Template:DYK nomination header

Template documentation

These are the instructions that appear at the top of Template talk:Did you know, the page for nominating articles to appear on the Main Page in the "Did you know" section.

Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Subpages of this template.

Did you know?
Introduction and rules
Introduction	WP:DYK
General discussion	WT:DYK
Guidelines	WP:DYKCRIT
Reviewer instructions	WP:DYKRI
Nominations
Nominate an article	WP:DYKCNN
Awaiting approval	WP:DYKN
Approved	WP:DYKNA
April 1 hooks	WP:DYKAPRIL
Holding area	WP:SOHA
Preparation
Preps and queues	TM:DYK/Q
Prepper instructions	WP:DYKPBI
Admin instructions	WP:DYKAI
Main Page errors	WP:ERRORS
History
Statistics	WP:DYKSTATS
Archived sets	WP:DYKA
Just for fun
Monthly wraps	WP:DYKW
Awards	WP:DYKAWARDS
Userboxes	WP:DYKUBX
Hall of Fame	WP:DYK/HoF
List of users ...
... by nominations	WP:DYKNC
... by promotions	WP:DYKPC
Administrative
Scripts and bots	WP:DYKSB
On the Main Page	TM:DYK
Main Page errors	WP:ERRORS
To ping the DYK admins	{{DYK admins}}

For instructions on how to nominate an article, see Template:DYK nomination header § Instructions for nominators.

"Template:Did you know nominations" redirects here. For the list of approved nominations, see Template talk:Did you know/Approved.

This page is to nominate fresh articles to appear in the "Did you know" section on the Main Page with a "hook" (an interesting fact). Nominations that have been approved are moved to a staging area and then promoted into the Queue. To update this page, it.

TOC:   ↓ Go to bottom ↓     ↑ Go to top ↑

Count of DYK nominations
Section	Unapproved	Approved	Total
May 12		1	1
May 19		1	1
May 20		2	2
May 22		1	1
May 23		2	2
May 24		1	1
May 26		1	1
May 27		1	1
May 28		3	3
May 30	1		1
May 31		2	2
June 1	1	2	3
June 3	1	1	2
June 4		2	2
June 5		1	1
June 6	1	3	4
June 8		2	2
June 9		7	7
June 10		5	5
June 11	1	9	10
June 12	2	5	7
June 13		4	4
June 14	1	8	9
June 15		7	7
June 16		5	5
June 17	2	6	8
June 18		5	5
June 19		5	5
June 20		7	7
June 21	2	4	6
June 22	2	9	11
June 23	3	6	9
June 24		8	8
June 25	2	5	7
June 26	1	9	10
June 27	1	7	8
June 28	1	7	8
June 29	1	12	13
June 30	5	12	17
July 1	3	10	13
July 2	1	8	9
July 3	3	9	12
July 4	3	7	10
July 5	4	7	11
July 6	3	6	9
July 7	5	14	19
July 8	4	4	8
July 9	7	6	13
July 10	5	3	8
July 11	8	3	11
July 12	5	10	15
July 13	5	8	13
July 14	2	10	12
July 15	5	9	14
July 16	6	4	10
July 17	8	4	12
July 18	6	8	14
July 19	6	6	12
July 20	6	7	13
July 21	6	5	11
July 22	5	7	12
July 23	3	5	8
July 24	3	1	4
July 25	3	4	7
July 26	6		6
July 27
Total	149	343	492
Last updated 03:58, 27 July 2026 UTC Current time is 04:07, 27 July 2026 UTC [refresh]

Instructions for nominators

If this is your first nomination, please read the DYK rules before continuing. Further information can be found at the DYK guidelines.

Nominate an article

Frequently asked questions

How do I write an interesting hook?

Successful hooks tend to have several traits. Most importantly, they share a surprising or intriguing fact. They give readers enough context to understand the hook, but leave enough out to make them want to learn more. They are written for a general audience who has no prior knowledge of or interest in the topic area. Lastly, they are concise, and do not attempt to cover multiple facts or present information about the subject beyond what's needed to understand the hook.

