Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Dogs/Top-importance articles

Importance scale

(Copied from Wikipedia:WikiProject Dogs/Assessment#Importance scale)

The following values may be used for the importance parameter (they should be entered exactly as given):

Importance parameter values (Category:Dogs articles by importance)

Value	Meaning	Examples	Category
Top	"Key" articles, considered indispensable	Dogs, Dog breed	Top-importance Dogs articles
High	High-priority topics and needed subtopics of "key" articles, often with a broad scope; needed to complement any general understanding of the field	Companion dog, Dog food	High-importance Dogs articles
Mid	Mid-priority articles on more specialised (sub-)topics; possibly more detailed coverage of topics summarised in "key" articles, and as such their omission would not significantly impair general understanding	Canine distemper, Obedience school	Mid-importance Dogs articles
Low	While still notable, these are highly-specialised or even obscure, not essential for understanding the wider picture ("nice to have" articles)	Bamse the St Bernard, Dog-show judge	Low-importance Dogs articles

The importance parameter is not used if an article's class is set to NA, and may be omitted in those cases. If the importance parameter is not yet set, or contains an invalid value, the article will be assigned to Category:Unknown-importance Dogs articles.

Rating relative importance of articles

The above scale serves as the working guidelines for how to rate the relative importance of the dog articles. Because importance is in relation to something, including other articles, I suggest this discussion cover all ratings levels to create a meaningful context.

The basic descriptions simply state importance should be rated in terms of "encyclopedic value." Some specific examples are then given. Another "built-in" representation of importance in Wikipedia is the category classification system hierarchy – the higher up in the tree, the more important the category. It then follows that "main articles" for the top-level category and main sub-categories are prime contenders for the top importance rating. For reference, here's the category tree.

Dogs

Dogs by country

Dog attack victims

Dog breeding

Dog breeds

Dog cell lines

Dogs character redirects to lists

Dog food brands

Dog health

Dogs in human culture

Individual dogs

Lists of dogs

Dog meat

Dog nutrition

Dog roles

Dog types

Dog stubs

In relation to the question posed specifically about dog breeds, the Kennel clubs around the world are the recognized authorities about which breeds are most "important." (Keep in mind I'm a hard-core mutt lover as well! ;-) From this perspective, I suggest that all of the "dog group" articles based on the various clubs' breed lists be rated as "top" importance. Individual breed articles from these groups might then be rated as "high" importance. Here's a complete list of of groups for the American Kennel Club. I don't know if anything is missing for the other clubs around the world.

As this discussion unfolds, I would suggest "types" of articles be added to the above table for each rating to provide further guidance on how to rate individual articles. Rfrisbie^talk 16:04, 21 November 2006 (UTC)