There have been manyWikipedia:Articles for deletion (AfD) debates over the years. This page summarizes how various types of articles, subjects, and issues have often been dealt with on AfD.
This page summarizes what some editors believe are the typical outcomes of past AfD discussions for some commonly nominated subjects.
This page is not apolicy or guideline, and previous outcomes do not bind future ones. The community's actualnotability guidelines are listed in the template at the right. Notabilityalways requires verifiable evidence, andall articles on all subjects are kept or deleted on the basis of sources showing their notability, not their subjective importance orrelationship to something else. All articles should be evaluated individually on their merits and their ability to conform to standard content policies such asVerifiability andNeutral 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. Whileprecedents 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 reasonwhy it shouldn't apply. Avoid weak or illogical arguments, such as"Notability is only an optional guideline" or"We always keep these articles".
You can use the template{{Outcomes}} to link to this section.
Atopic ispresumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage inreliable sources that areindependent of the subject. However, there is still a lot of debate on notability.
Companies are not kept on a basis of how much revenue or how many employees they have. SeeWP:BIG.
Blatant advertising pages have been subject tospeedy deletion.
Products that have been planned, but not created yet, are generally deleted. SeeWP:CRYSTAL. However, exceptions have included "future-tech" items which already have substantial referencing behind the fundamental concept, such asfusion reactors, and prominent products in development (e.g. the next version of a computeroperating system) for which well-sourced product updates are released on a relatively regular basis.
Companies reported as significant subjects of news coverage are usually sufficiently notable.
Generally, companies that are included in major stock indices such asS&P 500 Index orFTSE 100 Index will have sufficient in-depth independent coverage for notability.
Local retailers and service merchants (franchises or individually owned) are generally deleted, with exceptions, including businesses with particular historical significance (e.g. the first motel), those centered around a major historical event, or tourist attractions.
Religions, religious denominations and sects are almost always treated as presumptively notable and kept provided there is reliable source evidence of their existence and they represent more than a handful of affiliated congregations or places of worship.
Articles aboutmiddle judicatories (for example, dioceses) of churches in the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran traditions are usually kept, provided they are mentioned in reliable sources and they represent more than a handful of affiliated congregations or places of worship.
Individual parishes, congregations, temples and other places of worship are not generally kept unless they satisfy specific criteria in one or more of our guidelines pertaining to the establishment of encyclopedic notability. See alsoWP:NCHURCH.
Communities, message boards and blogs are generally deleted as not notable.
Flash animations are generally deleted as not notable, unless they are extremely well-known.
Programming languages are usually kept if widely used (including those that were widely used historically).
Programming languages are usually kept, additionally, if they are well-cited in peer-reviewed computer science literature (even if not-particularly-widely used in practice historically/currently).
Most elementary (primary) and middle schools that don't source a clear claim to notability usually get merged or redirected to the school district authority that operates them (generally the case in North America) or the lowest level locality (elsewhere or where there is no governing body).
Most independently accredited degree-awarding institutions have enough coverage to be notable, although that coverage may not be readily available online.
Before 2017, secondary schools were assumed notable unless sources could not be found to prove existence, but following aFebruary 2017 RFC, secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist, and are still subject both to the standards ofnotability, as well as those fororganizations.
The closure of thisFebruary 2017 RFC provided the following RfC nutshell results regarding the above section:
Secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist.
Becoming a professor (in theAmerican sense of the word) may or may not confer notability. Becoming a prominent tenured professor often confers notability on this basis alone, while an academic appointment at the assistant professor level generally does not. The notability standard isWikipedia:Notability (academics) (WP:PROF).
Becoming a schoolteacher or instructor below the level of professor does not confer any presumptive notability.
Becoming a student confers no notability. The notability standard for such persons isWikipedia:Notability (people) (WP:BIO).
Becoming a school principal or superintendent generally does not confer notability, unless a superintendent of a sizable city/ school district.
Classes, classrooms or lessons are almost invariably deleted.
Faculties, departments or degree programs within a university, college, or school are generally not considered notable unless they have made significant contributions to their field. Separate articles on law schools and medical schools are being kept.
Breaking news events that receive a large spike of media coverage are frequently closed as no consensus, defaulting to keep.
Organized events that do not indicate a credible claim to importance are now being speedy deleted. SeeWP:CSD#A7. Note that this applies only to organized events, such as street fairs and concerts, and not to unorganized events, such as accidents or disasters.
Next year's events generally are not predictable; therefore, articles titled "2026 in Country" should be deleted. (SeeWikipedia:Articles for deletion/2021 in Canada (nominated in 2020) and similar discussions at AfD.)
The general notability guideline is the guideline of import for determining the notability of broadcast media outlets, per a2021 RfC.
Licensed broadcast radio and TV stations are generally deleted if they lack significant coverage in reliable sources.
