 | This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
| If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for a standalone article or list.
— Wikipedia:Notability#The general notability guideline. |
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; a project to compile the sum of human knowledge.
We, in 14 years, have created the largest encyclopedia that has ever been created. Built from the creative thought and compilation of millions of editors, Wikipedia is just massive.
However, there is a drawback. While Wikipedia wishes to compile the sum of human knowledge, there are simply not enough editors to write and manage every topic in the world. Think about it. If, by magic or miracle, an article on every person in the world was created, would our 117,871 active editors be able to manage all that?
The previous example is overkill, but we need to focus our editing resources on topics that are important to cover. Our standard and method of gauging importance is notability.
Notability, as a word, doesn't say much. People have different interpretations of notability; while some may regard a specific topic notable, others will not.
In order to reduce subjectivity, Wikipedia relies on coverage from the outside world to separate important and unimportant topics. Generally, if an article has been covered, not just mentioned, by multiple (several preferred) reliable independent sources, then it can be presumed to have been noticed and deemed important to cover by the outside world, thus providing a strong reason for Wikipedia to cover it.