Wikipedia:WikiProject Trivia Cleanup

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This project deals with trivia sections on articles, and cleaning them up. Many articles on Wikipedia have too much trivia, and need to be shortened (or just removed altogether). This project focuses on finding, tagging and cleaning articles with too much trivia. Trivia sections shouldn't always be removed altogether - they may just require shortening, or rewriting and incorporation into the article.

As a note, trivia isn't always just in trivia sections. It can also be found in notes, miscellanea; it is increasingly found in "cultural references" "pop culture" and other sections. If it's just a list of random things, it's probably trivia.

Goals[edit]

  1. Clean up trivia sections that contain inconsequential material.
  2. Integrate useful trivia from sections into the article, then remove the trivia section altogether (when appropriate).

History and current status[edit]

In June 2007, the trivia template was modified to be broken down by month of tagging, and tagged articles tracked and sorted by a bot. Through at least 2011, the number of articles tagged as containing trivia sections grew enormously, numbering in the thousands at any given time, with many months containing one- or two-hundred such articles. See this page's talk page for background on the problem, and several proposed solutions.

Members of this project, and quite likely some unaffiliated Wikipedians, have removed material that does not add to a given article's utility, integrated material into articles, and otherwise cleared trivia sections from many articles during this project's existence. In 2011, the 'fancruft' tag was decoupled from this project and, between this and steady work by members, the number of articles under this project's responsibility plunged.

There has been occasional discussion on ways to discourage trivia sections from being added to articles in the first place.

Tagging and improving articles[edit]

When you see an article or section with too much trivia, please tag it with one of these templates:

General trivia
{{Trivia}} – Suggests relocation of the relevant details in a trivia section, to another section (or article).
{{Trivia section}} – Same as above, but goes at the top of the trivia section, rather than the top of the article.
Relevance and importance
{{Off topic}} – For a section that has wandered from the topic of the article
{{Content}} – For an article or section containing information whose relevance is disputed.
{{Importance section}} – For a section with information that is simply off-topic for the article, and needs removal or relocation to another article.
{{Importance inline}} – For a particular item that is off-topic needs removal or relocation to another article.
{{Self-sourcing examples}} – For an article or section with poorly cited examples.
{{Better source example}} – For a particular instance of a poorly cited example.
{{Relevance inline}} – For a particular item that doesn't seem to belong in the context at all.
{{Non sequitur}} – For a namedropping of someone or something the relevance of which may not be clear to the reader.
Excessive detail
{{Overly detailed}} – For excessive focus on minute details not of interest to our general readership.
{{Summarize section}} – For sections that are too detailed and need to be summarized.
{{Example farm}} – For excessive use of examples.
{{Too many see alsos}} – For an indiscriminate "See also" section, most of which should be pruned or integrated into the prose.
Topical trivia
{{In popular culture}} – For excessive "popular culture" and "media references" sorts of material.
{{Fiction trivia}} (or {{In-universe}}) – For too many trivial fictional references (or too much "in-universe" detail).
{{Long plot}}, {{All plot}} – For excessively detailed plot summaries.
{{Cleanup book}}, {{Cleanup film}} – For excessive detail about particular types of works (other than plot and fictional or in-universe issues).
{{Game trivia}} – For too much gaming-related trivia.
{{MOSLOW}} – For list that does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works, e.g. not in chronological order
{{Cleanup university}}, {{Cleanup school}} – For excessive detail about an educational institution.
{{Famous}} – For an indiscriminate list of "famous" people associated in some way with a topic.
{{Localist}} – For local-interest trivia that is unverifiable or otherwise unencyclopedic.
List cleanup
{{Prose}} – Suggests converting into prose a section that consists of a list.
{{Cleanup list}} – For indiscriminate lists that need reduction.
{{List to table}} – For use where a table would be better than a list.


Please help categorization by adding the month and year to these templates {{Trivia|date=March 2024}}. Any new tags without a date are automatically tagged by bot, beginning in May 2007, but may not correctly reflect the month of tagging.

For helpful background on avoiding trivia sections in articles, visit WP:TRIVIA.

Members[edit]

Feel free to add your name to the bottom of this list.

