Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes
This is an explanatory essay about the Wikipedia: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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There have been many Wikipedia:Articles for deletion (AfD) debates over the years. This page summarizes how various types of articles, subjects, and issues have often been dealt with on AfD.
For an archive of this page, see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Precedents/Archive.
Citing this page in AfD
[edit]This page summarizes what some editors believe are the typical outcomes of past AfD discussions for some commonly nominated subjects.
This page is not a policy or guideline, and previous outcomes do not bind future ones. The community's actual notability guidelines are listed in the template at the right. Notability always requires verifiable evidence, and all articles on all subjects are kept or deleted on the basis of sources showing their notability, not their subjective importance or relationship to something else. All articles should be evaluated individually on their merits and their ability to conform to standard content policies such as Verifiability and Neutral point of view.
As guidelines and actual practice change, this page should be updated to reflect current outcomes.
Avoid over-reliance on citing these "common outcomes" when stating one's case at Articles for Deletion. While precedents can be useful in helping to resolve notability challenges, editors are not necessarily bound to follow past practice. When push comes to shove, notability is demonstrated by the mustering of evidence that an article topic is the subject of multiple instances of non-trivial coverage in trustworthy independent sources.
This page simply attempts to summarize Wikipedia's common daily practice with respect to deletion debates. If you feel that an outcome common to articles like the one you are discussing does not apply, then give a common-sense or guidelines-based reason why it shouldn't apply. Avoid weak or illogical arguments, such as "Notability is only an optional guideline" or "We always keep these articles".
You can use the template {{Outcomes}}
to link to this section.
General notability guideline
[edit]A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. However, there is still a lot of debate on notability.
Companies and organizations
[edit]Businesses
[edit]- Companies are not kept on a basis of how much revenue or how many employees they have. See WP:BIG.
- Blatant advertising pages have been subject to speedy deletion.
- Products that have been planned, but not created yet, are generally deleted. See WP:CRYSTAL. However, exceptions have included "future-tech" items which already have substantial referencing behind the fundamental concept, such as fusion reactors, and prominent products in development (e.g. the next version of a computer operating system) for which well-sourced product updates are released on a relatively regular basis.
- Companies reported as significant subjects of news coverage are usually sufficiently notable.
- Generally, companies that are included in major stock indices such as S&P 500 Index or FTSE 100 Index will have sufficient in-depth independent coverage for notability.
- Local retailers and service merchants (franchises or individually owned) are generally deleted, with exceptions, including businesses with particular historical significance (e.g. the first motel), those centered around a major historical event, or tourist attractions.
- For businesses in particular fields, see also Broadcast media, Music and Transportation below.
Religious organizations
[edit]- Religions, religious denominations and sects are almost always treated as presumptively notable and kept provided there is reliable source evidence of their existence and they represent more than a handful of affiliated congregations or places of worship.
- Articles about middle judicatories (for example, dioceses) of churches in the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran traditions are usually kept, provided they are mentioned in reliable sources and they represent more than a handful of affiliated congregations or places of worship.
- Individual parishes, congregations, temples and other places of worship are not generally kept unless they satisfy specific criteria in one or more of our guidelines pertaining to the establishment of encyclopedic notability. See also WP:NCHURCH.
Computing
[edit]- Communities, message boards and blogs are generally deleted as not notable.
- Flash animations are generally deleted as not notable, unless they are extremely well-known.
- Programming languages are usually kept if widely used (including those that were widely used historically).
- Programming languages are usually kept, additionally, if they are well-cited in peer-reviewed computer science literature (even if not-particularly-widely used in practice historically/currently).
- Notability of Internet phenomena is widely disputed.
- Internet radio stations: see #Media.
Education
[edit]School districts
[edit]- "Populated, legally-recognized places" include school districts, which conveys near-presumptive notability to school districts per Wikipedia:Notability (geographic features).
Schools
[edit]- The current notability guidelines for schools and other education institutions are Wikipedia:Notability (WP:N) and Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies) (WP:ORG).
- Most elementary (primary) and middle schools that don't source a clear claim to notability usually get merged or redirected to the school district authority that operates them (generally the case in North America) or the lowest level locality (elsewhere or where there is no governing body).
- Most independently accredited degree-awarding institutions have enough coverage to be notable, although that coverage may not be readily available online.
- Before 2017, secondary schools were assumed notable unless sources could not be found to prove existence, but following a February 2017 RFC, secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist, and are still subject both to the standards of notability, as well as those for organizations.
- Secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist.
- WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES should be added to the Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions, as it is an accurate statement of the results but promotes circular reasoning.
- References to demonstrate notability may be offline, and this must be taken into consideration before bringing a page to AfD.
- Editors should not flood AfD with indiscriminate or excessive nominations.
People
[edit]- Becoming a professor (in the American sense of the word) may or may not confer notability. Becoming a prominent tenured professor often confers notability on this basis alone, while an academic appointment at the assistant professor level generally does not. The notability standard is Wikipedia:Notability (academics) (WP:PROF).
- Becoming a schoolteacher or instructor below the level of professor does not confer any presumptive notability.
- Becoming a student confers no notability. The notability standard for such persons is Wikipedia:Notability (people) (WP:BIO).
- Becoming a school principal or superintendent generally does not confer notability, unless a superintendent of a sizable city/ school districts.
Parts of schools and school-related organizations
[edit]- Classes, classrooms or lessons are almost invariably deleted.
- Faculties, departments or degree programs within a university, college, or school are generally not considered notable unless they have made significant contributions to their field. Separate articles on law schools and medical schools are being kept.
- The notability of student unions may vary between different countries and different universities. A case-by-case demonstration of notability for each student union should be the prime determining factor. See also WP:UNIGUIDE#Student life.
- Clubs are generally deleted as not notable unless they are syndicated or coordinated on a national/international level.