[WikiEN-l] Tim Noah addresses the notion of notability in another Slate article

[David Gerard]

On 28/02/07, Matthew Brown <morven at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/28/07, Jeff Raymond <jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com> wrote:
> > geni wrote:

> > > Notability means there is likely to be enough verifiable material
> > > about a subject from enough different sources to write about it in a
> > > NPOV manner without resorting to original research.

> > No it doesn't.  At least that's not what's being pushed, and it's
> > CERTAINLY not what's occurring in practice.

> It is the only way that notability guidelines SHOULD work, however.
> Notability guidelines, IMO, should be guidelines for inclusion, not
> exclusion; in other words, if it passes this test, then of course we
> keep it, no need to re-debate it.  They should be speedy-keep
> guidelines.
> They cannot be authoritative, and thus an article's failure to meet
> their standards should simply mean that more discussion is required.


I suggest you read AFD for a bit, then. This is all a nice idea, but
is the precise opposite of how they are used in practice and the use
they were in fact created on Wikipedia for.


- d.