User:Cmadler/Notability and importance (reenactment)

This is an essay regarding notability, verifiability, importance, and related issues specifically in relation to WP:WikiProject Reenactment articles. This is not intended to alter or supercede broader policies or guidelines such as WP:N, WP:RS, WP:V, etc. but merely to provide guidance to editors of reenactment articles as to how those rules might be applied. The goals will be:


 * 1) Eliminate and discourage the recreation of articles that are unlikely to meet Wikipedia's standards.
 * 2) Improve fact-checking, citation, and referencing throughout reenactment articles.

General points: Reliable secondary sources are required for establishing the notability of a topic, but once that is done, self-published and primary sources can be used to support individual statements.

Articles about reenactment concepts
See Category:Historical reenactment

Articles about reenactment concepts are likely to draw on published books and academic papers to a much greater extent than other reenactment articles.

Articles about reenactment events
''See Category:Historical reenactment events and List of historical reenactment events

Reenactment events are likely to be the easiest reenactment articles for which to find reliable sources, as in many cases events attract substantial local or regional media coverage. Keep in mind, however, that notability may require evidence of coverage other than local media.

Articles about reenactment groups
See Category:Historical reenactment groups and List of historical reenactment groups

Relevant guideline: WP:ORG

Reenactment groups are likely to be the most difficult reenactment articles to establish notability and find reliable sources. Reliable secondary sources not directly affiliated with the group must be found to establish notability; however, once this is done, factual information taken from other sources (e.g. the organization's web site or newsletter) can be used to flesh out the article. One possible avenue for sources is media articles discussing the group in relation to an event; keep in mind that any such article should probably mention the group by name (certainly with enough specificity that a third-party can identify the group in question) and should contain some discussion of the group itself beyond merely mentioning participation in the event.

Note especially that:
 * Works carrying merely trivial coverage do not establish notability. This includes newspaper articles that simply report meeting times or extended shopping hours, or the publications of telephone numbers, addresses, and directions in business directories.
 * Press releases; autobiographies; advertising for the company, corporation, organization, or group; and other works where the company, corporation, organization, or group talks about itself—whether published by the company, corporation, organization, or group itself, or re-printed by other people can not establish notability. Material that is self-published, or published at the direction of the subject of the article, would be a primary source and falls under different policies.
 * Individual chapters of national and international organizations are usually not notable enough to warrant a separate article unless sufficient notability is established through reliable sources that extend beyond the organization's local area. However, chapter information may be included in list articles as long as only verifiable information is included.
 * Organizations whose activities are local in scope may be notable where there is verifiable information from reliable independent sources outside the organization's local area. Where coverage is only local in scope, the organization may be included as a section in an article on the organization's local area instead.
 * The organization’s longevity, size of membership, or major achievements, or other factors specific to the organization may be considered.
 * Even though the parent organization may be notable, individual chapters of national and international organizations may not be notable enough to warrant a separate article.
 * Local chapter articles should start as a section of the parent organization article. If the parent article grows to the point where it may be split to a new article, and notability can be demonstrated using the general notability guideline, then it can be split. This should occur as a top down process. See splitsection.

Articles about reenactment locations
See Category:Living museums and List of tourist attractions providing reenactment

Articles about locations at which reenactments occur are likely to fall under the aegis of at least one other WikiProject. In many cases, the location will have multiple uses, and reenactment is only a part -- sometimes a very small part -- of what happens there. In these cases, while the use of the location for reenactment may merit a mention, care should be taken not to give the reenactment activity undue weight relative to the other uses, or other reasons for the location's notability.