Wikipedia:Notability (mailboxes)
 | This page spoofs an English Wikipedia notability guideline. It is not a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow. If it were, it would be best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions might apply. Any substantive edit to this page might reflect consensus, and might have been discussed first on the talk page. |
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On Wikipedia, notability is a test used by editors to decide whether a given topic warrants its own article. This notability guideline for mailboxes reflects consensus reached through discussions and reinforced by established practice, and informs decisions on whether an article about a mailbox or mailbox-related topic should be written, merged, deleted, or further developed. For advice about how to write mailbox articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Mailboxes and Wikipedia:Mailbox article guideline.
For the purposes of this guideline, a mailbox (also known as a letter box) is defined as a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. A mailbox-related article (MRA) is defined as an article related to mailboxes. A non-mailbox-related article (NMRA) is defined variously as either an article not related to mailboxes or an article related to something that is not mailboxes.
This guideline is independent from the other subject-specific notability guidelines, such as WP:NMAIL, WP:NPOBOX, WP:NPOSTOFFICE, etc., and is explicitly listed as an alternative to the general notability guideline. It is possible for a mailbox not to be notable under the provisions of this guideline but to be notable in some other way under the general notability guideline or one of the other subject-specific notability guidelines. Conversely, failure to meet either the general notability guideline or other subject-specific notability guidelines is irrelevant if a mailbox is notable under this guideline.
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- A non-cool mailbox is presumed notable when it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the mailbox or its owner.
- A cool mailbox is presumed notable when it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the mailbox or its owner.
- A very cool mailbox is presumed notable when it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the mailbox or its owner.
- A mailbox flag is presumed notable when it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the mailbox flag, the mailbox to which it is attached, or its mailbox's owner. Mailbox flags which are determined to be non-notable are generally redirected to the page for the mailbox to which they are attached.
- Mailboxes that are no longer extant may be notable if they were notable during their existence and thereby have some historical relevance. Regarding the section of their article that discusses the incident in which they were destroyed, there has been some controversy over whether to include any trigger warning or content warning for the benefit of mailbox aficionados who might be traumatized by graphic descriptions of such crimes. Consult Wikipedia:Trigger warnings for Wikipedia's evolving guidance on such warnings generally.
- All carrier pigeons are presumed to be notable.[citation needed]
Help! My mailbox article got nominated for deletion! edit
Some new editors attempt to create a page for their mailbox as their first article, and these are often nominated for deletion. It takes a lot of work to create an article, so if your mailbox article has been nominated for deletion, this may feel very discouraging. But don't panic just yet—deletion isn't automatic; it's a process. While mailbox articles do sometimes get deleted, and authors of non-notable mailbox articles do sometimes get permanently banned from ever editing or reading Wikipedia again and then defenestrated for good measure, this doesn't always happen.
Maybe your initial reaction was feeling hurt, or even angry. Know that plenty of established users have had their mailbox articles nominated for deletion. People will (or at least will try to) argue objectively about whether or not the mailbox is worthy of being in Wikipedia, so try not to take the deletion discussion personally. Listen to the reasons given in the nomination. Address or refute those reasons as best you can (preferably backed with reliable sources, such as the International Journal of Mailbox Studies), and try to improve the article accordingly. Please note that sources that you received via a mailbox cannot be used to support the notability of that mailbox due to the conflict of interest.