Wikipedia talk:Neutral point of view/Alpha

This page contains an alpha version of paragraphs or/and sections of the Neutral Point of View policy. It should be edited as if it was the policy. In other words, please discuss the policy (and this alpha version) in the Neutral point of view talk page as usual, not here.

Undue weight

NPOV says that the article should fairly represent all significant viewpoints, in proportion to the prominence of each. Now an important qualification. Articles that compare views need not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and may not include tiny-minority views at all (by example, the article on the Earth only very briefly refers to the Flat Earth theory, a view of a distinct minority). We should not attempt to represent a dispute as if a view held by a small minority deserved as much attention as a majority view, and views that are held by a tiny minority should not be represented except in articles devoted to those views. To give undue weight to a significant-minority view, or to include a tiny-minority view, might be misleading as to the shape of the dispute. Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation among experts on the subject, or among the concerned parties.

On the other hand, this should not be construed as a mean to suppress information from an article. As explained in the NPOV tutorial on "Information suppression" editors should avoid to unwittingly or deliberately present a subject in an unfair way by:

• Entirely omitting significant citable information in support of a minority view, with the argument that it is claimed to be not credible.
• Ignoring or deleting significant views, research or information from notable sources that would usually be considered credible and verifiable

Also, none of this is to say that tiny-minority views cannot receive as much attention as we can give them on pages specifically devoted to them. Wikipedia is not paper. But even on such pages, though a view may be spelled out in great detail, it should not be represented as the truth. From Jimbo Wales, January 2004:

• Consider an obscure scientific concept, 'Qubit Field Theory' -- 24 hits on Google. I'd say that not more than a few thousand people in the world have heard of it, and not more than a few dozen understand it. (I certainly don't.) It is not famous and it is arguably not important, but I think that no one would serious question that it is valid material for an encyclopedia. What is it that makes this encyclopedic? It is that it is information which is verifiable and which can be easily presented in an NPOV fashion. (Jimbo Wales, Jan 2004) [1]

Also, from Jimbo Wales, September 2003, on the mailing list:

• If a viewpoint is in the majority, then it should be easy to substantiate it with reference to commonly accepted reference texts;
• If a viewpoint is held by a significant minority, then it should be easy to name prominent adherents;
• If a viewpoint is held by an extremely small (or vastly limited) minority, it doesn't belong in Wikipedia (except perhaps in some ancillary article) regardless of whether it's true or not; and regardless of whether you can prove it or not.

Views held only by a tiny minority of people should not be represented as though they are significant minority views, and perhaps should not be represented at all.

In particular, to elaborate on the last comment above, if you are able to prove something that nobody currently believes, Wikipedia is not the place to premiere such a proof. Once a proof has been presented and discussed elsewhere, however, it may be referenced.