Wikipedia:Two prongs of merit

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This page in a nutshell: The general notability guideline suggests that there are two prongs to whether a topic merits an article: notability, and non-exclusion under What Wikipedia is not. In deletion discussions, editors can sometimes talk across each other by talking only about one prong.

The general notability guideline states:

A topic is presumed to merit an article if:
It meets either the general notability guideline (GNG) below, or the criteria outlined in a subject-specific notability guideline (SNG); and

It is not excluded under the What Wikipedia is not policy.

Therefore, meriting an article has two prongs. Meeting Wikipedia's notability guideline – the notability prong – is not enough to merit an article: the topic must also not be excluded under the What Wikipedia is not policy – the non-exclusion prong.

In deletion discussions, editors often cite only one prong of merit, but rarely both. For example, for topics recently in the news, typical !votes might read:

Keep. The topic is getting a lot of coverage in worldwide newspapers, clearly meeting WP:GNG. Incredulitiousness (talk), 01:10, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per WP:NOTNEWS. This article is outside the scope of Wikipedia. BetterWithAge (talk), 01:20, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is difficult to read consensus when some editors only cite one prong and other editors only cite the other prong, because the editors are merely talking across each other by addressing different aspects of Wikipedia's policies. Here are more helpful !votes:

Keep. The topic is getting a lot of coverage in worldwide newspapers, clearly meeting WP:GNG. It is too early to assess whether this will be news or not (WP:RAPID), so for now, do not delete under WP:NOTNEWS. Incredulitiousness (talk), 01:10, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per WP:NOTNEWS. Also, notability requires sustained coverage, which this event is unlikely to have. BetterWithAge (talk), 01:20, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

So, when participating in relevant deletion discussions, consider addressing both WP:GNG (or a specific notability guideline) and WP:NOT, not just one of the two prongs of merit.