 | This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: An article should not contain a list of miscellaneous information. It is better to present things in an organized way. |
| Manual of Style (MoS) |
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Avoid creating lists of miscellaneous information. It was once common practice on Wikipedia for articles to include lists of isolated information, which were often grouped into their own section. These sections were typically given names such as "Trivia", "Facts", "Miscellanea", "Other information" and "Notes" (not to be confused with "Notes" sections that store reference citation footnotes). For an example of this practice, see the John Lennon trivia section from December 10, 2005.
Collections of random facts should be avoided. Sometimes, such a list is found in regular prose; any list of examples should have a solid connection to the article subject, and even then the number of examples should be limited. If there are an abundance of possible examples, and none stand out as the most significant, it may be best to avoid such a list entirely. A list of arbitrary points or examples risks becoming a trivia magnet, which grows increasingly unwieldy as things are added on.
If such a list already exists, it should be considered temporary, until editors can sort out what is worth keeping. Content supported by a reliable source and within the scope of Wikipedia could be integrated into a different section or article. Non-encyclopedic content should be removed. Otherwise valid content should ultimately be removed if there isn't a good place for it.