 | This is an information page. It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting. |
This page on how to read an article history is intended as an aid to people who are researching with Wikipedia. Experienced Wikipedians often glean a great deal about articles from looking at the page history and following up to the individual edits that make up that history. This page describes some of these tricks of the trade. The suggestions here apply mostly to substantive articles with a number of contributors. If the page history indicates that the page is entirely or almost entirely the work of one person, you are dealing with a situation more comparable to evaluating an article on someone's private web site.