Wikipedia:Permastub

This is an essay on Wikipedia's Stub guidelines. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

Shortcuts WP:PERMAWP:PERMA WP:PERMASTUBWP:PERMASTUB WP:BONSAIWP:BONSAI

Most trees will eventually grow from saplings into large trees. But bonsai trees, like this 400-year-old Japanese white pine, will always stay tiny.

A permastub is an article that is currently a stub and has no reasonable prospect for expansion. There can be many reasons for this. These include:

• The article is a finished article, in no need of improvement.
• There is little verifiable information to be found on the subject.
• The page barely passes notability requirements such as GNG, as a result of either lack of sources or notability in general.
• All or most aspects of the subject are already covered in other articles.
• There is not much to say about the subject.
• The article is about a subject that was briefly notable, but no longer receives any coverage.
• The subject is about or is notable for a single event, after which there will never likely be any future coverage.

It is important to note that permastubs are articles that either cannot be expanded or have little potential. A stub – even a stub on what you see as a trivial topic – is not a permastub if there is verifiable and encyclopedic information that can be added to it. The importance of a topic is not a factor in how much can be written about it – we have featured articles on things that are obscure and strange.

There are tens of thousands of informative stubs that to expand would only be adding puffery, padding, and undue weight. Paper encyclopedias are full of informative, concise stubs. Finished permastubs likewise don't need expansion.

Some permastubs may be:

• unsatisfying articles – such as unpopular products by now-defunct companies about which little is known
• small-time politicians, athletes, or entertainers from previous centuries – about whom little is known except their names, locations, and occupations

For some permastubs, the best course of action might be merging them into larger articles and transforming them into redirects. In some cases, an argument might be made for deletion.