User:Father Goose/Relevance

Within Wikipedia, Relevance deals with the relation of an article's content to the article's subject. For guidelines regarding the relevance of articles or subjects as a whole, see Wikipedia:Notability. For guidance on the relevance of links to outside websites, see Wikipedia:External links.

What is relevance?

Relevance refers to the degree to which information is related to a subject. Some information can be critical to the understanding of a subject; other information may have a more esoteric relation to it.

Wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia, and there is little limit to the amount of information that it can hold. However, the depth of Wikipedia's coverage must be balanced against the readability (and verifiability) of its articles. An article that is dense with information that is only tenuously connected to the subject does little to inform the reader about the subject.

Wikipedia articles should aim to provide an overview of their subject. Longer articles can offer a comprehensive overview, touching upon many facets of the subject. The longest of articles should be kept under 10,000 words or so to preserve its readability and focus (see article size); additional coverage can be provided via subarticles and links to related subjects. Articles on very general subjects should be written in summary style and only contain information having a very strong connection to the subject. Articles on more specific subjects can go into far greater detail.

Ultimately, the relevance of material in any given Wikipedia article is gauged by editors who contribute to that article, or to discussion of it. Where questions of relevance are raised, these editors must work together to achieve a consensus as to what belongs in the article.

Some types of information fall outside the scope of Wikipedia's mission as an encyclopedia, regardless of where they appear. These types are listed at What Wikipedia is not.

The subject of an article

The subject of an article should match the article's title. An article titled Internet should be about the global computer network, not about networking, software, or computers in general. When several concepts share the same name, such as "jet", disambiguation pages or templates should be used. The lead paragraph(s) of an article should further specify the subject through a concise description.

Sometimes an article's content will evolve beyond its original subject. If the new content is more relevant to other, existing articles, the content should be moved into those articles (if it is not already there). However, if the article's subject continues to be cohesive (if broader), the article can be renamed (via the move tab) and its lead edited to reflect its new subject. It is usually a good idea to propose such moves on the article's talk page first, however.

If coverage of a subtopic grows to the point where it overshadows the main subject (or digresses too far from it), it may be appropriate to split it out into its own article; see Splitting an article and Summary style for more details.

Establishing relevance

Even if information is true and specific to an article's subject, its relevance to that subject may need to be demonstrated. Relevance can usually be demonstrated by answering one of the following three questions:

• What impact does this information have on the subject of the article?
• Is it a fundamental property?
• Is it a distinguishing trait?

If a convincing argument cannot be presented that a given piece of information answers one of these questions, its relevance is uncertain, and other editors are within their rights to remove it from the article. If the information is relevant to another article, however, an attempt should be made to integrate it into that article.

Impact

One way to establish the relevance of a fact is to demonstrate how it has impacted the subject of the article. This impact can take many forms — including, but not limited to:

• Causing the subject to come to public attention (i.e., increasing its notability).
• Changing the subject's form or history (in particular, any of its fundamental or distinguishing traits).
• Changing how the public perceives the subject.

Fundamental information

Ordinary traits that are needed to provide a fundamental description of the article's subject are always relevant. These facts should generally explain what the subject is, what it does (or did), and what it is notable for, and should appear in the lead paragraphs (or in an infobox), or in the first lines of any section to which they are most relevant.

Distinguishing traits

Some traits are not necessarily part of a basic description of the subject, but serve to distinguish it from other, similar subjects. These traits should be unusual for that type of subject, along the lines of "first", "most common", "one of the few", or similar distinctive claims.

Context

Without sufficient context, even some highly-relevant information can seem to have little importance to the subject of the article. This is especially true when disparate facts are grouped together, such as in a "Trivia" list. To improve the formatting and organization of such information, Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections recommends moving it into other sections as prose, adding context where possible. Sometimes a new section (or a new, more tightly-focused list) can be created out of closely-related items. However, even when a given set of information is best organized via a structured list, an introductory paragraph may help convey its significance to the subject.

Connections between subjects

Not every connection between two subjects needs to be mentioned in both, or even either of their articles. Incidental connections between subjects (i.e., with no demonstrable impact on either) do not need to be documented anywhere on Wikipedia.

In many cases, a fact that connects two subjects may be important to one of the subjects, but not the other. This is commonly the case with creative works that are based on, or otherwise incorporate, other subjects: while the original subject often has importance to the referring work, only very famous references will register an impact on the original subject. Books, movies, and other works (such as documentaries or biographies) that are specifically about a subject are often relevant to that subject, especially if the work has influenced public perception of the subject in some way.

Sometimes, when an article contains a large section listing connections between its subject and others, an editor may choose to split that section off into a new article. The acceptance of such articles on Wikipedia is uncertain; see Wikipedia:"In popular culture" articles.

Relevance of biographical details

Biographical subjects warrant special attention. Biographical articles are often not about people, but about what brought those people to the public's attention. The amount of reliable biographical coverage an individual has received is a good indication of what biographical details Wikipedia should include on that individual. Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons specifies additional limitations that should be followed when writing about living indviduals.

See also

• Wikipedia:Handling trivia