Wikipedia:Insignificance
 | This is an explanatory essay about the WP:Deletion policy page. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
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Insignificant material is material that is not prominent, meaning that there are no articles on Wikipedia for which the material has WP:DUE WEIGHT.
A non-notable topic is one that as per WP:N is not "worthy of notice" to have a stand-alone article. An insignificant topic is both non-notable and not otherwise suitable as a redirect.
As per WP:Deletion policy, an article with both an insignificant topic and insignificant material may be deleted.
Alternatives to deletion
editWhile a topic may be too non-notable to merit its own article, the topic may be significant as a redirect.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Aspects of the topic may be prominent when discussed in a related article. As an alternative to outright deletion, editors should consider merging specific material into other articles as appropriate, while maintaining copyright compliance as described at WP:Merge and delete.
Notes
edit- ^ WP:Deletion policy#Reasons for deletion includes point 8, which states, "Articles whose subjects fail to meet the relevant notability guideline (WP:N, WP:BIO, WP:MUSIC, WP:CORP and so forth)."
- ^ WP:N states, "For articles of unclear notability, deletion should be a last resort."
- ^ WP:Deletion policy#Alternatives to deletion states, "If editing can improve the page, this should be done rather than deleting the page."
- ^ WP:Editing policy#Try to fix problems states, "Instead of removing content from an article, consider...[m]erging the entire article into another article with the original article turned into a redirect as described at performing a merge".
- ^ WP:REDIRECT#Reasons for not deleting states, "...avoid deleting redirects if...1. They have a potentially useful page history..."
- ^ WP:REDIRECT#Reasons for not deleting states, "...avoid deleting redirects if...3. They aid searches on certain terms."
- ^ WP:REDIRECT#Reasons for not deleting states, "...avoid deleting redirects if...7. The redirect could plausibly be expanded into an article...
Further reading from WP:N
editWP:N states,
For articles of unclear notability, deletion should be a last resort.
...
If appropriate sources cannot be found after a good-faith search for them, consider merging the article's verifiable content into a broader article providing context.[1]
References
- ^ For instance, articles on minor characters in a work of fiction may be merged into a "list of minor characters in ..."; articles on schools may be merged into articles on the towns or regions where schools are located; relatives of a famous person may be merged into the article on the person; articles on persons only notable for being associated with a certain group or event may be merged into the main article on that group or event.
See also
edit- The nutshell of WP:Editing policy states, "Preserve the value that others add, even if they 'did it wrong' (try to fix it rather than delete it)."
- WP:Inaccuracy, which states, "Ultimately, with allowing for due weight considerations in how the material is presented, and notwithstanding copyright violations, the only reason to exclude verifiable material from the encyclopedia is because it is insignificant."
- WP:NNC within WP:N, which references "noteworthy" material.
- Wikipedia:Notability vs. prominence
- Category:Wikipedia content policies
- WP:IGNORINGATD part of WP:ATA
- User:Uncle_G/On_notability#Dealing_with_non-notable_things