 | This is an essay. 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. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Even if a statement is true, it cannot be included in an article if it violates the five pillars. |
"But it's true!" is not a sufficient reason to keep information on Wikipedia. The purpose of Wikipedia is to be an encyclopedia of high quality. To pursue that mission, a number of standards, guidelines and policies have been set in place. Based on these policies, some information or articles will be deleted even though they may be true. For example, you may know something to be true because you have witnessed it. However, on Wikipedia, article content must be verifiable in reliable sources. Another example is an article created entirely to promote a certain product. Even if all the claims in the article are true, promotional articles are not permitted. As well, information about the details of a celebrity's private life may be deleted–even if it is demonstrably true and confirmed by reliable sources–on the grounds that Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of all information; the reason there is an article about singer XYZ is because of their achievements as a singer, not because tabloids obsessively reveal all the lurid details about their dating life.