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What factors determine whether something is a valid topic for Wikipedia?
I've had some pretty well-known friends have articles about them or their projects deleted. Can someone explain why some things are valid and others are not?
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Inappropriate?This is indeed one of the more nuanced and confusing issues for people outside the Wiki fold (myself included). The policy for people is described exhaustively in the Wiki page on "Notability":
The page explains that notability requires satisfying one or more of the following:
* The person has been the subject of published work by sources that are reliable, intellectually independent, and independent of the subject.
* The person has been the subject of a credible independent biography.
* The person has received significant recognized awards or honors.
* The person has demonstrable wide name recognition
* The person has made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in their specific field.
* Commercial endorsements of demonstrably notable products
There are special considerations for polticians, creative professionals, academics, and athletes. In fact, the discussion area of the notability wiki page almost entirely revolves around rules for the inclusion of athletes.
I've personally had friends who've been interviewed many times in the media but still had their Wikipedia entries marked for deletion. Wiki people interpret media mentions as more self-promotion than evidence of notability.
At the end of the day, notability seems to come down to a smell test. Overall, it seems to work, but it sure does offend a person when they get the notice that they've been deemed not notable, hence marked for deletion.
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?BTW, here's the message you'll receive if your article meets objections:
An editor has nominated _________, an article on which you have worked or that you created, for deletion. We appreciate your contributions, but the nominator doesn't believe that the article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion and has explained why in his/her nomination (see also "What Wikipedia is not"). Your opinions on whether the article meets inclusion criteria and what should be done with the article are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/___________ and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You may also edit the article during the discussion to improve it but should not remove the articles for deletion template from the top of the article; such removal will not end the deletion debate. Thank you. Please note: This is an automatic notification by a bot. I have nothing to do with this article or the deletion nomination, and can't do anything about it. -
Inappropriate?Thor is spot on here. What I would add is that you are permitted to "defend" yourself. I had some issues historically, both for myself but more importantly for my previous company (Virtutech) and it's main product (Simics).
One of the strategies I adopted was to create a user page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Psm] where I put my bibliography. That way I (or others) can easily refer to that page in discussions around notability. Once I put that in place, the problem went away.
That might all smack of self-promotion, but I don't see it as a problem since everything is being clearly labeled and attributed. It's a common tradition in academia, of course, and nowadays with stuff like LinkedIn the approach is becoming widespread in business in general.
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this answers the question
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