Bhamwiki:What to write about

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What to write about is an evolving standard for what should be included on the Bhamwiki. Even if your specific question isn't answered here, you can probably get a feel for the principles involved. Use the Bhamwiki Talk:What to write about to pose specific questions. Or, if you're leaning toward contributing, just do it. Hopefully, someone will clean up after any messes.

Geographical scope

Bhamwiki's geographical scope is not defined by a hard borderline. The "Birmingham District" is our stated focus. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area is certainly all pertinent. Generally the level of detail diminishes with distance from downtown Birmingham, though we give some priority to the University of Alabama and Auburn University for their importance to Birmingham. When considering topics on the edges of our scope, the concept of "interestingness" may be given more consideration.

Examples

  1. Concert venues? yes. Individual concerts? probably not, unless they shook the world. (See Elvis Presley)
  2. Published authors? depends. Nationally distributed book deal? yes. Guest column in Portico? probably not, unless it shook the world.
  3. Local legends? Only if they are truly local and well-known and you can cite published or otherwise verifiable sources. Fant Thornley might be our minimum threshold. The guy with the hook in the woods? no.
  4. Blizzards? yes, but only if they actually happened. Individual instances of James Spann rolling up his sleeves would be too numerous to mention.
  5. Local businesses? Yes, except fly-by-night operations or local franchises of national chains. (Major local franchise operators, however, should get articles). Lucy's Coffee and Tea needs an article here. If you want to know about Starbucks, go to Wikipedia.
  6. Individual buildings? Make a case. Downtown buildings seem important enough, but not every Hardee's on 280. Individual houses that are noteworthy due to historical status are eligible. A new Home Depot in Trussville, not so much.
  7. Bands? This could potentially be a tough arena. For now, let's say having a CD on sale in an honest-to-god retail establishment or appearing under the same name with the same line up more than 10 times over the course of a full year would be a reasonable threshold. Not every side project needs a separate article, but if you want to list side projects on a notable musicians's bio, that's cool.
  8. High Schools? We can accept more detail than Wikipedia does, but remember we're still aiming to be an encyclopledia, not an almanac, and NOT facebook for Birmingham. Tell us about notable teachers, but not popular students. State championships are great to mention. The score of the JV game, not so much. If it appears outside the sports page or the neighborhood section in the Newspaper as a story (not just a statistic) it's probably ok.
  9. Yourself? We welcome corrections and input, but want to avoid whatever tendency there may be toward puffery and away from neutral, verifiable information. See Bhamwiki:Conflicts of interest for further discussion.