Wikipedia:Law of infobox inclusion
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 | This page in a nutshell: All else being equal, every article about an individual person, individual object, or individual entity will contain an infobox. |
This essay is about the law of infobox inclusion, a ceteris paribus law regarding which articles on Wikipedia contain an infobox(s). The principle is stated as followed:
- Every article on Wikipedia that is not also a (may be eponymous) category contains an infobox or ought to contain an infobox for the sake of uniformity of the encyclopedia, all else being equal.
Explanation[edit]
The principle essentially states that an article on Wikipedia would contain at least one infobox if its topic is a token (an individual person, object, or entity). Here are some examples:
- A specific individual (such as Yingluck Shinawatra)
- A specific place (such as Sacramento)
- A specific organization (such as Alibaba)
- A specific astronomical object (such as Saturn)
- A specific ship (such as the Yamato)
Exceptions to the law[edit]
There are various exceptions to this principle/law, which is what are meant by the 'all else being equal' clause. A notable category of these exceptions is classical music composers, such as Edward Elgar. There are many reasons why an exception might occur, i.e. when an article about a token does not contain an infobox. Possible reasons include opposition by the local WikiProject (because infoboxes are purported to reduce an encyclopedia to a database or a PowerPoint presentation), and the article being still a stub. Attempts to break through this opposition led to the Infobox War that ended in 2013.
The converse does not hold[edit]
It is important to note that the converse of this law does not hold. In other words, it is false that if an article contains an infobox, then it is not also a category with articles in it. The obvious counterexample is the article New York City and its eponymous category.