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Accessories-text-editor.svg WikiProject Notability
Welcome to WikiProject Notability! We are currently working on a significant backlog, and need your help!
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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
February 20103
March 201093
April 2010121
May 2010133
June 2010188
July 2010173
August 2010206
September 2010239
October 2010218
November 2010184
December 2010235
January 2011131
February 2011203
March 2011238
April 2011231
May 2011283
June 2011265
July 2011275
August 2011222
September 2011292
October 2011277
November 2011220
December 2011314
January 2012262
February 2012292
March 2012255
April 2012226
May 2012259
June 2012237
July 2012271
August 2012323
September 2012239
October 2012304
November 2012270
December 2012264
January 2013186
February 2013212
March 2013274
April 2013264
May 2013203
June 2013290
July 2013208
August 2013228
September 2013209
October 2013265
November 2013237
December 2013258
January 2014282
February 2014266
March 2014274
April 2014174
May 2014284
June 2014295
July 2014284
August 2014268
September 2014374
October 2014280
November 2014210
December 2014205
January 2015296
February 2015344
March 2015361
April 2015362
May 2015357
June 2015323
July 2015304
August 2015288
September 2015281
October 2015297
November 2015363
December 2015311
January 2016314
February 2016266
March 2016270
April 2016393
May 2016394
June 2016264
July 2016311
August 2016287
September 2016314
October 2016329
November 2016257
December 2016335
January 2017354
February 2017462
March 2017380
April 2017381
May 2017482
June 2017479
July 2017516
August 2017384
September 2017355
October 2017314
November 2017357
December 2017388
January 2018486
February 2018334
March 2018385
April 2018397
May 2018364
June 2018399
July 2018353
August 2018421
September 2018426
October 2018337
November 2018445
December 2018312
January 2019509
February 2019317
March 2019429
April 2019371
May 2019468
June 2019383
July 2019426
August 2019292
September 2019257
October 2019339
November 2019356
December 2019304
January 2020452
February 2020430
March 2020441
April 2020501
May 2020481
June 2020796
July 2020455
August 2020444
September 2020530
October 2020594
November 2020502
December 2020510
January 2021439
February 2021507
March 2021522
April 2021506
May 2021579
June 2021589
July 2021514
August 2021556
September 2021458
October 2021604
November 2021540
December 2021490
January 2022556
February 2022730
March 2022581
April 2022600
May 2022638
June 2022915
July 2022874
August 2022597
September 2022973
October 2022856
November 2022752
December 2022592
January 2023944
February 2023766
March 2023712
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