This is anessay on Wikipedia'sStub guidelines. 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.

Shortcuts WP:PERMA WP:PERMASTUB WP:BONSAI

Apermastub is an article that is currently astub and has no reasonable prospect for expansion. There can be many reasons for this. These include:

• The article is a finished article, in no need of improvement.
• There is littleverifiable information to be found on the subject.
• The page barely passesnotability requirements such asGNG, as a result of either lack ofsources or notability in general.
• All or most aspects of the subject are already covered in other articles.
• There is not much to say about the subject.
• The article is about a subject that wasbriefly notable, but no longer receives any coverage.
• The subject is about or is notable for asingle event, after which there will never likely be any future coverage.

It is important to note that permastubs are articles that eithercannot be expanded or have little potential. A stub – even a stub on what you see as a trivial topic – is not a permastub if there is verifiable and encyclopedic information that can be added to it. The importance of a topic isnot a factor in how much can be written about it – we havefeatured articles on things that are obscure and strange.

There are tens of thousands of informative stubs that to expand would only be adding puffery, padding, and undue weight. Paper encyclopedias are full of informative, concise stubs. Finished permastubs likewise don't need expansion.

Some permastubs may be:

• unsatisfying articles – such as unpopular products by now-defunct companies about which little is known
• small-time politicians, athletes, or entertainers from previous centuries – about whom little is known except their names, locations, and occupations

For some permastubs, the best course of action might be merging them into larger articles and transforming them into redirects. In some cases, an argument might be made for deletion.

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