElves, especially those that like working with templates, have a fetish for working with Infoboxes. A rarer but important type of WikiElf is a GlossaryElf, one that works at improving glossaries because these help readers and editors in understanding and using different terms in a particular topic area.

The headers of Talk pages frequently attract the attention of WikiElves, where they will add missing information and fill in missing Wikiprojects.

Types of WikiElves

The common WikiElf is one who covers all kinds of behind the scene projects. They do not focus on one issue or area. While common WikiElves cover all or some of the below areas, some rarer and special types of WikiElves will focus primarily or exclusively on a particular task or area and they have special names to identify themselves:

  • AuthorElf are those who enjoy creating new pages, categories, and templates. These are usually a solitary type of WikiElf. WikiElves that create a lot of stubs are sometimes referred to as SeedElves.
  • PeopleElf is a bolder more adventurous WikiElf that works behind the scenes at people projects like WikiProjects, Wikipedia Teahouse, and Requests for comment. Because they enjoy both being helpful and being peacemakers, PeopleElves sometimes work at Dispute Resolution and Third Opinion, but they rarely go to Administrator Notice Boards/Incidents and only when really necessary, because the atmosphere is often frightening and sad. They often spread wikilove and encouragement with barnstars and awards.
  • GardenerElf is a WikiElf who primarily participates in deletion processes such as New Page Patrol, CSD, PRODs, and AFD. Some GardenerElves also work at Splitting and Merging articles as a result of an AfD, or just generally just to improve articles by pruning and trimming content, making content more concise.
  • PathfinderElf is a WikiElf whose main enjoyment comes from working in the various organization, classification, navigation, and sorting areas. This includes those who enjoy working with article infoboxes. Because WikiElves enjoy organizing, they sometimes work to see that articles are properly structured and work so that the article table of contents is meaningful and easy to use. These WikiElves also work hard on Redirects.
  • GuardianElf is a WikiElf that protects and defends the encyclopedia against vandalism, participates in Recent changes patrol, Pending Changes Review, Articles for Creation review, New Page Patrol, and also watches out for original research, synthesis, fringe theories, and copyrighted material being added to articles.
  • BottomElf is a WikiElf that enjoys spending their time at the bottom of articles in the appendices sections.
  • GlossaryElf is a WikiElf that enjoys helping readers and editors by working on Wikipedia Glossaries.
  • OgraphyElf is a WikiElf that enjoys working on Ographies, such as Bibliographies, Discographies, and Filmographies. They often work alongside BottomElves.
  • GnomishElf is a WikiElf that is primarily a companion to WikiGnomes, helping them accomplish their goals, and making sure they don't go into a Gnomish rage or depression while dealing with misplaced commas, spelling and grammar errors, and hyphens used where dashes should be placed.

How to identify WikiElves

You can add one of the handy WikiElf userboxes to your user page, to let other fauna on Wikipedia know when they have spotted a WikiElf:

This user is a WikiElf.
This user is a Type Elf.

Add {{User wikipedia/WikiElf}} to your userpage or if you prefer some other type of WikiElf, {{User wikipedia/WikiTypeElf}}

This user is a WikiElf.

Add {{User:TimothyBlue/Userboxes/WikiElf}} to your userpage.

Another way for a WikiElf to identify themselves is to display a special coat of arms at the top of the page next to the User's name. The following code should produce a shield bearing an elf's hat at the top of the page, {{Wikipedia:WikiElf/topicon}}. To make use of the two optional parameters, the horizontal and vertical positions respectively, the default coordinates are (30, 8).

WikiElven enclaves and havens

Common fields for WikiElves

If you're interested in finding your folk of your stock, check these Wikifields.

Trails for Pathfinder Elves

If you enjoy working on Wikipedia's Navigation, Classification, and Organization, here are some spots you will find pleasure.

Gnomish Companions for WikiElves

If you like working with WikiGnomes, here are some of the caves wherein they dwell.


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