 | 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. |
I spend a significant amount of time on Wikipedia identifying articles that should (in my opinion) be subjected to one of the deletion processes. Many editors are not familiar with these processes and ask questions on my talk page. Below are some answers to common statements or questions that have been left on my talk page in the past. There are a lot of Wikipedia policies and guidelines in this area; wherever possible I will link to them in the answers below. Please read them as well; the answers below are just a summary of the relevant policies.
 | Notability, as I interpret it in a nutshell: In order for a subject to be included in the encyclopedia, it must be notable. To prove this, you must find, and add to the article, references to reliable sources that discuss the subject with "non-trivial" coverage. A reliable source is one that checks facts before publication, and typically has editorial oversight (so one person writes an article, and another person edits and approves the article for publication). Trivial coverage includes entries in databases like IMDb. Without notability, the subject does not meet our standards for inclusion. |