 | This is anessay onnotability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Truth alone is not a valid criterion for inclusion. |
"It is not a hoax. There is plenty of proof that it exists. It had its picture in three local websites. Therefore, we should have an article about it."
No.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Wikipedia is thatWikipedia is about everything. When it comes down to Wikipedia's real mission, that issimply not true. Wikipedia is strictly about topics that meetWikipedia's notability guidelines. Whatever and whoever falls short must not have an article.
Wikipedia has numerous editors who are just like you, so if something is common, and an article or other content about it on Wikipedia is missing, it is possible that no one thought of creating it before. Then again, there may be a good reason why it is missing. So before you create, think.
Inclusion on Wikipedia for the most part means meeting thegeneral notability guideline, which in a summary, requires there to be multiplereliable sourcesindependent of the subject that provide more than just a mere trivial mention. This is the main one, though there aresome other inclusion guidelines too.
If you think you have some great idea that is not on Wikipedia, you may be eager to rush to create it and save the page as soon as possible, failing to research if there even is an article on the topic, or if one could exist. There are various types of articles, however, that one may think are worth creating but should not. Here are some of these:
And likewise, don't create an article about a member of your family, a close friend, or even an acquaintance you barely know. Don't create an article about a company or organization in which any of these are somehow affiliated. Yes, writing articles about people, companies, and organizations is permitted. And your interest in a subject does help. But your ability to write an article conforming to Wikipedia guidelines about yourself or a person, company, or organization with which you or someone you know has connections is severely compromised when you may know a lot of information that wasnot published in sources.
SeeWikipedia:Conflict of interest for more details on this concept.
There are many items of interest that do exist, and do have reliable sources covering them. But only a brief amount of information can be written about them, and they directly relate to a topic covered in another article. It is preferable to have such information simply added to the article where it best fits. When the information is added to an article, the title it would have, had it been given a standalone article, can then redirect to that section of the article using the formatting "#REDIRECT [[Article#Section]]." SeeWP:TARGET for more information on this.
When such an article does exist, it is usually suggested that it bemerged.
Some good reasons for creating separate standalone articles are:
Some good reasonsnot to create separate standalone articles are:
There are lots of words and phrases that are a common part of daily vocabulary, butWikipedia is not a dictionary. The mere existence and frequent use of that word or phrase does not automatically guarantee an article with that title on Wikipedia. Only if it can be used to describe something beyond its very basic definition can it be used to title an article on Wikipedia.
Lots of these common words or phrases may also have one or more obscure meanings. When such is the case, it may be useful to create it as aredirect to another title, or as adisambiguation page listing encyclopedic topics using that title.
If you've just thought up a great new idea, Wikipedia is not the place to talk about it. You willhave to wait until independent and reliable sources discover your idea, and write about it.
Many stories are reported in the news just once on a single day, or over a period of a few days, and then are forgotten. They may receive coverage in newspapers in every city and town across a nation, or even throughout the world. But they do just for that short period of time.
Many newspapers arereliable sources. ButWikipedia is not a newspaper. Andnotability is not temporary. News does get shared between news sources (especiallywire services and chains such as Gannett'sUSA Today Network), and is often printed in hundreds of papers, covering a large geographic area, identically word-for-word in each paper. So an article may look impressive and pass for being notable if it has 109 references, each from a different paper. But just because youbombard an article with identical sources does not mean it can never be deleted.
This is especially true of biographical articles. If reliable sources cover the person only in the context of a particular eventa separate biography is unlikely to be warranted. That person should instead be covered in the article about the event itself.
Wikipedia's guidelines are many and requirements are few but the one requirement which stands out among thegeneral notability guidelines and each of the subject-specific ones is thatnotability requires verifiable evidence. Each article must be referenced withreliable sources. This requirement applies to all articles, including newly created ones. Notability is not obvious. Topics that are common household vocabulary face deletion and have been deleted in the past, and continue to be to this day. References are not optional for any article or subject area.
While there may be some consensus that some topics generally are notable (e.g.widely released films,album releases from notable music artists, licensedradio stations, etc.), this is an indication that references should be relatively easy to find, not aloophole ingeneral notability guidelines.
To avoid your hard work being challenged and possibly deleted, ensure that references are there when you submit. This is particularly true ofnew articles. If you don't have time to properlycite references in a new article, don't submit it, with plans to add references later or expect others to find references for you. Use asubpage of your userspace. Once you've completed your work,move it to themain namespace.