User:BudjarnLambeth/Notability guidelines

Todo: discuss This is not actually Xen Wiki policy currently, it is only a hypothetical proposal by one user.

This user page is editable by any wiki editor. As a general rule, most users expect their user space to be edited only by themselves, except for minor edits (e.g. maintenance), undoing obviously harmful edits such as vandalism or disruptive editing, and user talk pages. However, by including this message box, the author of this user page has indicated that this page is open to contributions from other users (e.g. content-related edits). Author comments: Edit this page's contents to keep it in line with the community consensus on its talk page and on the #wiki Discord channel.

From May 2025 onwards, the Xenharmonic Wiki is introducing new notability guidelines.

These are less strict than Wikipedia's guidelines. The main goal of these guidelines is to stem the tide of dozens of very short new pages about topics of limited musical usefulness.

As a general rule: if you are at all unsure which of these categories your new page belongs to, make it a user page.

Older pages may not meet these guidelines, so feel free to edit or move older pages to bring them into compliance.

What are user and main space pages?

User pages are pages titled "User:YourUsername/Topic". For example "User:JohnDoe/Major scale".

Main space pages are pages without any prefix. For example "Major scale".

Banned content

Objectively false claims

Objectively false claims (e.g. "the octave is 1500 cents") do not belong anywhere on the wiki and should be deleted.

This includes false claims about existing musical traditions (e.g. "the Indonesian slendro scale is 5edo.")

What IS allowed though, are comparisons, as long as they are accurate. (So you CAN say "the Indonesian slendro scale is similar to 5edo.")

Offensive content

The following content does not belong anywhere on the wiki and should be deleted:

• Content which promotes or risks promoting hatred or discrimination against any group of people
• Content which is mean-spirited or in bad faith
• Content which is in any way obscene, lewd or scatological
• Anything which borders on, or hints at, any of the above

What to do if you see banned content

If you see banned content in a page, delete that content off of the page. If the entire page falls under the umbrella of banned content, put Template:Delete at the top of the page.

Always USER page content

Essays/opinion pieces

These should always be user pages.

Likely USER page content

The basic principle here is to have good rationale. Think about why you are creating this page; in other words, why the concept you are writing a page for needs to have its own article. Did you come across this while playing with a scale or exploring compositional possibilities, or otherwise while investigating structures theoretically? If so, then there is some reason or context that the idea exists in; we therefore urge you to describe that reason when you are writing the page. Additionally, question whether it is really necessary to create a page or if what you have the interest in talking about would belong as a mention somewhere else. The below criteria are soft guidelines in general, but delineate what the good reasons are for a page to be made.

Pages with significantly more automated template content than human-written content

These should always be user pages - the exception is if they are about a MOS with 30 or fewer total steps, then they can go in main space.

If the page is about a very important topic (see below for elaboration) that is a priority for the wiki to cover, then include Template:Stub at the BOTTOM of the page. This will tell future authors to write more content for your page, and once it is fleshed out, it can be moved to main space. The aforementioned MOS exception does not preclude requiring this template wherever the manual content is sparse.

NEW pages about intervals, commas, or equal tunings

If one is unsure about meeting the below criteria, these should be user pages.

If the page is about a comma such that at least one of the following is true: tempering it out has very low badness and sensible structural interpretation in a non-absurd subgroup, it is incidental to multiple temperaments elsewhere documented on the wiki, or it has essentially tempered chords in a reasonable odd-limit, then it can be a main space page - provided that its particular xenharmonic value is explained and as long as it has at least a full paragraph of human-written content, rather than consisting mostly of just templates.

If the page is about an interval that is fairly simple (as a heuristic: if it has a numerator and denominator each 2 digits or less or Wilson height below 40), then it can be a main space page, as long as it has at least a full paragraph of human-written content, rather than consisting mostly of just templates.