When will my nomination be reviewed?

This page is often backlogged. As long as your submission is still on the page, it will stay there until an editor reviews it. Since editors are encouraged to review the oldest submissions first, it may take several weeks until your submission is reviewed. In the meantime, please consider reviewing another submission (not your own) to help reduce the backlog (see instructions below). Because of WP:DYKTIMEOUT, a nomination should be reviewed within two months since the reviewer/promoter may agree to reject and close an unpromoted hook after that time has passed.

Where is my hook?

If you can't find the nomination you submitted to this nominations page, it may have been approved and is on the approved nominations page waiting to be promoted. It could also have been added to one of the prep areas, promoted from prep to a queue, or is on the main page.

If the nominated hook is in none of those places, then the nomination has probably been rejected. Such a rejection usually only occurs if it was at least a couple of weeks old and had unresolved issues for which any discussion had gone stale. If you think your nomination was unfairly rejected, you can query this on the DYK discussion page or with the closer, but as a general rule such nominations will only be restored in exceptional circumstances. If your nomination was promoted, but it hasn't reached the main page after two weeks, you can also query this on the DYK discussion page.

Instructions for reviewers

Main page: Wikipedia:Did you know/Reviewer instructions

Any editor who was not involved in writing/expanding or nominating an article may review it by checking to see that the article meets all the DYK criteria (long enough, new enough, no serious editorial or content issues) and the hook is cited. Editors may also alter the suggested hook to improve it, suggest new hooks, or even lend a hand and make edits to the article to which the hook applies so that the hook is supported and accurate. For more information on the DYK rules and review processes, see the DYK guidelines and the reviewer instructions.

To post a comment or review on a DYK nomination, follow the steps outlined below:

• Look through this page, Template:DYK nomination header, to find a nomination you would like to comment on.
• Click the "Review or comment" link at the top of the nomination. You will be taken to the nomination subpage.
• The top of the page includes a list of the DYK criteria. Check the article to ensure it meets all the relevant criteria.
• To indicate the result of the review (i.e., whether the nomination passes, fails, or needs some minor changes), leave a signed comment on the page. Please begin with one of the 5 review symbols that appear at the top of the edit screen, and then indicate all aspects of the article that you have reviewed; your comment should look something like the following:

  Article length and age are fine, no copyvio or plagiarism concerns, reliable sources are used. But the hook needs to be shortened.

  If you are the first person to comment on the nomination, there will be a line :* <!-- REPLACE THIS LINE TO WRITE FIRST COMMENT, KEEPING  :* --> showing you where you should put the comment.
• Save the page.
• After the nomination is approved, a bot will automatically list the nomination page on Template talk:Did you know/Approved.

If there is any problem or concern about a nomination, please consider notifying the nominator by placing {{subst:DYKproblem|Article|header=yes|sig=yes}} on the nominator's talk page.

Advanced procedures

How to promote an accepted hook

At-a-glance instructions on how to promote an approved hook to a prep area

• See Wikipedia:Did you know/Preparation areas for details on verifying a hook's acceptability.
• Promoters should not promote their own nomination or their own review.
• When promoting hooks intended for a particular date, keep in mind that when the number of available approved nominations exceeds 120 we switch to two sets per day, and when that number drops below 60 we return to one set per day.

Check list for nomination review completeness

1. Select a hook from the approved nominations page that has one of these ticks at the bottom post: .
2. Check to make sure basic review requirements were completed.
   • Any outstanding issue following needs to be addressed before promoting.
3. Check the article history for any substantive changes since it was nominated or reviewed.
4. Images for the lead slot must be freely licensed. Fair-use images are not permitted. Images loaded on Commons that appear on the Main Page are automatically protected by KrinkleBot.
5. Hook must be stated in both the article and source (which must be cited at the end of the article sentence where stated).
6. Hook should make sense grammatically.
7. Try to vary subject matters within each prep area.
8. Try to select a funny, quirky or otherwise upbeat hook for the last or bottom hook in the set.

