This page in a nutshell: Add template messages to inform readers and editors of specific problems with articles or sections. Do not use them as a badge of shame.
The following template messages may be added to articles needing a cleanup. Their purposes are to foster improvement of the encyclopedia and to notify readers about possible problems.
Unless otherwise noted, the cleanup messages, or tags, should be placed at the top—before other templates, images, or infoboxes, but after a possible hatnote (see WP:Hatnote#Placement). Certain tags can be placed at the top of an individual section, and others can be placed within the text itself (inline). Where the problem is not obvious, add an explanatory remark via the reason parameter as shown below or via the talk page.
Don’t insert tags that are similar or redundant. For example, all articles that read like essays have an inappropriate tone, and in fact they end up being automatically grouped in the same category, so it is unnecessary to tag with both {{Inappropriate tone}} and {{Essay-like}}. Similarly, if an article has many problems, tag only the most important, a lengthy list often being less helpful than a shorter one. A tag is not intended as a badge of shame. (See also: tag bombing.)
A date parameter is added by a bot, or you can provide a date yourself.
Does the article meet inclusion requirements?
Before placing templates on a page it is worthwhile to cast a critical eye over the page to determine whether it should, in fact, be included in Wikipedia. Some articles can be tagged for speedy deletion or marked as an article for deletion.
Best practices in obscure or unpopular articles
On pages that have received little attention from editors or readers, cleanup templates can be used as a way to call attention to problems that need to be addressed by editors. Editors who want to help address these problems should look through the various cleanup categories such as maintenance and articles with content issues and try to address the problems so that the templates can be removed. Editors who do a lot of tagging of articles should also address the backlogs.
Best practices in heavily monitored articles
On pages that are being edited by a number of users, cleanup templates are used to inform readers and editors of ongoing discussions and attempts to fix the problems on the page. Such templates can be used to attract uninvolved users to discussions and cleanup efforts, and they can also serve as a warning to casual readers that the article may have problems and be subject to dramatic changes. In general, an editor who places a template message to indicate a problem like this should explain their rationale fully on the talkpage of the article. If the consensus of the other editors is that there is a problem or an editorial dispute that deserves such a clean-up template, then the editors should work to fix the problem as quickly and cleanly as possible so the template message can be removed. If the consensus is that there is no problem, then the message can be removed immediately. For heavily monitored articles, please do not add or remove template messages of this sort without using the talk page.
Use in sections
Many of these cleanup tags require you to place |article as the first parameter when you use the tag at the top of an article. When you want the template to refer to just one section, however, you replace |article with |section (where the | is a pipe key found on most keyboards as a shift-backslash (\). See the specific template below to determine if such "section use" is supported and appropriate.
Tag consolidation
If too many tags are put at the top of an article, the article can become eclipsed by the tags, especially with short or stub articles. Consider consolidating the tags into the {{Multiple issues}} template.
This article looks like an image gallery. Wikipedia policy discourages galleries of random images of the article subject; please improve or remove the article accordingly, moving freely licensed images to Wikimedia Commons if not already hosted there.
This article's introduction may be too long for the overall article length. Please help by moving some material from it into the body of the article. For more information please read the layout guide and Wikipedia's lead section guidelines.
This article may contain excessive or improper use of non-free material. Please review the use of non-free media according to policy and guidelines and correct any violations. The talk page may have details.
First argument is added to description "{{{1}}}" appears: {{Missing information|foo, bar, baz and quux.}} ? "...information about: foo, bar, baz and quux." This template is for when the article needs to be expanded even to be accurate.
Place {{ISBN|date=ଜୁନ ୨୦୨୫}} at the head of the relevant section(s). Remember that books published before 1974 may not have ISBNs (though more recent editions should).
This is weighted too heavily toward only one aspect of its subject. Please help improve this article by adding more general information. You can discuss the issue on the talk page.
After adding this template, start a section on the article discussion page describing what you wish the expert to address. {{Expert-talk}} may be used for this purpose.
This article needs attention from an expert on the subject. See the talk page for details. WikiProject PROJECTNAME may be able to help recruit an expert.
After adding this template, start a section on the article discussion page describing what you wish the expert to address. {{Expert-talk}} may be used for this purpose.
Add one to five WikiProjects and they will be displayed in the list
After adding this template, start a section on the article discussion page describing what you wish the expert to address. {{Expert-talk}} may be used for this purpose.
Parts of this ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପୃଷ୍ଠା (those related to article) need to be updated. Please help update this ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପୃଷ୍ଠା to reflect recent events or newly available information.
An optional parameter can be added to specify the applicable guideline; e.g.: {{notability|biographies}}, {{notability|fiction}}. See the template documentation for a list of supported values.
For use when a nonfiction article has become overcrowded with too many references to fiction or other pop culture. (Ex.: Article on horses having a long section of TV shows, movies, video games, etc. that have "horse" in the name or feature horses in some way.)
For use in fiction-specific articles that have way too many trivial examples. (Ex.: For an article specifically about famous fictional horses that mentions the fact that Sesame Street once told kids how to spell "horse", or that one of the animals you can kill in an online game is a horse.)
To identify a list on Wikipedia that has content whose truth, factual nature, and/or relevance to the topic is in dispute. There is also an inline version, {{List fact}}.
This looks like an image gallery. Wikipedia policy discourages galleries of random images of the article subject; please improve or remove the accordingly, moving freely licensed images to Wikimedia Commons if not already hosted there.
This article has not been added to any categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles, in addition to a stub category. Please remove this tag after categorizing.
Place this at the bottom of an article if it is only categorized into a stub category and you are unsure of which categories apply.
This uses HTML markup. Please help by changing HTML markup to wiki markup where appropriate. For more details, see HTML in wikitext. Bear in mind that some HTML elements (e.g., the <sup></sup> and <sub></sub> tags) should not be removed. See Help:Wikitext examples for a list of non-deprecated HTML tags.
If the article needs HTML changed into wiki-markup
This article may fail to make a clear distinction between fact and fiction. Please rewrite it according to the fiction guidelines, so that it meets Wikipedia's quality standards.
