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Essay on editing Wikipedia
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Just because a topic is of little interest to the general public does not mean Wikipedia should not include it. Also when writing articles about obscure topics Wikipedians do not have to consider the general audience.
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An
obscure topic
is a topic that is only of interest to a small number of people, such as those in the subject's field, teachers, or fans. Obscure topics are perfectly welcome to have articles on Wikipedia, provided that
notability guidelines
are met.
Generally, we hope that each article can be easily read by the general audience and useful to a professional audience concurrently (see
Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not §?NOT PAPERS
and
Wikipedia:The perfect article
). However, there are situations where topics the general audience do not need to know and would not ever understand, such as
qubit field theory
and many advanced topics in mathematical and natural science not mentioned in general university-level textbooks, e.g. general calculus university textbooks, but the professional audience may want them to be articles since they consider them useful or interesting. In Wikipedia they can be articles, but when the articles are written and editors try to let general readers understand them, they probably cannot have enough details to satisfy professional readers entirely. This is the reason that this guideline is established.
In circumstances where using layperson's terms and fully satisfying professional readers' needs are impossible or nearly impossible, editors should
only
meet professional readers' needs and just let general readers know the significance of the field to which the topic belongs. However, if editors find out a way to use layperson's terms and fully satisfy professional readers' needs at the same time, this guideline should not be applied.
When an article meets
WP:N
or any other guidelines for inclusion, the mere fact that its subject is obscure does not under any circumstances mean it should be deleted. See also
WP:IDONTKNOWIT
or
Wikipedia:NOBODYREADSIT
.
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- Adminitis
- Akin's Laws of Article Writing
- Alternatives to edit warring
- ANI flu
- Anti-Wikipedian
- Anti-Wikipedianism
- Articlecountitis
- Asshole John rule
- Assume bad faith
- Assume faith
- Assume good wraith
- Assume stupidity
- Assume that everyone's assuming good faith, assuming that you are assuming good faith
- Avoid using preview button
- Avoid using wikilinks
- Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense
- Barnstaritis
- Before they were notable
- BOLD, revert, revert, revert
- Boston Tea Party
- Butterfly effect
- CaPiTaLiZaTiOn MuCh?
- Complete bollocks
- Counting forks
- Counting juntas
- Crap
- Don't stuff beans up your nose
- Don't-give-a-fuckism
- Don't abbreviate "Wikipedia" as "Wiki"!
- Don't delete the main page
- Editcountitis
- Edits Per Day
- Editsummarisis
- Editing Under the Influence
- Embrace Stop Signs
- Emerson
- Fart
- Five Fs of Wikipedia
- Seven Ages of Editor, by Will E. Spear-Shake
- Go ahead, vandalize
- How many Wikipedians does it take to change a lightbulb?
- How to get away with UPE
- How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
- How to vandalize correctly
- How to win a citation war
- Ignore all essays
- Ignore every single rule
- Is that even an essay?
- Mess with the templates
- My local pond
- Newcomers are delicious, so go ahead and bite them
- Legal vandalism
- List of jokes about Wikipedia
- LTTAUTMAOK
- No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man
- No one cares about your garage band
- No one really cares
- No, really
- No sorcery threats
- Notability is not eternal
- Oops Defense
- Play the game
- Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you
- Please bite the newbies
- Please do not murder the newcomers
- Pledge of Tranquility
- R-e-s-p-e-c-t
- Requests for medication
- Requirements for adminship
- Rouge admin
- Rouge editor
- Sarcasm is really helpful
- Sausages for tasting
- The Night Before Wikimas
- The first rule of Wikipedia
- The Five Pillars of Untruth
- Things that should not be surprising
- The WikiBible
- Watchlistitis
- Wikipedia is an MMORPG
- WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!
- What Wikipedia is not/Outtakes
- Why not create an account?
- Yes legal threats
- You don't have to be mad to work here, but
- You should not write meaningless lists
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