Wikipedia:Notability vs. prominence
This is an essay on the relationship between the policy words "notability" and "prominence". It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: A subject is sources. Notability affects existence of articles; prominence, a.k.a. due weight, affects inclusion of content inside articles. |
In Wikipedia there are two concepts which are often confused in general discussion and thus deserve
Notability
At Wikipedia, notability is a threshold measure. Either a subject is notable or it is not. If the community agrees that a subject is notable, then an article on the subject is generally kept. If the community decides that a subject is not-notable, usually due to a lack of
Sometimes, Wikipedians arguing on talkpages will indicate that a particular fact or section of an article is not "notable" enough for inclusion. While this wording is fine colloquially, it should be kept in mind that notability at Wikipedia technically does not apply to singular facts but rather to article-worthy subjects. Some editors will go as far as to say that because a subject is not "notable" that it should only be discussed in an off-handed or extremely summative way. Such arguments are actually conflations of notability with the undue weight portion of our neutral point of view policy, discussed below.
The sourcing criteria for establishing notability are substantial coverage of the subject in multiple reliable sources that are independent of the subject.
Prominence
Sometimes editors will request the inclusion of a fact, sentence, or entire section that represents a tiny perspective with respect to the notoriety of the article's subject itself. If other editors think that the amount of prose or the placement of the prose in the article is unwarranted in light of the lack of prominence of the proposed content, the opposition is effectively arguing that the
Factors to consider when trying to determine the prominence of proposed content at an article include which sources discuss the idea and how much space or intellectual energy they devote to seriously considering it, whether the idea is a fringe theory or not, and whether the average Wikipedia reader would be able to read the article without being misled.
The sourcing criterion for gauging prominence (and consequent due weight) is primarily depth of coverage of the idea or fact in reliable sources, principally secondary ones.