If the page is about an equal tuning (ET), proceed with caution. You need to be able to write at least a paragraph of manual, human-written content, which must not consist of simple, superficial observations that can be easily obtained by someone just looking at tables already provided on the ET page (for instance "this EDO performs well in the 2.9.15.11.17.23 subgroup" is easily readable from the table of harmonics generally provided right below such a statement, and is therefore considered trivial to derive), and must in some way point uniquely to that specific ET ("this EDO tempers out [comma]" or "this EDO supports [temperament]" on their own do not specify why that particular ET is important as a tuning thereof). If you can do all of that, it can be a main space page, otherwise, it should be a user page. But note also the following:

• All pages for EDOs and EDTs below a few hundred have already been created, implying the remainder of ET pages either have hundreds or thousands of steps (putting a greater burden on notability that way), or have obscure equaves (which need further justification for considering in the first place).
• We require that any new pages on EDOs, EDTs, etc. to be linked to from the main page "EDO", "EDT", etc. itself; these links have to be inserted manually for EDOs over 1000 and EDTs over 300. Consider the fact that the EDO page is semi-protected into the calculation.

New music theory concepts you came up with yourself

These should usually be user pages.

If at least 2 people use the concept OR if actual music has been made with the concept and is linked on the page, then it can go in main space.

Either way, you should always include Template:Idiosyncratic terms at the top of the page.

Arbitrarily chosen music theory concepts

These are somewhat arbitrary or random-seeming topics.

For example, "10/9" and "30edt" are NOT arbitrary, but "420/69" and "101ed34" ARE arbitrary.

These should be user pages, unless they have been used to make music by multiple people, in which case they can be main space pages.

They should always include Template:Novelty at the top of the page.

Topics with limited musical usefulness

These are topics like "1edo" which are nonrandom, but which are difficult to actually make music with.

In most cases these should be a user page.

If the topic is a foundational building block to understanding other, more musically useful topics (which 1edo is for example), then it can go in main space, as long as it has a decent amount of human-authored content and is not just templates.

Either way, it should always include Template:Niche at the top of the page.

Topics which are more math than music

These are topics which interest mathematicians more than they interest musicians.

If such a topic is far removed from music theory, it should be a user page.

If it is still reasonably relevant to music, it can be a main space page.

Either way, it should always include Template:Mathematical interest at the top of the page.

Worldbuilding pages

These should be user pages, unless they are a collaboration between several creators, in which case they can be main space pages.

They should always include Template:Worldbuilding at the top of the page.

MAIN space content requiring extra caution

Using words or names you invented yourself

If you ever use a word or name that you invented yourself, mark it with Template:Idiosyncratic.

If you use several such terms in one section of a page, then instead of using Template:Idiosyncratic several times, instead place Template:Idiosyncratic terms at the start of the section.

New pages about regular temperaments

These are great! We do need more pages dedicated to individual temperaments. But make sure to include all or almost all of the following:

• Interval chain (for rank-2 temperaments) / Lattice (for rank-3 temperaments and higher)
• Tables/spectra of tunings
• At least one paragraph explaining its structure
• At least one paragraph explaining its properties
• An infobox

Thank you :)

General MAIN space content

In general the wiki is suffering from a lack of citations, so if you cite your sources, that is especially appreciated and goes a long way.

Pages that typically belong in main space include but are not limited to:

Entries on list and gallery pages

Gallery of just intervals

Only include intervals which are a critical component of the structure of at least one highly musically useful scale.

Temperament family, clan or collection pages

If you are documenting an extension to a base temperament, especially in the 13-limit and higher where multiple primes may dictate conflicting tuning tendencies, do so only if the extension:

• is the best available extension to the given subgroup/limit in a specific tuning subrange of the base temperament, or
• is particularly simple compared to other extensions to the same subgroup, or
• splits the base temperament's generators in a nontrivial way and is better than other extensions to do the same by either of the above criteria.

If the extension is to a subgroup that does not fill out a prime limit in order, it should be explained why it is natural or reasonable to consider this (most commonly, that the temperament reaches the elements of this subgroup with either low complexity or minimal damage to accuracy compared to other primes).

Otherwise, only include temperaments which have low badness in a non-absurd, non-arbitrary subgroup, or are restrictions of such to lower prime limits. It is of course also a requirement to include all the standard temperament data - subgroup, commas, mapping, and at least one optimal tuning - and a strong recommendation that at least one sentence of rationale, for why this temperament was documented or why this particular extension may be chosen, be provided as well.

Tables of commas

Only include commas which are tempered out by at least one low-badness temperament in a non-absurd, non-arbitrary subgroup, AND which are important for defining that temperament (not incidental). List of superparticular intervals is an exception in that that page explicitly intends to include all superparticulars within a given limit.

Entries that don't meet the above criteria

List them on your own user page instead.