[Wikipedia-l] Entries for deletion.... Notability

[Andre Engels]

2007/1/10, Ian Tresman <it at knowledge.co.uk>:
>
> At 12:16 10/01/2007, you wrote:
> >I agree that notability should be judged by those familiar with the
> field.
>
> The only problem here, is that fields have sub-fields, and sub-fields
> have specialists.
>
> I think an article subject is notable if someone has noted it in a
> reliable source(s).


I tend to disagree. I have reliable sources giving the date of birth and
death of my great-(x many) grandparents, as well as a few other facts of
their lifes. Does that make them notable? I think the internet archive is a
reliable source on the content of webpages. Does that mean every webpage on
the internet archive is notable enough to get an article on Wikipedia? Every
separate game of chess that has its notation published? Lab rat #2687?

There is a danger of peers in a field assessing a controversial
> subject as non-notable for the wrong reasons, ie. confusing
> notability with importances.


I think that's not confusion, I think 'notability' is indeed very close to
'importance' in its meaning. At worst, one can say that 'important' is too
high a level of notability to draw the line.

We have articles on obscure chemical compounds, obscure villages in
> obscure countries, and obscure ideas in obscure publications.


I have nothing against the first two (and no country is obscure, in my
opinion), although we should be more than a database, so there should be
more than generalities about the chemical compound. The last is exactly the
kind of thing I would like to see removed from Wikipedia. Just because
someone has written something sometime does not mean it should be in
Wikipedia. If their ideas have been influential, that's another story. But
then there should be non-obscure publications discussing them as well.

Thank goodness that www.google.com doesn't have a "notability"
> criteria, or most of its pages would disappear.
>

That depends on the type of notability criterium that has been used, and its
level. Also, we are not here to replace Google. Google tries to index
everything. I don't think that's our task. Our task is writing an
encyclopedia.

-- 
Andre Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644  --  Skype: a_engels