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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
October 201028
November 201052
December 2010180
January 2011103
February 2011128
March 2011186
April 2011190
May 2011216
June 2011206
July 2011219
August 2011191
September 2011238
October 2011217
November 2011169
December 2011247
January 2012205
February 2012240
March 2012202
April 2012197
May 2012204
June 2012197
July 2012201
August 2012241
September 2012173
October 2012211
November 2012209
December 2012190
January 2013136
February 2013162
March 2013206
April 2013221
May 2013165
June 2013217
July 2013166
August 2013174
September 2013160
October 2013211
November 2013189
December 2013176
January 2014226
February 2014218
March 2014193
April 2014113
May 2014216
June 2014228
July 2014215
August 2014202
September 2014287
October 2014204
November 2014157
December 2014146
January 2015216
February 2015259
March 2015268
April 2015271
May 2015254
June 2015239
July 2015245
August 2015233
September 2015218
October 2015222
November 2015259
December 2015242
January 2016235
February 2016218
March 2016205
April 2016303
May 2016273
June 2016210
July 2016259
August 2016219
September 2016257
October 2016245
November 2016212
December 2016267
January 2017270
February 2017358
March 2017281
April 2017312
May 2017353
June 2017375
July 2017416
August 2017297
September 2017266
October 2017237
November 2017273
December 2017294
January 2018376
February 2018271
March 2018313
April 2018317
May 2018304
June 2018294
July 2018249
August 2018299
September 2018326
October 2018250
November 2018331
December 2018247
January 2019341
February 2019235
March 2019326
April 2019253
May 2019336
June 2019297
July 2019324
August 2019234
September 2019193
October 2019251
November 2019268
December 2019215
January 2020340
February 2020317
March 2020346
April 2020387
May 2020376
June 2020661
July 2020339
August 2020329
September 2020395
October 2020475
November 2020369
December 2020395
January 2021321
February 2021339
March 2021392
April 2021392
May 2021406
June 2021434
July 2021355
August 2021375
September 2021328
October 2021424
November 2021407
December 2021367
January 2022391
February 2022506
March 2022415
April 2022417
May 2022449
June 2022648
July 2022601
August 2022415
September 2022596
October 2022597
November 2022474
December 2022379
January 2023590
February 2023459
March 2023661
April 2023827
May 2023743
June 2023578
July 2023474
August 2023493
September 2023421
October 2023471
November 2023474
December 2023548
January 2024903
February 2024749
March 2024587
April 2024638
May 2024883
June 2024614
July 2024603
August 2024717
September 20241,078
October 2024914
November 2024960
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