Wikibooks:Reading room/General

Welcome to the General reading room. On this page, Wikibookians are free to talk about the Wikibooks project in general. For proposals for improving Wikibooks, see the Proposals reading room.

Proposal to merge some reading room forums to here

I would like to propose that we merge these two reading room forums:

• Wikibooks:Reading room/Assistance
• Wikibooks:Reading room/Bulletin Board

In general, this page should be the main "community portal/village pump" page, and I don't see a reason to justify keeping the linked reading rooms separate. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 06:41, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Support —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 08:48, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

To clarify: Are you proposing that we merge the two linked pages with each other or proposing that we merge them into Wikibooks:Reading room/General? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 13:08, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Kittycataclysm, I proposed the latter, which includes merging the linked pages to here, Wikibooks:Reading room/General. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 18:22, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

Gotcha—I have no problems with this —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 00:28, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I'll do the switch tomorrow, given that there are no objections here. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 02:05, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

Done. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 21:48, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

Global ban for Iruka13

Hello, everyone. This message is to notify that Iruka13 has been nominated for a global ban at m:Requests for comment/Global ban for Iruka13. Per the global ban policy, you are receiving this message because Iruka13 has made at least 36 edits to this project. Thanks. Codename Noreste (discuss • contribs) 00:06, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

Annual review of the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines

I am writing to you to let you know the annual review period for the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines is open now. You can make suggestions for changes through 9 February 2026. This is the first step of several to be taken for the annual review. Read more information and find a conversation to join on the UCoC page on Meta.

The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, you may review the U4C Charter.

Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.

-- In cooperation with the U4C, Keegan (WMF) (talk)

21:01, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

What is the requirement for adding a cookbook?

Do cookbook recipes have to be sourced? What counts as violating copyright? Some cookbooks I've seen here have sources like allrecipes but others don't. How does this work? Thanks, VidanaliK (discuss • contribs) 18:38, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi @VidanaliK! These are good questions. You cannot copy somebody else's published recipe verbatim unless you can prove that the original author consents and releases it to Wikibooks—that would be a copyright issue. You can rewrite a published recipe in your own words without a copyright issue, but you should still say where it comes from since it's good practice to do so. That said, Cookbook recipes do not have to come from a published source. If you develop a recipe yourself, you can publish it here. Let me know if you have any questions! Cheers —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 20:55, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

@Kittycataclysm so the only issue when uploading a recipe is copyright, not verifiability or notability or citations or such? VidanaliK (discuss • contribs) 21:18, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

If I correctly understand what you mean by "verifiability", that's right. However, you should only upload recipes that you know "work". If neither you nor anyone else has actually made the recipe successfully, it should not be added here. Admittedly, this is a good faith system; however, the idea is that other people would cook these recipes and leave comments on the talk pages to report back. For more information on the Cookbook requirements, you can see Cookbook:Policy, Cookbook:FAQ, and Cookbook:Manual of Style. Please also feel free to ask me questions, since I've been working in-depth on overhauling the Cookbook for the last several years. Cheers —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 13:27, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

@Kittycataclysm Also, can I edit other recipes that I've tried and modified to make it better, or do I have to create a new recipe? VidanaliK (discuss • contribs) 01:58, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

@VidanaliK I'm not quite sure what you mean by that—could you elaborate? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 16:26, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

If I see a recipe, and I try making it, and I discover that it would actually be better if part of the process were changed a little, what is my best course of action? a) create a spinoff of that recipe in a new page, or b) directly edit the original recipe? VidanaliK (discuss • contribs) 19:35, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

It depends on the exact situation, but in general you should note things like this on the talk page instead of wholesale replacing the information in the original recipe. If you had many, significant changes to the recipe, you could always create a new recipe page. Small variations that don't prevent the recipe from being made as originally written can be noted in the notes section of the recipe. Hope this helps! —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 02:06, 9 February 2026 (UTC)