 | 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. |
Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions#Notability is inherited
- Notability of one or more members of some group or class of subjects may or may not apply to other possible members of that group. Discuss based upon the individual subject, not the subject's overarching classification or type. If a subject under discussion is independently notable, provide the evidence to show that.
Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions#There must be sources
- Our criterion for good articles is to include enough references so that all their content is verifiable. When an editor challenges the verifiability of a claim, the burden of evidence to provide reliable sources is on the editors that include it. Unless you can indicate what and where the sources are, they are not verifiable.
Wikipedia:But there must be sources!
- You may be confident that sources exist, but asserting this without proof is unlikely to convince anyone who believes that they don't. They may well have reached that conclusion by searching for references and failing to find any. Closing administrators on AfD debates will frequently afford unsupported assertions less weight. The best and most reliable way of convincing both doubters and the closing administrator is to actually provide the requested sources rather than simply declaring you're sure they must be out there somewhere.
- Wikipedia's verifiability policy is one of its core content policies and demands that all material included in the encyclopedia must be sourced, or it may be challenged and removed. While some editors believe that, strictly speaking, this right of challenge only extends to material thought to be factually incorrect, in practice material is challenged on a variety of other grounds including notability concerns, relevance, undue weight, original research, etc. Articles can be, and frequently are, removed on these grounds. The burden of proof is on those who add or defend the contentious material to provide sources that satisfy the concerns of the challenging editor.
- Insisting the sources must exist without being able to provide them is generally to be avoided in deletion discussions.
- Q. But what if I feel very strongly about this article and sources on the topic are hard to find?
- A. The article can be moved under your Wikipedia account where it can be edited for as long as necessary without fear of deletion. Once those hard to find sources have been located and used to improve the article, an admin can move the article back into the main article space.
- Q. But the article is only X days/weeks/months old, references aren't there yet but they will be....
- A. This idea is completely backwards to how Wikipedia actually works. The references must come first, then the Wikipedia article.
- No company or organization is considered inherently notable. No organization is exempt from this requirement, no matter what kind of organization it is. If the individual organization has received no or very little notice from independent sources, then it is not notable simply because other individual organizations of its type are commonly notable or merely because it exists.
- Organizations whose activities are local in scope (e.g., a school or club) can be considered notable if there is substantial verifiable evidence of coverage by reliable independent sources outside the organization's local area. Where coverage is only local in scope, consider adding a section on the organization to an article on the organization's local area instead.
Wikipedia:Notability#Notability requires verifiable evidence
- However, once an article's notability has been challenged, merely asserting that unspecified sources exist is seldom persuasive, especially if time passes and actual proof does not surface.
- Sometimes arguments are made that other articles have been put forward for AfD and survived/deleted ... Deletion debates can sometimes be faulty, and even if the debate was correct it can be hard to draw comparisons.
Wikipedia:Inclusion is not an indicator of notability
- On the other hand, if a similar article was nominated for deletion in the past, but kept, this does suggest the topic is notable, since notability is one of many factors evaluated when deciding whether to delete an article. However, consider that there may be essential differences between the two topics, or that inclusion standards may have shifted over time, such that the article would not be kept today.
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes
- This page summarizes what some editors believe are the typical outcomes of past AfD discussions for some commonly nominated subjects.
- This page is not a policy or guideline, and previous outcomes do not bind future ones because consensus can change. The community's actual notability guidelines are listed in the template at the right. Notability always requires verifiable evidence, and all articles on all subjects are kept or deleted on the basis of their sources, not their subjective importance or relationship to something else. All articles should be evaluated individually on their merits and their ability to conform to standard content policies such as WP:Verifiability and WP:Neutral point of view.
- As guidelines and actual practice change, this page should be updated to reflect current outcomes.
- Avoid over-reliance on citing these "common outcomes" when stating one's case at Articles for Deletion. While precedents can be useful in helping to resolve notability challenges, editors are not necessarily bound to follow past practice. When push comes to shove, notability is demonstrated by the mustering of evidence that an article topic is the subject of multiple instances of non-trivial coverage in trustworthy independent sources.
- This page simply attempts to summarize Wikipedia's common daily practice with respect to deletion debates. If you feel that an outcome common to articles like the one you are discussing does not apply, then give a common-sense or guidelines-based reason why it shouldn't apply. Avoid weak or illogical arguments, such as "Notability is only an optional guideline" or "We always keep these articles".
Wikipedia:Notability (high schools)
 | This page in a nutshell: High schools/secondary schools are generally considered to be notable, but they must be able to meet the relevant guidelines for notability |
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes
- Notability always requires verifiable evidence, and all articles on all subjects are kept or deleted on the basis of sources showing their notability, not their subjective importance or relationship to something else. All articles should be evaluated individually on their merits and their ability to conform to standard content policies such as WP:Verifiability and WP:Neutral point of view.
- Avoid over-reliance on citing these "common outcomes" when stating one's case at Articles for Deletion. While precedents can be useful in helping to resolve notability challenges, editors are not necessarily bound to follow past practice. When push comes to shove, notability is demonstrated by the mustering of evidence that an article topic is the subject of multiple instances of non-trivial coverage in trustworthy independent sources.
- Avoid weak or illogical arguments, such as "Notability is only an optional guideline" or "We always keep these articles".
- Welcome to Wikipedia! We welcome your help to add new content, but your recent additions do not assert the notability of their subjects and have been reverted or removed.