User:Sphilbrick/Essay regarding inclusion criteria for integer articles

When we have an article about an integer, there are wide variety of potential entries. While it's potentially possible to write a prose discussion of the number which will almost certainly include multiple examples of usage, see Pi is a decent example, it is almost inevitable that many of the integer articles will attract short entries written more like a list than expensive prose.

At least in the short term, this is inevitable. Perhaps after some period of time, the material can be organized and written in more of the prose format but in the short term, it is likely that many additions will be short, almost standalone entries.

Most of these articles have some form of organization, with the pure mathematical observations early in the article, a section on the history of the number, and then a variety of entries organized into some groupings such as religious, music or other groupings.

If we look at a specific example say 8, we see a very brief lead, then a number of statements related to the mathematical properties of the number, basic calculations, the etymology of the number a discussion of the glyph, and then a number of examples of ACN use in various places and are generally organized fashion.

Some of the items are properly not referenced. The basic calculations are not referenced per the routine calculations exceptions WP:CALC. the simple statement that it's a composite number, identifying the property divisors and the fact that it is "twice 4 four times 2" also qualifies as not needing a reference.

As a general rule in item probably deserves entry if it includes words such as "smallest", "largest", "only", "first", or words that generally suggest the property is unique to this number. Many of the entries will denote inclusion in a notable subset of the integers. This is generally acceptable, although inclusion in subsets such as "odd integers", or "even integers" are too basic to deserve standalone entry. It may be appropriate to mention that the number is odd or even in passing, but not as a standalone entry.

In general, these entries other than those that qualify as routine calculations should be referenced. At the time of this writing some are but many are not. Inability to find a reference should be viewed as a red flag that the property, even if true, is too obscure to deserve mention.

It's obvious that the integers are used to number many things, for example pages of books, and many entries in a list. In most cases, the fact that the book has a page 8 is not interesting enough to deserve inclusion. There can be exceptions — if the book is organized in such a way that the page numbers carry some meaning, that it may be relevant that something or other is on page 8, but if that is the case, it will be discussed in a reliable source, and merely identifying that some item is on page 8 of some book does not deserve entry. A similar thought process applies to lists, with the exception that if the list only has eight items that might be interesting. If the list has 20 items, talking about the eight item in the list is rarely interesting as a property of eight, but if the list purports to be a complete list of some subject, then noting that there are eight items in the list might deserve mention. Again, simply finding a book with a list of eight items, even if that purports to be a complete list, doesn't itself qualify unless there is discussion in multiple places about the fact that there are eight entries related to the subject.

Jeopardy rule
Most people are familiar with television quiz shows of which Jeopardy is a well-known example. In many quiz shows, the general format is a question for which the contestant has to provide an answer. the Jeopardy format as a small twist, in that answers are provided and the contestant must construct a question associated with the provided answer. It may be useful to consider whether an entry would constitute a potential Jeopardy entry. as an example, if "8" is provided as an answer and the category is "Judaism", then an acceptable response might be "how many days are there in Hanukkah?", but an unacceptable response would be "how many letters are contained in Hanukkah?" the first is an example of something that many people with knowledge of the Jewish religion would think of if presented with the number eight, but the number of letters in the word is happenstance and isn't particularly interesting.

Let's see if we can use this rule to identify candidates and categorize them as acceptable for inclusion, edge cases, or clearly unacceptable

Clearly acceptable

 * *The number of planets in the solar system (while controversial, and under discussion for changing, it is unquestionable that there are multiple reliable sources supporting the statement at this time)

Clearly unacceptable

 * The number of letters in the name "Tombaugh"

While undeniably a correct statement, virtually no one spends time talking about the number of letters in astronomers names. Using the Jeopardy rule,if "8" was the answer and the category was astronomy, I think "How many letters are there in "Tombaugh"?" would not be considered an acceptable response.

Edge cases

 * Messier object M8

While it's undeniable that there is an object by this name, it isn't at all clear that mentioning the number "8" to an astronomer will immediately bring bring to mind the subject. (We might need more feedback from astronomers.) As a complication, some of the objects are better known than others. M31 is one of the more famous ones, and it is possible that mentioning "31" to an astronomer might bring up this galaxy but I don't think the numbers as numbers generally remind astronomers of the objects.


 * NGC 8

The new general catalog numbering is well known among astronomers, arguably less well-known than the Messier numbering, at least among amateur astronomers, but this is arguably close to page number. A number of objects are identified and they are given a number. Once the decision is made to number them with sequential integers there inevitably will be an "8" but I don't think the term "8" naturally evokes a reference to NGC 8. Using the jeopardy rule, if "8" was the answer and the category was astronomy, I think NGC 8 would be disallowed as an acceptable response.

The mystery story rule
It is a common trope in mystery stories for a character to come across some cryptic language, sometimes all text, sometimes numbers, or a mixture. While the task of the character is to solve the code to take the next step in solving the mystery. A common example is for the colleague of the character to notice that the first few numbers represent an area code so it might be a telephone number in the United States. A sequence of numbers starting with 20 might mean it is a telephone number in Egypt as +20 is the way to start an international call to Egypt. If a number could be viewed as a plausible code in a mystery story, it may deserve inclusion.

Clearly acceptable
Area codes, country dialing codes, Dewey Decimal codes(maybe) and the like

Clearly not acceptable
Dewey, Cheatem and Howe has 19 letters, but it would strain credulity that 19 would be a code suggesting that a former client of this law firm ought to be investigated.

Jersey numbers in sports
In early iterations of many of these articles, lists of sports figures who wore the jersey number were included. On the surface this seems like a challenging problem. ask almost any serious sports fan who wore number 23, and almost all will immediately answer "Michael Jordan". That would easily pass the Jeopardy rule, and many people would agree that it has a stronger claim to entry than, say 23 (film). however, many major sports teams currently have a player wearing number 23, almost all of whom meet our notability requirements. if we aren't going to include all of them, we have to have a way to decide which are in and which are not in. In one discussion Talk:20_(number), it was discussed limiting inclusion to "particularly noteworthy personalities", but I trust it is obvious that this would be a challenging rule to define uncontroversially. Given the existence of List of retired numbers, one solution would be to include a link to the appropriate section number in each integer article. We may still have to discuss whether such a link longs in a section labeled sports, or ought to be placed in the see also section. This approach would obviate the need to distinguish between those deserving inclusion in the integer list and those not deserving inclusion. This leaves unsettled the issue of active athletes wearing a particular number. List of active numbers is a red link, and may have notability challenges (as opposed to retired numbers which are discussed extensively in sports literature) but if someone creates that article, we could include a link to the relevant subsection.

See 20 for an example, where a hatnote has been added to the sports section.

Music
It is not uncommon for artists, bands, albums, or songs to have a title that is a simple integer or unobvious derivative (20+). Some of these entries are contained on dab pages, so, for example, the dab page 20 lists a number of albums and a song. one option would be to include all such examples on the dab page, then add a hat note to the integer number page pointing to the hatnote. the problem with this approach is that dab pages point to articles, which means the artist, band, album or song has to be notable on its own. While many of the entries on an integer page will have a link to an article, and virtually all should be referenced, it is not a requirement that the individual item be notable enough to justify a standalone article. Thus while some individual songs may be notable and have an article, some songs will not, and therefore not belong on the dab page. If someone is interested in songs with the title 20, they are likely to be interested in:


 * 20 by Ebbo Kraan
 * 20 by Seventeen

There are other examples, but the first is an artist who doesn't have an article, a second artist has an article but that song is not mentioned in the article, so a dab cannot be justified.

A better option might be the use of tables, for example: