 | This is an essay on the relationship between the policy words "notability" and "prominence". 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: A subject is notable if there are enough independent, reliable sources to justify an article. Wikipedia strives to include information about an individual idea in rough proportion to how prominent the idea is in the sum total of reliable, secondary sources. Notability affects existence of articles; prominence, a.k.a. due weight, affects inclusion of content inside articles. |
In Wikipedia there are two concepts which are often confused in general discussion and thus deserve clarification. In discussing what content to include in articles, editors will often discuss the notability and the prominence of the proposed content. This essay seeks to explain the differences and the similarities between these two concepts with the hope that Wikipedians will refer to the correct policy and guideline pages when constructing their arguments about these topics.