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WikiProject Notability
Welcome to WikiProject Notability! We are currently working on a significant backlog, and need your help!
 

The Notability Project is a WikiProject based on Category:Articles with topics of unclear notability. The aim is to get more editors involved and to support those currently involved in fixing, merging, or deleting (as a last resort) apparently non-notable articles with the ultimate aim to correctly place all articles based on their verifiable notability. The project also aims to simplify the filtration process and explain it more clearly so as not to confuse newcomers and to encourage participation.

Scopes and goals

WikiProject Notability aims to sort articles of unclear notability by improving articles that are notable and then removing the notability tag. If the article is non-notable with no significant coverage in reliable sources found after searching and is inappropriate for a merge then deletion is sought by either Speedy deletion, Proposed deletion or Articles for deletion.

Articles assesssed to be Featured articles or Good articles have already been carefully checked for notability, and to a lesser extent so have B class articles. Therefore, articles of unclear notability are mainly in the stub class, start class and to a lesser extent C class categories.

We welcome input from any editors who would like to help out, either on a regular basis, or one or two articles when you have time. The greatest contribution to the project is inviting members, as this helps build support and ensures that there are people to clear the backlog.

How to help

  1. Find an article to work on. Articles are sorted by date. Many editors choose to work on the oldest articles first, so that articles will not sit around too long in the category. The to-do list at the top of this page should contain the oldest set of articles. Alternatively, you may want to use article categories by date or article listings by WikiProject categories.
User:SD0001/shortdescs-in-category can be used to view short descriptions of pages in the categories – so that you can pick articles you're comfortable with.
  1. Check to see if the article contains a copyright violation. There are a few red flags that indicate text was probably illegally copied into Wikipedia - this actually happens quite frequently. User:Kjkolb/Copyvio has a quick guide and you may also like to use copyscape.com or Earwig's Copyvio Detector for finding copyright violations. Instructions for reporting violations are at Wikipedia:Copyright problems.
  2. Check to see if another article exists on the subject. If so, then you can consider merging that article to the original.
  3. Find sources if none are cited in the article. Make full use of Google Books, Google News, Google Scholar, Google Web, JSTOR, LexisNexis, and any other search tools that you may have access to. Use variations on the article's title and other keywords from the article. The {{find}} template could be useful in this regard.
  4. Sort! You can mainly use common sense, but adhering to the guidelines of WP:BIO, WP:CORP, WP:BAND (from where the most frequent violations come), and other notability criteria.
    1. If the article meets notability requirements, or if the article simply needs expanding, remove the notability or importance tag and replace it with an appropriate tag. If not, the article might need to be deleted. Please use deletion as a last resort.
    2. If the article meets speedy deletion requirements, add the appropriate db tag.
    3. If the article should undeniably be deleted, add {{subst:prod|Your-reason-here}}, replacing "Your-reason-here" with an appropriate reason.
    4. If the article might encounter some controversy when being deleted, add {{subst:afd1}} and then proceed to follow the steps to file an AfD discussion.
    5. Do not remove the notability/importance tags during one of the above deletion procedures.
    6. If an article is kept as the result of an AfD discussion, the {{notability}} tag should be removed. {{importance}} tags indicate that some rewriting of the article is required and should not be removed until that has been done. However, if the result is "no consensus", retain all tags, as the issue is not decided.
  5. Enhance your edit summary As soon as you are done sorting, add to your edit summary:
Sorted as part of the [[WP:WPNN|Notability wikiproject]]!

Special handling

Some articles with notability questions need special handling, as described below. (These instructions may be updated on short notice.)

  • TV episodes and characters: Due to controversies in 2007 and 2008 about their notability,[1] articles about TV episodes or characters from TV shows should be handled with special care. It may not be possible to sort these articles on the short term. If you find such article on the end of the backlog (say the oldest 2-3 months) and cannot sort it, please add the parameter "cat=TV" to the notability tag. This will move the article off the backlog and to a special category, Television articles with topics of unclear notability, where it can be handled appropriately. Example:
{{notability|episode|date=June 2007|cat=TV}}

Current progress

Articles with topics of unclear notability
Subtotals
July 20101
September 20108
October 201044
November 201066
December 2010195
January 2011110
February 2011133
March 2011196
April 2011205
May 2011231
June 2011222
July 2011228
August 2011202
September 2011256
October 2011233
November 2011187
December 2011267
January 2012225
February 2012254
March 2012212
April 2012202
May 2012223
June 2012207
July 2012233
August 2012266
September 2012189
October 2012231
November 2012231
December 2012219
January 2013152
February 2013180
March 2013229
April 2013235
May 2013179
June 2013246
July 2013177
August 2013194
September 2013178
October 2013232
November 2013204
December 2013187
January 2014247
February 2014233
March 2014220
April 2014131
May 2014237
June 2014249
July 2014239
August 2014230
September 2014319
October 2014241
November 2014182
December 2014174
January 2015249
February 2015286
March 2015305
April 2015303
May 2015298
June 2015266
July 2015261
August 2015249
September 2015233
October 2015236
November 2015298
December 2015268
January 2016260
February 2016236
March 2016232
April 2016334
May 2016326
June 2016230
July 2016273
August 2016245
September 2016270
October 2016275
November 2016220
December 2016293
January 2017301
February 2017390
March 2017330
April 2017340
May 2017379
June 2017415
July 2017449
August 2017326
September 2017295
October 2017265
November 2017303
December 2017320
January 2018414
February 2018295
March 2018328
April 2018344
May 2018324
June 2018319
July 2018272
August 2018322
September 2018353
October 2018271
November 2018368
December 2018267
January 2019435
February 2019263
March 2019360
April 2019300
May 2019387
June 2019317
July 2019354
August 2019252
September 2019211
October 2019280
November 2019291
December 2019245
January 2020387
February 2020345
March 2020374
April 2020419
May 2020406
June 2020699
July 2020363
August 2020372
September 2020440
October 2020512
November 2020419
December 2020425
January 2021347
February 2021365
March 2021425
April 2021420
May 2021450
June 2021476
July 2021399
August 2021416
September 2021354
October 2021471
November 2021443
December 2021395
January 2022430
February 2022536
March 2022448
April 2022456
May 2022491
June 2022703
July 2022649
August 2022465
September 2022648
October 2022652
November 2022533
December 2022431
January 2023677
February 2023511
March 2023702
April 2023906
May 2023812
June 2023620
July 2023539
August 2023540
September 2023507
October 2023551
November 2023655
December 2023666
January 20241,116
February 2024905
March 2024754
April 2024798
May 20241,147
June 2024473
Undated articles0

Join the project

Please add your signature to the bottom of the list of project members.

Userbox

There is a userbox that you can add to your user page once you join:

{{User WikiProject notability}} displays as
NNThis user is part of the notability sorting drive.

Invitation template

There is a template that you can add to a user's talk page to invite them to join this project:

{{WikiProject Notability Invite}} displays as

Notes

  1. ^ See the final decisions of the ArbCom case concerning this problem.

See also

Categories
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