Wikipedia:What Wikipedia Wants (proposal)

This is a failed proposal.

Consensus for its implementation was not established within a reasonable period of time. If you want to revive discussion, please use the talk page or initiate a thread at the village pump.

This article is dedicated to deciding what belongs in Wikipedia and what doesn't.

Overview

Wikipedia is dedicated to the idea of having articles that are "Encyclopedic". That is to say, Wikipedia wants any article one would find in a traditional paper encyclopedia. But as an online encyclopedia, Wikipedia is free to write about many things one would not find in a traditional one. On the other hand, Wikipedia does not want an article on every person/place/thing in the universe.

What is Encyclopedic?

Anything with name recognition - That is, anything that an average person would have heard of.
Anything notable - Corollary to name recognition. You might not know the name of the largest gas company in India, but it's notable for that reason.
Anything academic - Someone or something that would be mentioned in a textbook or research paper, and which is notable or famous at least within its field. This includes technical jargon and historical events. It does not include specific papers and studies unless they are "important".
Cities, municipalities, physical landmarks or regions
Post-secondary schools - Colleges and Universities
Political entities and systems and philosophies of social organizations
Fictional Fixtures - Notable (that is, having at least limited fame) fictional works, events, characters, and places.
Popular culture - People/places/things in sports or the media
Culture and belief - Notable religious or social people, places, ideas.
The Arts

What is not Encyclopedic?

Nonfamous people, websites, and companies
Specific elementary or high schools
Nonfamous roads, buildings, locations
Transient popular culture and media hype
Dictionary definitions - See Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary
Original thoughts or research
Tutorials - These belong in Wikibooks (by general consensus)
Rants, rumors, and patent nonsense - Wikipedia wants only generally accepted facts or theories.

What else?

Wikipedia does take some non-encyclopedic articles:

Relevant Lists - Lists on relevant topics

Note - in cases where an article fits into both encyclopedic and non-encyclopedic categories, it is considered to be encyclopedic.