User:Ryan Paddy/Origin of primary criterion for notability

While involved in article for deletion discussions, I've developed an interest in the origin of the notability guideline that is so often used to argue whether a subject should have an article.

Notability has been around as a concept for some time on Wikipedia, but it existed as a term for a long while before the primary criterion of having received independant non-trivial coverage specifically on the subject emerged as a unifying definition. When I first read this idea, I was impressed by its universality and simplicity. The logic that "if a reliable independant source had taken sufficient note of a subject to write about it, then it's been demonstrated as notable" made immediate intuitive sense to me, it's one of those ideas that are obvious in hindsight.

So I've decided to set about looking for the origin of this concept. Who thought of it? Where did they get the idea? On my side are the histories of all the project and user pages, their associated talk pages, and user contribution histories. Stacked against me is the dodgy manual merging that often used to take place, in which some edit histories seem to have been lost. I don my pith helmet and set off into the jungle of Wikipedia ancient history... 2005, and perhaps beyond.

Timeline

Here I'll construct a chronological timeline of the significant edits I've discovered. This is as much to keep my head straight about what came first as anything else.

• 22 Jan 2005 - TUF-KAT creates WP:Notability (music) or forerunner with text "has been prominently featured in any major music media", here.

• 8 Sep 2005 - Rossami adds "multiple features in popular culture publications... or national newspapers... An independent biography" to WP:Notability (people), in this edit.

• 10 Sep 2005 - Uncle G creates WP:Notability (organizations and companies) and includes the criterion "subject of published works whose source is independent", here.

• 29 Mar 2006 - Hiding creates Significance (later Notability) proposal with criterion "cite information from experts within the topic area, and this information can be verified", here.

• 12 May 2006 - Rossami suggests adding "primary subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the person" to WP:Notability (people), on the talk page here.

• 19 May 2006 - Rossami adds "primary subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the person" to WP:Notability (people), in this edit.

• 26 July 2006 - Uncle G creates userpage "On notability" and defines the Primary Notability Criterion as "subject of non-trivial published works by multiple separate sources that are independent", here.

• 4 May 2008 - right now the "General notability guideline" at WP:N reads "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject", here.

Discussion

What I've uncovered so far suggests an evolution of the concept from something a little vague to the more exact current form, as opposed to a single formative event.