A WikiGnome is a term for a wiki user who makes small and useful edits without clamoring for attention. WikiGnomes work behind the scenes of a wiki to tie up little loose ends, adding ISBNs of books that people mention and making an entry for their articles in the List of books by title, tracking down the authorship of "someone once said" quotes, and just making wikis run better and more smoothly. Other examples of WikiGnome-like behavior include fixing typos, poor grammar, and broken links; adding links to text already in an article or to useful Categories; adding Redirect; or adding examples and details to information referenced in the text (for example, adding "such as Silence and Deep River" to the line "Shusaku Endo has written important books").

Many highly active wiki contributors also exhibit WikiGnome-like behavior, while some people may limit themselves entirely to WikiGnome activity.

WikiGnomes are considered to be friendly like WikiFairy. The rough opposite of a WikiGnome is a Wikipedia gremlins or a WikiTroll.

WikiGnomes love to work in the shadows (making what are called Minor edit) in various nooks and corners of Wikipedia. Look at Recentchanges and you may even spot one.

The list of Wikipedians who consider themselves as WikiGnomes is at Category:User Wikipedia/wikignomes.

If you want, you can advertise your gnome-like qualities on your user page by adding:

.

If you prefer not to use userboxes, you can also simply list your user page in the WikiGnomes category without a userbox by placing the following tag at the bottom of your page:

User Wikipedia/wikignomes

Wikipedia culture | Wikinomo | Wikipedia:Wikiratxo | Wikipédia:WikiGnome | Wikipedia:WikiGnom