Wikipedia:Insignificance

This is an explanatory essay about the WP:Deletion policy page. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia has no content policy that directly relates the topic guideline WP:N with the article-deletion policy WP:Deletion policy. Both topics and material can be insignificant, meaning that such are not useful in the encyclopedia. An article whose topic and material are insignificant qualifies for deletion under WP:Deletion policy.

Insignificant material is material that is not prominent, meaning that there are no articles on Wikipedia for which the material has WP:DUE WEIGHT.

A non-notable topic is one that as per WP:N is not "worthy of notice" to have a stand-alone article. An insignificant topic is both non-notable and not otherwise suitable as a redirect.

As per WP:Deletion policy, an article with both an insignificant topic and insignificant material may be deleted.

While a topic may be too non-notable to merit its own article, the topic may be significant as a redirect.

Aspects of the topic may be prominent when discussed in a related article. As an alternative to outright deletion, editors should consider merging specific material into other articles as appropriate, while maintaining copyright compliance as described at WP:Merge and delete.

WP:N states,

For articles of unclear notability, deletion should be a last resort.
...
If appropriate sources cannot be found after a good-faith search for them, consider merging the article's verifiable content into a broader article providing context.

• The nutshell of WP:Editing policy states, "Preserve the value that others add, even if they 'did it wrong' (try to fix it rather than delete it)."
• WP:Inaccuracy, which states, "Ultimately, with allowing for due weight considerations in how the material is presented, and notwithstanding copyright violations, the only reason to exclude verifiable material from the encyclopedia is because it is insignificant."
• WP:NNC within WP:N, which references "noteworthy" material.
• Wikipedia:Notability vs. prominence
• Category:Wikipedia content policies
• WP:IGNORINGATD part of WP:ATA
• User:Uncle_G/On_notability#Dealing_with_non-notable_things