# How much of a Wiki article can we quote?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-wiki-article-can-we-quote/530360>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [February 25, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-wiki-article-can-we-quote/530360 "2010-02-25T04:08:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-a-wiki-article-can-we-quote/530360/2 "2010-02-25T04:17:22Z")

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I realize Wikipedia articles are not under copyright, [but I had this in mind](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=384736):

> [@FAQ - Rules for Posting at the Straight Dope Message Boards](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faq-rules-for-posting-at-the-straight-dope-message-boards/369395/3):
>
> Suggested guidelines:  
> (1) If you are going to quote something from an article, quote less than 5% of the source. Include a link to the article if the article is available online.

**Curtis LeMay** originally posted about 2,100 words from the Wikipedia entry, which was way, way overlong. One paragraph near the end was highlighted, which indicated most of the rest of the quote was not necessary. The entry is something like 11,000 words, so he quoted about 20 percent of it. I cut the excerpt down to about 350.

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