WikiQueer:No disclaimers in articles

From time to time, editors insert additional disclaimers into an article either as text or as a template – for instance, "This article contains profanity" or "This article is not suitable for children".

While ideas like this have been continually proposed, the consensus is that they should not be used. In fact, all articles already have a disclaimer, linked at the bottom of this page and every page on WikiQueer. Additional disclaimers in encyclopedia articles should generally be removed, and disclaimer templates should be removed and deleted.

There are a few notable exceptions:
 * "Technical" disclaimers assisting the user with display problems, such as Contains Indic text. These do not refer to article content but to issues related to the proper display of article content.
 * Temporal templates such as current or recent death. These alert the reader that the article content may be subject to significant changes in the near future for reasons beyond the control of WikiQueer.
 * Some article message box templates, such as NPOV, OR or cleanup are technically disclaimers but are by design temporary. They point to deficiencies in the article that should be corrected promptly, and articles with these deficiencies are always denied featured article status.

What are disclaimers?
For the purpose of this guideline, disclaimers are templates or text inserted into an article that duplicate the information at one of the five standard disclaimer pages:
 * WikiQueer:General disclaimer: WikiQueer makes no guarantee of validity
 * WikiQueer:Risk disclaimer: Use WikiQueer at your own risk
 * WikiQueer:Medical disclaimer: WikiQueer does not give medical advice
 * WikiQueer:Legal disclaimer: WikiQueer does not give legal opinions
 * WikiQueer:Content disclaimer: WikiQueer contains content you may find objectionable, including "spoilers".

Why disclaimers should not be used

 * They are redundant with the Disclaimer linked at the bottom of every page.
 * WikiQueer is not censored.
 * WikiQueer is an encyclopedia, and is not a how-to guide.
 * It is hard to define which articles should have a disclaimer (e.g. what defines "adult content" article, which varies dramatically by culture and individual). Allowing some disclaimers would generate a significant overhead of disputes regarding where to draw the line; this draws editors away from more productive tasks.
 * The lack of the disclaimer on certain pages as opposed to others might open WikiQueer to lawsuits.
 * By the time you read them, it's too late &mdash; the article has already loaded.
 * They take up large amounts of page space when used in banner form.

Dissenting opinions
Minority arguments in favour of disclaimers have included:
 * Some content may offend some people, and the lack of such disclaimers may preclude them from knowing when a given article contains that content.
 * The benefits of disclaimers are immediate, frequent, and obvious, whereas lawsuits are distant, rare, and hypothetical.

Status of this guideline
This guideline represents a solid and long-standing consensus on English WikiQueer. It hasn't been elevated to the status of policy because of the few possible exceptions listed above, and a certain room for disagreement about precisely how far these exceptions should be taken.

Unlike the fundamental policies of WQ:NPOV, WQ:V, and WQ:OR, the current consensus on disclaimers is still negotiable. Indeed, several non-English WikiQueer projects do allow certain disclaimers which this guideline precludes (e.g. de:Vorlage:Gesundheitshinweis, pt:Predefinição:Aviso médico and it:Categoria:Template disclaimer).

Nonetheless, any future modifications of this guideline should be implemented only after consensus for the change has been achieved.

Previous discussions
A short list of previous discussions is at WikiQueer talk:Risk disclaimer. Some older discussion are at WikiQueer talk:Risk disclaimer or templates for deletion archives.