  1. RobJ1981
  2. rehanisl
  3. Nishkid64 23:54, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Zepheus <ツィフィアス> 05:37, 11 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Mackensen (talk) 18:37, 12 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  6. l0b0t
  7. Recury
  8. Dragosian
  9. ReviewDude
  10. Ejvyas
  11. Icseaturtles
  12. The Way
  13. Whispering
  14. Pax:Vobiscum
  15. Willie the Walrein
  16. Malach
  17. Seong0980
  18. SusannaSusie
  19. CheeseChive
  20. Ckessler
  21. anetode╦╩ 00:26, 6 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  22. SkierRMH
  23. bulletproof 3:16
  24. Bwithh
  25. KLT2007
  26. Madjohnflint
  27. SUIT
  28. Sofeil
  29. Walterk29
  30. Yonatanh
  31. Mangojuicetalk
  32. Maungkaungmyat
  33. Future Fun Jumper (TIC) 11:35, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  34. Loren
  35. Anna512 (talk)
  36. DJH47 20:10, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  37. AW - I've been doing this, didn't know there was a project!
  38. Paradox CT 00:24, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  39. User:Dave1213 20:54, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  40. Dr bab 10:56, 2 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  41. Guylikeu 14:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  42. Callum J. Stewart (Callum J. Stewart 14:00, 17 April 2007 (UTC))[reply]
  43. Strangepalefighter 00:22, 22 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  44. SelfStudyBuddy 08:06, April 30 2007 (UTC)
  45. Vikrant Phadkay 11:44, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  46. Politics rule i love wikipedia 8 May 2007
  47. Nikki311 07:46, 14 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  48. Android Mouse and my bot Android Mouse Bot 3 18:28, 20 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  49. Hydrogen Iodide 06:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  50. Myselfalso I'm willing to help wherever I can. --myselfalso 22:46, 25 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  51. Jim Stewart Yay! Down with trivia sections. James A. Stewart 23:17, 25 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  52. Gavia immer (talk) 13:39, 26 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  53. Trampton 07:15, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  54. Will (We're flying the flag all over the world) 13:12, 31 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  55. Tikal-chan (Pls note: I will NOT remove the trivia tag no matter how much trivia points I have integrated into any article)
  56. A Raider Like Indiana 15:05, 2 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  57. Sjones23 20:18, 2 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  58. Pomte 00:27, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  59. Valusa 06:26, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  60. Belvyzep 15:00, 9 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  61. Squalk25 14:30, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  62. The Menace 12:35, 15 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  63. David Spalding (  ) 17:24, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  64. Amadscientist
  65. Soyseñorsnibbles
  66. Ipstenu (talkcontribs) 23:21, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  67. RegainTheTruth
  68. Sebi [talk] 06:18, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  69. GhostPirate 23:33, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  70. SteelersFan UK06 05:17, 25 July 2007 (UTC) (talk\contribs)- after HATING this concept for so long, I've realised its actually a pretty good project. count me in.[reply]
  71. Soysauce357
  72. Freak104
  73. wpktsfs 23:51, 7 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  74. TheBilly - 11:13, 11 August, 2007
  75. Famguy3
  76. SilkTork *** SilkyTalk 14:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC) I thought I was already in.[reply]
  77. DGG (talk) 19:56, 2 September 2007 (UTC) a good idea, if done appropriately. Will need some changes to meet that standard.[reply]
  78. NickPenguin 21:08, 13 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  79. Gary2863
  80. Ta bu shi da yu
  81. *Vendetta* (whois talk edits) 18:07, 22 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  82. DanielCD We need some reform in this area to keep articles from becoming link + list farms.
  83. TJ Reyes
  84. Johnred32 I'll get right to work!
  85. TheNextOneAcross I'm determined to fix all such problems!
  86. Mastrchf91
  87. Doc Rocktopus
  88. Kalindoscopy
  89. Basketball110 21:15, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  90. JackAgain 00:08, 28 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  91. Velvetron
  92. User:Triona
  93. Found Missing (talk) 02:32, 5 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  94. User:Jh553738
  95. IwilledituTalk :)Contributions 03:50, 30 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  96. CattleGirl
  97. TheGoodLocust (talk) 19:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  98. Redfive05 (talk) 14:37, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  99. K. Lásztocskatalk 01:22, 26 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  100. Walkeraj 16:47, 28 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  101. Andrewrp (talk) 22:07, 10 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  102. Themfromspace (talk) 11:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  103. Hk37
  104. Magnum Serpentine (With drew from project)
  105. MarshalN20
  106. Webmaster G
  107. Dr Motley
  108. I Feel Tired
  109. Unionhawk Talk E-mail 04:08, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  110. Cactusjump (talk) 22:48, 4 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  111. J Milburn (talk)
  112. Ohconfucius (talk)
  113. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • (Many ottersOne batOne hammer) 01:22, 26 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  114. Denisarona
  115. gz33 (talk) 07:18, 20 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  116. DFS
  117. Pereirab04
  118. P.SRINIVAS (TALK)
  119. vimalmaster
  120. Mr.Magik-Pants (talk) 15:02, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  121. GenQuest "Talk to Me" 17:58, 17 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  122. Laurenthian (talk) 03:41, 2 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  123. XXSNUGGUMSXX
  124. IPadPerson 02:20, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  125. ElfLady64 03:52, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  126. SMcCandlish ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ʌ≼  04:58, 25 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  127. ThadeusOfNazereth
  128. HenryTemplo

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