If a station is devoted to the rebroadcast of another service, it should be redirected to that page or to a list of such stations; if not, or if it rebroadcastsmultiple services and thus has no adequate target, a redirect to a list of stations in a region may be considered as an alternative to deletion.
Proposed stations, unbuilt stations, unlicensed stations, temporary stations, internet stations, and stations which do not independently originate any programming usually lack significant coverage. They are not presumptively notable unless the article meets the GNG. In practice, most—though not all—internet stations are not notable.
Most national and regional pay television (cable, satellite, linear streaming) services are likely to be notable. Some, however, may lack sufficient coverage to meet the GNG.
Satellite radio channels may be kept if there is significant coverage about the channel itself in reliable sources. If this is not the case, they should be redirected to a list of stations on the parent service.
Guidance for all television programs is provided atWP:NTV, though NTV is not a subject-specific notability guideline for television programs.
Television series, game shows, and talk shows broadcast nationally by a major network or produced by a major studio are usually kept. An exception is if a program was short-lived and/or aired in a market wherereliable source coverage is scant.
Unaired programs andtelevision pilots not picked up to series are usually deleted.
Individual episodes of television series are typically deleted or redirected to appropriate lists of episodes, if available, unless they are shown to meet notability due to having received significant and in-depth coverage.
Characters and other fictional elements are subject to the usual rules for notability, as outlined atWP:N.
Articles that consistonly of plot summary, and contain no independent analysis, reception, or other claims of notability, are usually deleted, merged or redirected.
Major geographical and geological features featured on maps, such as lakes, rivers, mountains, islands,mountain passes, etc., generally survive AfD.
Unless a structure is demonstrably historic, especially listed in theNational Register of Historic Places or its non-US equivalent (like theEiffel Tower), or otherwise serves an important or unusual function to a wide population (such as structures with rotating restaurants or publicly accessible observation decks) which is supported by multiple reliable independent sources, stub articles on structures are generally deleted including, for example, articles on utilitarian radio and television masts which are only referenced in theFCC database. Articles on structures have also sometimes been turned into redirects to a relevant list.
Asteroids, comets, stars, etc. may not survive AfD unless they are visible to the naked eye or multiple sources have written about them in some detail; seeWikipedia:Notability (astronomical objects).
For streets, roads and other transportation infrastructure see#Transportation
Populated place outcomes generally followWP:GEOLAND, which means that they're usually kept if they either have legal recognition or can be shown to meet GNG through significant coverage.
Attractions and landmarks often survive AfD.
Bars, pubs, cafes, restaurants, and hotels tend not to survive AfD unless multiple independent sources have written about them in non-trivial detail.
Legally recognized cities and villages anywhere in the world are generally kept, regardless of size or length of existence, as long as that existence and legal recognition can be verified through areliable source. This usually also applies to any other area that has a legally recognized government, such as counties, parishes and municipalities.
Larger neighborhoods are usually kept if they meet GNG.
Smallersuburbs are generally merged, being listed under the primary city article, except when they consist of legally separate municipalities or communes (e.g., having their own governments).
Larger shopping malls are often found to be notable. Very small malls, strip malls, and individual shops are generally deleted unless significant sourcing can be found. Size however, does not in and of itself confer notability, nor does it abrogate the requirements set forth inGNG.
Cases and decisions whose articles are kept tend to be those who have received sustained, detailed media coverage (see alsoWP:NCRIME for criminal cases), or those who have become influential asprecedent.
Decisions by a jurisdiction's highest judicial authority (such as asupreme court) are not considered notable for this reason alone, because even high courts make many routine or unexceptional decisions.
Lists and categories have different uses, and lists nominated for deletion just because they have overlapping categories are usually kept.
However, this criterion does not mean that it'salways necessary or valid to haveboth a list and a category for any given grouping of topics. Categories that are narrow intersections of multiple facts, or which function poorly without the features a list can provide (such as annotations or direct citations), may sometimes be deleted based on the principles and practices ofWikipedia:Categories for discussion, even if the corresponding list may be kept. SeeWikipedia:Overcategorization for further information.
Lists are likely to be kept if they are limited in scope, are based upon concrete criteria for inclusion, have verifiable content, and have a logical reason for their construction. Lists that index articles according to those principles are especially likely to be kept; seeWP:LISTPURP andWP:NOTDIR. Lists that are based on novel or unusual classifications are likely to be deleted unless they can satisfyWP:LISTN by demonstrating notability as a group.
Ephemeral listings, such as lists of current personnel in an organisation, are generally deleted, except for the ministries of national parliaments, etc.
Books are notable (and thus kept) if they meet the criteria atWP:NBOOK (usually by identifying 2+ published reviews), and should be listed under the author if not.
