Wikipedia talk:Notability (fiction)

More restrictions on List of fictional elements
I noticed we have large groups of lists for fictional elements.


 * List of fictional robots and androids

In my humble opinion, these types of lists aren't useful, informative, or encyclopedic. I understand that lists and articles have different criteria for notability, but I think lists of fictional "category X" should have specific rules.

One of the rules I propose is making sure it has its own article to prove it's noteworthy of having a list instead of just a category.

So for example, we wouldn't be able to have a List of fictional doomsday devices without Fictional doomsday device or History of doomsday devices in fiction. For those who want to make these list, it would also encourage to validate them by creating articles for them. This also discourages making these ambiguous lists related to fiction now that we have better criteria.

This also seems like a band-aid to a bigger issue: outdated, difficult to manage, category system.Blue Pumpkin Pie Chat Contribs 18:21, 24 February 2020 (UTC)


 * I'll point to List of fictional badgers and its current AFD as a starting point for discussion that these lists need to have two things going for them to keep:
 * That either the list as a whole is sourced to appropriate GNG-type sourcing, or you can talk about the nature of fictional X (but not the entire set) with GNG-type sourcing. This latter is the case for the fictional badgers list as identified at the AFD. It would likely be the case for a "Fictional doomsday device" too without doing any research on that.
 * That the inclusion metrics for the list are either 1) that the entire list is sourced to one or more RS sources that cover the entire list (highly unlikely), 2) each item is a blue-link to a standalong article dedicated to the fictional item, or 3) the item is sourced to a third-party, independent RS that affirms the item should be on the list, avoiding WP:TRIVIA.
 * Without either, these are just random pop culture lists and need to be removed, they just simply aren't appropriate for WP. --M asem (t) 18:28, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * And to BPP's point, I wouldn't necessary expect that we need to have separate article on the fictional trope, just that we have in-depth coverage of that trope somewhere. If it is atop the list, that's as good as a standalone article. Ideally, I'd want to see the list attached to that unless for some reason SIZE issues come into play. --M asem (t) 18:30, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * There should be a real crackdown on both those and in "popular culture" articles. There are certainly a few examples where they make sense, but they're mostly just completely trivial. TTN (talk) 18:54, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I think WP:NOTESAL should be discussed here. If there are lists and sets discussed outside of Wikipedia, then a list can exist on Wikipedia. It doesn't matter if editors think the topic is trivial. That perception can exist with prose too, like toilet paper orientation, but sources exist. If a list article lacks sourcing from lists and sets, then WP:BEFORE should be performed and any potential sources put on the talk page. Of course clean-up through removing unsourced content can be appropriate, but it helps to replace it with some sourced content. Erik (talk &#124; contrib) (ping me) 19:36, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * We sorta need a line that distiquishes between a topic that actually has gotten some level of "academic" discussion like the toilet paper orientation (making it appropriate for an article), verses some random list of X in popular culture which may often have sources in "listicle" article ("Top 10" lists) that give no "academic" element for inclusion. (I use "academic" loosely here, I don't expect journal articles, but I expect something more transformative on the whole of the topic from a reliable source). --M asem (t) 19:44, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree with Masem. There are so many ambiguous lists being created by random journalists that may have zero specialty in the topic. It has to be recognized by multiple recognized media outlets IMHO.Blue Pumpkin Pie Chat Contribs 19:49, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Also, because I brought this up in the Badgers AfD, that we should distinguish fiction from folklore/legend/mythology as that is cultural that wasn't explicitly known as fictitious.Blue Pumpkin <b style="color: #DAA520">Pie</b> Chat Contribs 20:11, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
 * There is a weird line between the folklore and the popular culture factors, to the point I wouldn't necessary separate these elements in different lists (unless, after all inclusion metrics are met, there is a size issue), but I would make sure they were grouped clearly to distinguish folklore from pop culture. --M asem (t) 20:23, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

I think that we need reasonable guidelines for pruning and improving these lists, for the simple reason that they make readers happy. There is anecdotal evidence that these lists offer serendipitous delight to readers, who are charmed by the discovery that they exist.

As a first step towards a guideline, I would suggest that to be included on a list like this, each item should be a significant character in the work or receive a reasonable amount of independent coverage, to be determined during the discussion of the guideline. (Another possibility is to only include items that are notable enough to have their own page.) Each item should be supported by a 2-3 sentence explanation of their significance within the work -- not just a bare listing of "x in an episode of y". If there isn't enough to say about that item to make 2-3 sentences, then it's not important enough to be included.

As an example, the List of fictional pigs should include Miss Piggy, Porky Pig, Babe, Piglet, and Wilbur from Charlotte's Web, and not the Peking Homunculus from a brief appearance in a Doctor Who story, or Little Cory from two episodes of Boy Meets World.

