Wikipedia:Notability (web)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"WP:WEB" redirects here. For other uses, see WP:WEB (disambiguation).
Notability
General notability guideline
Subject-specific guidelines
See also

From

WP:NOT § INTERNET
:

Internet guides. Wikipedia articles should not exist only to describe the nature, appearance or services a website offers, but should also describe the site in an encyclopedic manner, offering detail on a website's achievements, impact or historical significance, which can be kept significantly more up-to-date than most reference sources, since editors can incorporate new developments and facts as they are made known. See the Current events portal for examples.

This page gives some rough guidelines which most Wikipedia editors use to decide if a form of web-specific content, being either the content of a website or the specific website itself, should have an article on Wikipedia. Web content includes, but is not limited to,

podcasts, webcomics, and web portals. Any content accessed via the internet and engaged with primarily through a web browser is considered web content for the purposes of this guideline.[1]

Wikipedians are averse to the use of Wikipedia for advertising, and the idea that Wikipedia articles are not advertisements is an official policy of long standing. Advertising is either cleaned up to adhere to the neutral point of view or deleted.[2]

Wikipedia is not a web directory, in that it is not a site that specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Wikipedia is not a mirror or a repository of links, images, or media files. Articles which merely include an external link and a brief description of its contents may be deleted.

Topics that do not satisfy notability criteria are dealt with in two ways:

criterion A7
for details.

Decisions based on verifiable evidence

Main page: Wikipedia:Notability § Notability requires verifiable evidence

In the dictionary, notable means "worthy of being noted" or "attracting notice." Wikipedia bases its decision about whether web content is notable enough to justify a separate article on the verifiable evidence that the web content has attracted the notice of

reliable sources
unrelated to the web content, its authors, or its owners. Notability requires only that these necessary sources exist, not that the sources have already been named in the article.

No inherent notability

Shortcut

"Notability" is not synonymous with "fame" or "importance," and even web content that editors personally believe is "important" or "famous" is only accepted as notable if it can be shown to have attracted notice.

it exists (see "If the content is not notable"
, below).

When evaluating the notability of web content, please consider whether it has had any significant or demonstrable effects on culture, society, entertainment, athletics, economies, history, literature, science, or education. High-traffic websites are likely to have more readily available

reliable sources
that provide evidence of notability. However, smaller websites can also be notable. Arbitrary standards should not be used to create a bias favoring larger websites.

No inherited notability

Shortcut

Web content is not notable merely because a notable person, business, or event was associated with it. If the web content itself did not receive notice, then the web content is not notable. For example, if a notable person has a website, then the website does not "inherit" notability from its owner. In such cases, it is often best to describe the website in the article about the notable person.

Similarly, a website may be notable, but the owners or authors do not "inherit" notability due to the web content they wrote.

Criteria

Shortcut

Keeping in mind that all articles must conform with the policy on verifiability to reliable sources, and that non-independent and self-published sources alone are not sufficient to establish notability; web-specific content[3] may be notable based on meeting one of the following criteria:

  • The content itself has been the subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself. This criterion includes
    online stores
    .
  • The website or content has won a well-known and independent award from either a publication or organization. Ideally, this award itself is also notable and already has a Wikipedia article.[6]

These criteria are presented as

rules of thumb for easily identifying web content about which Wikipedia should probably have an article. In almost all cases, a thorough search for independent, third-party reliable sources
will be successful for content meeting one or both of these criteria. However, meeting these criteria is not a guarantee that Wikipedia will host a separate, stand-alone article on the website.

If the content is not notable

Further information:
WP:FAILN

Wikipedia should not have a separate article on any web content that does not meet the criteria of either this guideline or the general notability guideline, or any web content for which, despite meeting the rules of thumb described above, editors ultimately cannot locate

tiny articles with no realistic hope of expansion
nor articles based primarily on what the subject or its creators say about themselves.

However, information about such web content may nevertheless be included in other ways in Wikipedia, provided that certain conditions are met. Material about web content that does not qualify for a separate, stand-alone can be

preserved
by adding it into relevant articles if it:

Web content that does not qualify for a separate, stand-alone article might be described in a relevant list of web content like the

List of internet phenomena
. Material about websites might be merged to articles about the organizations that own the websites. Appropriate redirects from the subject's name should be created to help readers find such information.

See also

Notes

  1. Wikipedia:Notability (companies and corporations)
    .
  2. ^ Articles about websites or content which fail these guidelines but are related to a topic or subject which does merit inclusion may be redirected to that topic or subject rather than be listed for deletion.
  3. yahoo.com is a redirect to Yahoo!. On the other hand Drugstore.com
    is a standalone page.
  4. ^ Examples:
  5. ^ Self-promotion and product placement are not the routes to having an encyclopedia article. The published works must be by someone else who is writing about the company, corporation, product, or service. (See Wikipedia:Autobiography for the verifiability and neutrality problems that arise in material where the subject of the article itself is the source of material cited in the article.) The barometer of notability is whether people independent of the subject itself (or of its manufacturer, creator, or vendor) have actually considered the content or site worthy enough that they have written and published non-trivial works that focus upon it.
  6. ^ Being nominated for such an award in multiple years may also be considered an indicator of notability.
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