Published authors are kept as notable if they have multiple individually notable books. If they have only one notable book, biographical information about the author should be discussed on that book's article.
Unless a large amount of information is written on a character or location from books, such articles may be deleted.SeeWP:N
Poems and other literary texts themselves are deleted, even if they do notviolate copyright, becauseWikipedia is not a repository; articlesabout poems or texts are often kept (if the poems/texts are notable).
Bands and musicians are kept as notable if they have been written about non-trivially by multiple reliable sources.
Albums are often kept as notable in and of themselves, if the artist is notable. Articles that provide the name of the band and more info than a mere tracklist are kept more often than articles that do not. An article on an album whose artist doesnot have an article is usually considered a candidate forspeedy deletion.
Untitled, unreleased albums very rarely passWP:CRYSTAL, and are often deleted—however, once a title and track listinghave been confirmed by the artist or their record label for an upcoming release, an article on the album isnot aWP:CRYSTAL violation if the information is properly referenced toreliable sources. See alsoWP:HAMMER.
Articles on band members are often deleted if listed in an article separate from the band, unless the person is deemed notable for their independent accomplishments
Lyrics are usually deleted, as they belong in WikiSource, unless they arecopyright violations
Articles about songs are generally considered not notable, and deleted or redirected. Songs which have been verifiableTop 40 hits generally tend to survive AFD, although not without dissent.
Concert tours are only kept as notable if they are well-referenced by third-partyreliable sources to show notability in terms of artistic approach, financial success, relationship to audience, or other such terms. Tour articles that only list tour dates and set lists are liable to be deleted, as are articles that are unreferenced or rely only upon fan sites.
It is hard to predict the common outcomes for non-teaching researchers, faculty in the middle ranks, people at universities focused more on teaching and less on research, and academics in countries that use other academic ranks than in the United States.
In the humanities or social sciences, an academic who does not meetWP:PROF will sometimes still meetWP:AUTHOR, especially if they also write books for a more general audience.
Corporate presidents, chief executive officers and chairpersons of the boards of directors of companies listed in theFortune 500 (US) or theFTSE 100 Index (UK) are generally kept as notable.
Biographical material on heads and key figures of smaller companies which are themselves the subject of Wikipedia articles is sometimes merged into those articles and the biographies redirected to the company.
Family members of celebrities are generally merged with the articles about celebrities themselves, unless the family member meets notability requirements themselves.Ashlee Simpson andJessica Simpson each have their own article;James Fawcett redirects to Farrah Fawcett.
Thebishops of major denominations, includingRoman Catholic,Eastern Orthodox,Lutheran andAnglican Communion bishops, are typically found to be notable. People listed as bishops in Pentecostal denominations may fail AFDs unless they have significant reliable third-party coverage. Clerics who hold the title bishop but only serve an individual parish or congregation are typically considered the same as local pastors or parish priests.
TheChief Rabbis of nation states with large Jewish communities are notable by virtue of their status.
Winners of contests, games of skill, and other competitions are subjects of some disagreement. Such articles are generally kept as notable only at the national level. For example, winners of well-known nationalspelling bees (likeScripps orCanSpell) may be kept as notable. The typical winner of a local spelling bee is almost always deleted. Other competitors are often redirected to the main article of the contest or show season.
Winning a lottery or other game of chance, even with a large payoff, does not by itself confer notability; articles on lottery winners as such are often deleted.
Athletes and other sportspersons are subject to thegeneral notability guideline. Participants in sports at a national level are more likely to have received significant coverage than participants at a local level.Wikipedia:Notability (sports) helps determine whether or not an athlete is likely to meetWP:GNG.
Early settlers of a place are not presumptively notable or non-notable. Each case must be decided on its own merits. Generally, there has been a longstanding consensus to keep such articles about early colonists, if significant coverage in reliable sources can be demonstrated.
Articles about people known only for being the oldest person in a country, etc., at any given time are normally redirected or merged to a list ofoldest people.
Elected and appointed political figures at the national cabinet level are generally regarded as notable, as are usually those at the major sub-national level (US state, Canadian province, etc.) in countries where executive and/or legislative power is devolved to bodies at that level. SeeWP:POLITICIAN andWP:NSUBPOL.
In general: Municipal and other local politicians are notpresumptively notable just for being in politics, but neither are they presumptivelynon-notable just because they are inlocal politics. Each case is evaluated on its own individual merits.
Mayors: Mayors of cities of at least regional prominence have usually survived AFD, although the article should say more than just "Jane Doe is the mayor of Cityville". Mayors of smaller towns, however, are generally deemed not notable just for being mayors, although they may be notable for other reasons in addition to their mayoralty (e.g. having previously held a more notable office). This criterion has not generally been as restrictive as the criterion for city councillors.
