 | This page in a nutshell: Sections with lists of miscellaneous information (such as "trivia" sections) should be avoided as an article develops. Such information is better presented in an organized way. |
Avoid creating or adding to lists of miscellaneous facts. A number of articles contain lists of isolated facts, often grouped into a section labeled "Trivia", "Facts", "Miscellanea", "Other information", "Notes" (not to be confused with "Notes" sections which store footnotes), etc. These lists are discouraged, but if they must exist, they should in most cases be considered temporary, until a better method of presentation can be determined.
This style guideline does not address whether trivia should be allowed on Wikipedia, or what information should be included in articles. Nor does it suggest removing trivia sections altogether, or moving them to the talk page.
- Wikipedia's content policies address the issue of what items should be included or removed.
Trivia sections edit
Trivia sections usually appear on Wikipedia as bulleted lists of miscellaneous information. These disorganized and unselective lists are in need of cleanup; an exhaustive list of unnecessary details can detract from the goal of presenting a subject in a straightforward and well-organized way.
A better way to organize an article is to provide a logical grouping and ordering of facts that gives an integrated presentation, providing context and smooth transitions, whether in prose text, list, or table. A selectively populated list with a narrow theme is not necessarily trivia, and can be the best way to present some types of information within the article.
Trivia articles edit
As an article grows, these lists may become increasingly disorganized and difficult to read, and sometimes these articles are forked off into their own article. These articles solve the problem of trivia cluttering up the parent article, but this solution creates other problems, and trivia articles should be avoided. Unlike trivia sections, trivia articles are not especially useful as repositories of information to be integrated elsewhere. This is because trivia articles keep such information away from the main page on a subject. This presents an inherent challenge, because there is usually no text in a trivia article to absorb the disconnected items.
Compounding this, when an article is split up, it may be hard to get other users involved in discussion or efforts to make improvements: the talk page of the trivia article is often very low-activity, but on the talk page of the main article, editors may not care to address the trivia article. Trivia articles are often abandoned by editors in a way that trivia sections are not. Additionally, whereas ordinary editors can delete sections of articles, they can't delete articles.
Related articles edit
In some cases, two topics can be connected in a way that's important enough to make the two articles related articles. In such a case, the best way to note the connection may be to simply have a link in the "see also" section of the articles. Since the topics are strongly related, no further explanation is needed. This can be a good way of keeping trivia out of articles on subjects that have a couple of important connections to other subjects, however this technique should be used sparingly.
For instance, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple is an adaptation of the events in Jonestown, and the articles are related enough to put the adaptation as a "see also" link in the Jonestown article. However, it would probably be unwise to put Cartman Gets an Anal Probe as a "see also" under Grey alien, even though there is a connection.
Guidance edit
If items in a trivia section meet the criteria set out in Wikipedia's content policies, then they should be integrated into the article text, in accordance with editing policy. Some facts may belong in existing sections; others can be grouped into a new section of related material. Items that duplicate material already contained elsewhere in the article can simply be deleted.
This guideline does not suggest always avoiding lists in favor of prose. If the prose is effectively a list of disconnected items that isn't bulleted, it is not an improvement over a list — actually, it may be worse. On the other hand, if the prose actually relates the trivia to the rest of the article in a coherent way, it is a significant improvement over a bare list. For further information concerning the use of lists in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Lists (embedded lists)
Trivia and categories edit
At heart, much trivia is an attempt to connect partially-related topics through a given context. Categories serve much the same purpose. In some cases, trivia may be appropriately handled via categorization. For instance, instead of collecting an article 1817 deaths, entries can be made into Category:1817 deaths. However, this is rarely the solution to trivia sections. Pop culture allusions and the like make for poor categories that are likely to end up being deleted.
See also edit
- Essays:
- Wikipedia:Handling trivia - on trivia in Wikipedia: What it is and how it should be handled.
- Wikipedia:"In popular culture" articles - on "Popular culture" articles.
- Wikipedia:Relevance of content - on determining the relevance of material to an article.
- Wikipedia:Listcruft - describing "listcruft" and its relationship to trivia.
- WikiProjects
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Trivia Cleanup - designed to clean up trivia sections in articles.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Trivia and Popular Culture - aimed at cleaning up trivia, with an emphasis on integrating trivia type content.
- Cleanup templates
- Categories: