Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not for things made up in school one day
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This page is a notability criteria guideline for Wikipedia, reflecting how authors of this encyclopedia address certain issues. This guideline is intended to help you improve Wikipedia content. Feel free to update this page as needed, but please use the discussion page to propose major changes. |
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This page in a nutshell: Resist the temptation to write about the new, great thing you and/or your friends just thought up. |
Wikipedia is not for things made up in school one day. If you or your friends make up something novel in school or in a garage one day, please do not write about it in Wikipedia. Write about it on your own website.
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This applies even for things made up by teachers, such as original mnemonics that they created to help you memorize lists of things.
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[edit] Resist the temptation
One common temptation for young editors is the urge to share new phrases, fashions, or ideas that they or their friends have invented. Writing an article on Wikipedia might seem like a great way to do this — after all, if you enjoy this new fad, won't other people appreciate it too?
There are several things wrong with doing this:
- Wikipedia content is required to be verifiable. There's no way that the rest of the world can verify your account of the new thing your friend said or did one day. It's not recorded and it's not documented. Indeed, there's no way that the rest of the world can verify that your friend even exists at all. Verifiability isn't up for postmodern debate; it's a standard criterion. To understand this, think about what gives money its worth. A bank which accumulates trust that it can pay (make good on) the amount written on the bill is the source of that worth. When there is no bank like that, everybody carries money in gold coins. You wouldn't expect your friends to work for Monopoly money, would you? So it is with Wikipedia. All articles need to cite sources; if you can't do that because there aren't any sources documenting what you made up in school one day, then your content is unverifiable, and is not authorized to be posted on Wikipedia.
- Original research is prohibited on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; that is, it contains information that has been collected, condensed, and summarized about what has already been promoted - and which has passed certain tests, as this is how most encyclopedias are written. It is not a publisher of first instance. It isn't here to promote new things and spread new knowledge. If you find yourself arguing that your Wikipedia article is necessary because no one else has written about your new invention yet, you're breaking the original research rule. If you want to write about it, make sure to get it published in a peer-reviewed journal or other reputable, reliable outlet first.
- Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Many articles of this nature describe new words or terms coined by a small group of friends. But Wikipedia is not a dictionary, it's an encyclopedia. Meanings of words and phrases go in a dictionary, such as Wiktionary; however, adding your own new words and phrases to Wiktionary is also unacceptable. Wiktionary requires evidence that a word or phrase has been attested before it will accept it. A new word that one person or a small group of people have made up and are trying to make catch on is a neologism, and isn't acceptable at Wiktionary. Take a look at Urban Dictionary instead.
- Wikipedia is not a free wiki host for you to use for your own purposes. It's an encyclopedia. Our primary goal here is to write an encyclopedia, not to provide free web hosting to people. Even if your article isn't taking up much space, you are still misusing Wikipedia and preventing it from becoming a usable encyclopedia. If you like the idea of having your own wiki, check out Wikia or BluWiki.
[edit] That infamous game
Often, while looking for things to do, people at school come up with Wikipedia-related games that have already been invented. In particular, many people have come up with ideas similar to Wikipedia:Six degrees of Wikipedia, and created pages on those. However, we already have this idea more than adequately covered in the project namespace, so we don't need an article on it. See this list of previous creations.
[edit] The right way for things made up in school one day to get into Wikipedia
School crazes, fads, and fashions can end up covered in Wikipedia, but only if someone first sits down and researches them, and publishes a book, an academic paper, or a magazine/journal article detailing that research. Such resources are reliable, and therefore the subject can become eligible for Wikipedia.
For example, Catherine Gewertz has written an article, published in Education Week in 2001, about the school craze of freak dancing, which makes freak dancing a valid topic for a Wikipedia article. It's verifiable, the research has already been done (and peer reviewed and fact checked) outside of Wikipedia, and the world at large already knows about the craze from the Education Week article.
[edit] What you should do
Only succumb to the temptation to write Wikipedia articles about what was made up in school one day if you can and do cite sources. People writing in web logs or posting pseudonymously on discussion forums are not considered reliable sources.
If you cannot cite reliable sources, please write about what was made up in school one day somewhere else, such as on your own web site.
Or you could do so on Uncyclopedia, such sites are meant for things as this and are usually much more lenient in policy and venue than Wikipedia. You don't need to cite sources, verify information, or make sense; this is only as long as the joke is funny, and not just to yourself.
