Misplaced Pages:Relevance - Misplaced Pages

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The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption.

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This page in a nutshell: Stay on topic!

This guideline pertains to the relevance of content within articles. For guidelines regarding the relevance of articles or subjects as a whole, see Misplaced Pages:Notability. For guidance on the relevance of links to outside websites, see Misplaced Pages:External links. For guidance on certain types of content in general, see Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not.

Keep articles focused

Unlike a paper encyclopedia, Misplaced Pages has unlimited capacity. However, the depth of Misplaced Pages's coverage must be balanced against the readability of its articles. An article that is dense with information only tenuously connected to the subject does little to inform the reader about the subject.

Article scope

The topics an article covers 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.

Articles on very general subjects should address the entire subject, rather than meandering into related topics for which more specific articles exist. Articles on very specific subjects can go into far greater detail.

Specific guidelines may be provided by a WikiProject whose scope includes the article in question.

Use summary style

Misplaced Pages articles should be written in summary style, providing an overview of their subject. This overview may touch upon several related topics or subtopics, but any details not immediately relevant to the primary topic should be moved into other articles, linking to them if appropriate. 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 spin it off into its own article.

Content

Two types of facts form the bulk of Misplaced Pages's content:

Basic description, which explains what the subject is, what it does (or did), and what it is notable for. This type of information should be put in the article lead, or in the first lines of the section to which it is most relevant.
Events that have impacted the subject. What kind of effect the event had should be plain; if it is not, add more context. Groups of disparate facts, such as "Trivia" lists, lack such context, and should be avoided.

Connections between subjects

In many cases, a fact that connects two subjects may be important to one of the subjects, but not the other. This is often the case with creative works that incorporate other subjects: while the original subject will often have importance to the referring work, only very famous uses will increase the notability of the original subject. Incidental connections between subjects — with no demonstrable impact on either — do not need to be documented anywhere on Misplaced Pages.

Biographical details

Biographical subjects have special limitations. Some people are only famous for their connection to notable events, without having any fame beyond the event. As such, they are not public figures, and details of their personal lives are not relevant to what has made them of encyclopedic interest. See Misplaced Pages:Biographies of living persons for more details.