Tardis:DYK policy

The following DYK policy defines and governs the process by which editors can place a fact in the "Did you know" section on the main page of our wiki. To actually nominate a fact, please go to DYK nominations.

Purpose
The DYK section is a chance to highlight little factoids from within articles on the main page. This will give users a chance to hop directly from the main page to articles to which they may never have thought of navigating. It also gives a chance for us to feature smaller articles which really aren't long enough to use in the article of the month feature.

Number and periodicity
Each week, five new factoids will appear in the DYK section. Ideally, the five factoids will be of five different types:
 * A minor character from any Whoniverse story
 * A behind-the-scenes individual from a past series of a Whoniverse show
 * A race, technological item or concept from a past series of a Whoniverse show
 * Anything about a story within the most current series of a Whoniverse range. This can be from any media.
 * Anything about a behind-the-scenes individual related to the most current story a Whoniverse series. This series can be from any media.

What should be in the factoid
A factoid will be worded so as to obviously highlight one article, although it may contain additional links. The subject of the factoid will be bolded, and it should be one of the first nouns the reader encounters in a phrase that begins with " . . . that". In-universe factoids should include a reference to the story from which the factoid is derived. Finally, the factoid should only include information that is actually in the article implied by the bolding.

It's probably easiest to understand all this by looking at an example. Take the following:


 * . . . that there were two different kinds of abominable snowman controlled by the Great Intelligence? (DW: The Web of Fear)

Note that the clause begins with " . . . that". Also, "abominable snowmen" (or Robot Yeti) is the obvious subject of the factoid, at the front of the clause, in bold, and is the first thing linked in the factoid. The article, Robot Yeti, does indeed make clear that there were two different kinds of Robot Yeti. And this point comes from The Web of Fear, which is cited at the end of the factoid.

Moving nominations to main page
Each Monday, an active editor will rotate out the DYK facts on the front page. Ideally he or she will choose one factoid from each of the five categories. If there aren't nominated facts in each category, the editor should ideally make one up on his or her own, so as not to "rob" an entire category of its nominations all at once.

Unlike articles of the month and Quotes of the week, there is no voting process. Generally, the assumption is that the factoid is appropriate and should be used. However, any user has the right to object to a fact. This objection could derail the nomination. In other words, we vote here against facts, not for them.