Just in the last 24 hours List of fictional badgers closed as no consensus and Centaurs in popular culture closed as keep, which strongly indicates that there is not currently a consensus to delete these articles en masse. If folks would like to get consensus on a new guideline, then it should probably be an RfC or some formal process, rather than a brief, unheralded conversation at the bottom of this page. -- Toughpigs (talk) 14:03, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Should we start an initiative to delete the majority of these lists?
I'm wondering if we should start deleting some of these. At least the more obvious ones that are invented topics.<b style="color: #4682B4">Blue</b> <b style="color: #20B2AA">Pumpkin</b> <b style="color: #DAA520">Pie</b> Chat Contribs 17:41, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
 * No, too early. We should first establish the minimum expectations for these lists (previous section), make sure there's community consensus for those, and then give a time frame like 6 months or so for editors to clean up. THEN we can start a deletion spree as we have given editors fair warning throughout this. (Any such RFC and results would be posted to relevant wikiprojects and VP). --M asem (t) 17:44, 25 February 2020 (UTC)


 * I agree with Masem here. There's no huge rush and decency demands at least some prior warning before starting an enormous cleanup campaign. The voice of cynicism- and prior experience- says that no amount of prior warning will actually get the defenders of these lists to sort out any of the problems, or prevent them from complaining loud and long when they are nominated at AfD. But we should still behave properly. <b style="color: Maroon;">Reyk</b> <b style="color: Blue;">YO!</b> 07:20, 26 February 2020 (UTC)
 * True, but other editors who aren’t reflexively defending such lists would be far less likely to sympathetic   to the defenders if they had fair waring and ample opportunity to improve the lists and chose not to as opposed to being seemingly blindsided.--69.157.252.96 (talk) 21:25, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

Comic book notability guidelines / WP:NCOMIC
This essay was created two years ago and seemingly has the same "status" (essay) as NFICTION. It is however not very well known; it is not linked from NFICTION, it is cited only in a dozen+ AfD discussions since its creation two years ago, and also seems much more inclusive than NFICTIION or GNG. Manual of Style/Comics links to NFICTION not to NCOMIC. It seems clear that this essay has been created by one person (User:Etzedek24) with no input or recognition from the community (I only found this which does not constite any wide endorsment; I did not see any other discussion of this essay on any public project discussion space), and it can mislead good faithed editors who can cite it thinking that it is a community-endorsed viewpoint, rather than a view point of a single editor. Few months ago on its talk page an anon suggested it should be deleted/depreciated, and I concur (not to deletion, but to tagging it with Failed proposal, but how to go about it? RfC? Or would a discussion here be enough? PS. For now, should it be tagged with Proposal? An essay written by a single user should not give an appearance of a community-endorsed view, and clearly, an essay on notability template notability essay present there is not enough, since it is also present here, and this falsely suggests NCOMIC is equal to NFICTION (which is much better known and much more widely cited). -- <sub style="border:1px solid #228B22;padding:1px;">Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 04:30, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

RfC on whether and how to cover J. K. Rowling's trans-related views in the lead of her article
Please see: Talk:J. K. Rowling

I am "advertising" this RfC more broadly to relevant pages because someone selectively notified three socio-political wikiprojects that are likely to vote-stack the RfC with a single viewpoint, and the article already has a long history of factional PoV editwarring.

Central matters in this discussion and the threads leading up to it are labeling of Rowling, labeling of commenters on Rowling, why Rowling is notable, what is due or undue in the lead section, and whether quasi-numeric claims like "many", "a few", etc. in this context are legitimate or an OR/WEASEL issue. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  01:37, 28 November 2021 (UTC)
 * The idea that WikiProject Feminism and WikiProject Women Writers are likely to vote-stack the RfC with a single socio-political viewpoint appears to come from a place of profound ignorance, and certainly the RfC in question has nothing to do with Notability.
 * But by all means, we do need fresh eyes on the lead of the article, which has seen so much whitewashing and FALSEBALANCE POV-based editing. Newimpartial (talk) 02:13, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

In wikipedia about smurf list, numbering of episodes is quite disturbing, without any further explanation.

Why there are 75a and 75b for many seasons? Why there is 75th, 75a, and 75b episodes? What a and b or "75" alone means? No explanation at all! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Estatistics (talk • contribs) 09:53, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

Adapted characters
There is a proposal to add guidance on adapted film/television characters to this page at WT:FILM. Comments are welcome, thanks. InfiniteNexus (talk) 15:48, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

Significant coverage about merchandise
Hi @Kung Fu Man. I saw your recent edit removing the word "merchandise" after my recent update. I definitely appreciate and agree with your edit summary indicating that merchandise alone doesn't indicate notability. My intention with that inclusion was around secondary sigcov in independent reliable sources about merchandise. For example, merchandise announcements or churnalism noting a cross-promotions and such would not qualify, but an article in a reliable source with an experienced journalist providing a few paragraphs reviewing a toy could qualify in many cases. What do you think the best way to reflect this in the text would be? &mdash;siro&chi;o 06:53, 22 October 2023 (UTC)
 * The main problem is if the article is discussing the merchandise or the subject in question for the article in a significant manner within it, and in all honesty I have next to never seen that happen. In the few cases where merchandise has been brought up in regards to how a subject is viewed, it's mentioned in the context of articles discussing the subject where the merchandise is a lesser point overall. Do you have examples of articles focused on merchandise you think helps provide notability towards a fictional element?--Kung Fu Man (talk) 13:32, 22 October 2023 (UTC)