Municipal officers: City councillors and other major municipal officers are not automatically notable. But precedent has tended to favor keeping members of the main citywide government of internationally famous metropolitan areas such asToronto,Chicago,Tokyo, orLondon.
Local candidates: Losing candidates in municipal elections are not considered presumptively notable just for their candidacy and are generally deleted unless previous notability can be demonstrated. See also more on candidates below.
County legislators: Like municipal politicians, American county-level legislators are not considered presumptively notable.
Exceptions for non-local media coverage: Local politicians whose office would not ordinarily be considered notable may still clear the bar if they have received national or international press coverage, beyond the scope of what would ordinarily be expected for their role. For example, a small-town mayor or city councillor who was the firstLGBT person ever elected to office in their country, or who emerged as a significant national spokesperson for a political issue, may be considered notable on that basis. Note that this distinction may not simply be asserted or sourced to exclusively local media; to claim notability on this basis, the coverage must be shown to have nationalized or internationalized well beyond their own local area alone.
Candidates who are running or unsuccessfully ran for a national legislature or other national office are not viewed as having presumptive notability and are often deleted or merged into lists of campaign hopefuls, such asOntario New Democratic Party candidates in the 1995 Ontario provincial election, or into articles detailing the specific race in question, such as2010 United States Senate election in Nevada. Note that such articles are still subject to the same content policies as any other article, and may not contain any unsourced biographical information that would not be acceptable in a separate article.
Losing candidates for office below the national level who are otherwise non-notable are generally deleted. They are not moved to user space for fear of establishing aprecedent thatany premature article about an as-yet-unelected candidate for office can be kept in draftspace pending election returns, effectively makingdraftspace a repository for campaign brochures (seeWikipedia:Articles for deletion/Siân Gwenllian.)
Leaders of registered political parties at the national level are sometimes considered notable despite their party's lack of electoral success. Leaders of major sub-national (state, province, prefecture, etc.) parties are usually deleted unless notability can be demonstrated for other reasons.
Ambassadors are not considered presumptively notable.
Civil servants who assume a political office on an interim or caretaker basis are not considered notable just for having briefly held that office, even if holders of the office are normally considered notable.
There are no special notability guidelines aboutmonarchs,nobility and their descendants. The guidelines for politicians are applied to those who have exercised political authority. As such,kings andqueens regnant, as well as nobles who have ruled a territory or served as head of state are presumed to be notable. The notability of their spouses (kings andqueens consort), as well as other nobility (dukes, counts, barons, knights, etc.) is decided on a case-by-case basis based on thegeneral notability guideline, although kings and queens consort are generally found to be notable.
The descendants of monarchs or nobles, especially deposed ones, are not considered notable for this reason alone. The principle thatWikipedia articles are not genealogical entries is often mentioned in this context. But persons who are active in their capacity as a member of a royal house or as a holder of a title of nobility will often receive media coverage for it, which may help establish their notability according to thegeneral notability guideline.
Species that have acorrect name (botany) orvalid name (zoology) are generally kept provided that their names and at least a brief description have been published in a reliable academic publication.
A dedicatedbus rapid transit line, such asOttawa'sTransitway, is also usually kept, but a regular bus line that travels along normal city streets is not usually considered notable. However, some articles about bus lines in major cities have survived AfD—articles that describe the line's history and social impact in depth are more likely to be acceptable.
Articles about individual bus routes are rarely notable; recommendations to merge into a suitable list article are common.
Bus stops are usually deleted as not notable, with the exception of certain hubs in major cities.
Most numbered roadways are acceptable if they can be described beyond the route itself.
In theUS, state, U.S., and Interstate highways (aka: freeways, turnpikes, expressways and motorways) are usually kept.
InCanada, any highway that is part of a province's or territory's official highway system is usually kept.
In theUK, motorways are usually kept. 'A' roads are usually kept if all or part of the road is trunk or primary. 'B' roads are usually deleted or merged (see below).
Highway exits should be listed in an article on a highway, not as a separate article, except for some highly notable ones (e.g. theSpringfield Interchange nearWashington, D.C.).
County roads are disputed, but are kept if genuine notability is demonstrated. If the notability claim boils down to "it's notable because it exists," however, then redirection to a single merged list of that county's numbered roads is more common.
City streets are contested, but minor streets are generally deleted.
Major, unnumbered streets and roads beyond the level of a side street or neighborhood roadway have varied outcomes. An article that explains and provides valid relevant citations for the social, cultural, historical or political context of a road in depth is more likely to survive AfD than would one that merely describes the road's physical characteristics.
Namedwarships,cruise ships,ocean liners and other large commercial ocean going or deep water vessels are generally treated as presumptively notable. Any named ship which served in the capacity of a navy vessel (i.e., under the direction of a national navy) at any point in history is generally considered notable; personal named pleasure crafts generally are not unless they have been the subject of multiple published independent reliable sources of information.
