User:Oshwah/Templates/NotabilityAndAFD


 * Hi ! Thanks for leaving me a message here with your questions and your request for help. I'll be more than happy to explain what happened or what's going on, how the articles for deletion (AFD) process works, and provide you with any kind of help, learning, and assistance that you're looking for or need. :-)


 * First and foremost, the main thing that you absolutely must know and understand regarding AFD is this: Discussions there and regarding whether to keep or delete an article will not take the quality of the article itself (its content, style, formatting, standards, length, use of templates, images, infoboxes, category use, sources cited, etc) into account. Knowing and understanding this fact as early, clearly, and directly as possible will prevent you from giving yourself the false belief that you'll be able to save the article from being deleted as a result of the AFD process by simply editing it, expanding it, or improving it. This is not the case nor has it ever been, because the article's content or quality is not given any kind of consideration. So, in case I haven't made myself very clear: There are no edits or changes that you can make to the article that will influence the input or "votes" of the discussion's participants, nor cause them to decide differently as to whether or not the article should be kept.


 * You're very likely asking yourself right now, "Well, if the article's content and quality isn't taken into consideration, then... what is?" The short answer is simple to explain: These discussions will take the notability of the article's subject (who or what the article is supposed to be about) into account, and nothing else. In short, editors must show that the subject or topic of a given article is notable. How do you do that? By demonstrating that the article subject or topic has received in  that are  and . Basically, they're not looking at the quality of the article that's written here, but the availability of secondary reliable sources that can be researched and found (either on the internet, in print media, etc) and that provide primary coverage (not just passing mention in one-or-two sentences) of the article subject. For more information, see Wikipedia's general notability guidelines.


 * Think of it like this: If, for example, the Barrack Obama or Abraham Lincoln articles were only a few paragraphs long and didn't provide many or very good sources, these articles would be kept if I were to nominate them for a discussion at AFD. That's because, well, they're notable people... :-) It's quite easy to go onto Google and type those names in - you're going to find numerous sources that are reliable, provide primary coverage on these individuals, and show that they are indeed very notable in American History. Continuing with the example: We wouldn't delete these articles under the AFD process just because their quality is poor (or perhaps very poor), or because they are not long or because they lack content, or don't have any or enough sources cited. The articles just need to be expanded and improved is all...


 * Let's talk about why we determine the notability of a subject in this manner: Let's say that I create an extensively-written article about some random Joe person. The article itself is stellar - it's impressive in length, detail, and with the use of images, templates, and other data. Well, that's all really nice and dandy... but if absolutely no references, sources, information, media, or data can be found in libraries, online search engines, and/or in publication about this random Joe person that I wrote this awesome article about, then the article subject obviously can't be considered to be notable - hence, the article, regardless of its content and quality, would be deleted.


 * In short: There's really nothing you can do to the article itself that will change the outcome of the discussion. Don't ever go into an AFD discussion with the belief, hope, or expectation that improving the article's content to be "up to standard" will result in the article being kept. Either the article subject is notable or they aren't - that's what the discussion is created to determine. If anything, take the resulting outcome as a good learning experience for you. Before you write your next article, I'm sure that you'll be much more well-versed in Wikipedia's notability guidelines, and you'll create an article that will do well. I created a few articles when I was new on Wikipedia, and I was angry and disappointed when they were deleted - it can be really discouraging... All that time wasted. However, I kept with it, and I took the time to know and understand the policies and guidelines and why they're important. In the end, it helped improve my editing and my experience a lot.


 * Please let me know if you have any more questions, and I'll be happy to answer them. Take some time and read through those guidelines. If you have any questions about them, let me know! I'll be happy to answer them and explain, or clarify anything that's confusing. You're doing well here! If anything, the article gets deleted, and this is just a minor setback. You'll be a better editor moving forward either way. I've been there myself; I'm not here today and with the experience and knowledge that I have because I got everything right and did perfectly. I've made more than my fair share of mistakes. Trust me... ;-)