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Essay on editing Wikipedia
| This page in a nutshell:
The
notability guideline
suggests that there are two prongs to whether a topic merits an article: notability, and non-exclusion under
What Wikipedia is not
. In deletion discussions, editors can sometimes talk across each other by talking only about one prong.
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The
notability guideline
states:
A topic is
presumed
to merit an article if:
- It meets either the general notability guideline (GNG) below, or the criteria outlined in a subject-specific notability guideline (SNG); and
- It is not excluded under the
What Wikipedia is not
policy.
Therefore, meriting an article has two necessary conditions, or prongs: the
general notability prong
and the
non-exclusion prong
. Meeting Wikipedia's notability guidelines is not sufficient for a topic to merit an article: the topic must also not be excluded under the
What Wikipedia is not
policy. Similarly, not being excluded by the
What Wikipedia is not
policy does not mean that the topic merits an article: the topic must also meet Wikipedia's general notability guidelines.
In deletion discussions, editors often cite only one prong of merit, but rarely both. For example, for topics recently in the news, typical !votes might read:
It is difficult to read
consensus
when some editors only cite one prong and other editors only cite the other prong, because the editors are merely talking across each other by addressing different aspects of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines.
If you are contributing to a deletion discussion in which editors with opposing !votes cite notability and
WP:NOT
, read what editors that disagree with your !vote say. Are their concerns about the topic's
notability
(the general notability prong) or Wikipedia's
scope
(the non-exclusion prong)? Try to address the same prong.
Here are more helpful !votes addressing both prongs of merit:
So, when participating in relevant deletion discussions, consider addressing
both
WP:GNG
(or a specific notability guideline) and
WP:NOT
, not just one of the two prongs of merit.
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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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Policies and guidelines
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