Steps to add a hook to prep

• In one tab, open the nomination page of the hook you want to promote.
• In a second tab, open the prep set you intend to add the hook to.

Wanna skip all this fuss? Install WP:PSHAW instead! Does most of the heavy lifting for ya :)

1. For hooks held for specific dates, refer to "Local update times" section on DYK Queue.
   • Completed Prep area number sets will be promoted by an administrator to corresponding Queue number.
2. Copy and paste the hook into a chosen slot.
   • Make sure there's a space between ... and that, and a ? at the end.
   • Check that there's a bold link to the article.
3. If it's the lead (first) hook, paste the image where indicated at the top of the template.
4. Copy and paste ALL the credit information (the {{DYKmake}} and {{DYKnom}} templates) at the bottom
5. Check your work in the prep's Preview mode.
   • At the bottom under "Credits", to the right of each article should have the link "View nom subpage" ; if not, a subpage parameter will need to be added to the DYKmake.
6. Save the Prep page.

Closing the DYK nomination page

1. At the upper left
   • Change {{DYKsubpage to {{subst:DYKsubpage
   • Change |passed= to |passed=yes
2. At the bottom
   • Just above the line containing

     }}<!--Please do not write below this line or remove this line. Place comments above this line.-->

     insert a new, separate line containing one of the following:

     To [[TM:DYK/P1|Prep 1]]

     To [[TM:DYK/P2|Prep 2]]

     To [[TM:DYK/P3|Prep 3]]

     To [[TM:DYK/P4|Prep 4]]

     To [[TM:DYK/P5|Prep 5]]

     To [[TM:DYK/P6|Prep 6]]

     To [[TM:DYK/P7|Prep 7]]

   • Also paste the same thing into the edit summary.
3. Check in Preview mode. Make sure everything is against a pale blue background (nothing outside) and there are no stray characters, like }}, at the top or bottom.
4. Save.

For more information, please see T:TDYK#How to promote an accepted hook.

Handy copy sources:

• To [[TM:DYK/P1|Prep 1]]
• To [[TM:DYK/P2|Prep 2]]
• To [[TM:DYK/P3|Prep 3]]
• To [[TM:DYK/P4|Prep 4]]
• To [[TM:DYK/P5|Prep 5]]
• To [[TM:DYK/P6|Prep 6]]
• To [[TM:DYK/P7|Prep 7]]

How to remove a rejected nomination

• Open the DYK nomination subpage of the nomination you would like to remove.
• In the window where the DYK nomination subpage is open, replace the line {{DYKsubpage with {{subst:DYKsubpage, and replace |passed= with |passed=no. Then save the page. This has the effect of wrapping up the discussion on the DYK nomination subpage in a blue archive box and stating that the nomination was unsuccessful, as well as adding the nomination to a category for archival purposes.
• Alternatively, you can use PSHAW, which automates the process.

How to remove a hook from the prep areas or queue

• Edit the prep area or queue where the hook is and remove the hook and the credits associated with it.
• Go to the hook's nomination subpage (there should have been a link to it in the credits section).
  • View the edit history for that page
  • Go back to the last version before the edit where the hook was promoted, and revert to that version to make the nomination active again.
  • Add a new icon on the nomination subpage to cancel the previous tick and leave a comment after it explaining that the hook was removed from the prep area or queue, and why, so that later reviewers are aware of this issue.
• Add a transclusion of the template back to this page so that reviewers can see it. It goes under the date that it was first created/expanded/listed as a GA. You may need to add back the day header for that date if it had been removed from this page.
• If you removed the hook from a queue, it is best to either replace it with another hook from one of the prep areas, or to leave a message at WT:DYK asking someone else to do so.

How to move a nomination subpage to a new name

• Don't; it should not ever be necessary, and will break some links which will later need to be repaired. Even if you change the title of the article, you don't need to move the nomination page.