Is the Notables Sticker mandatory?

Question

If a profile has a Wikipedia page and/or a National Biography entry, and thus is a Notable - is it mandatory to have the Notables Sticker on the profile? Why can't it just be an ordinary profile with a Wikipedia link down among the See Also items?

I'm sure there are many profiles on WikiTree who are in fact Notables, but are not marked as such.

Answer 1

It is correct that no sticker is mandatory. However, there are advantages to having one. Among them is the fact that it allows the individual's CC7 to show at the top of their profile page. This is something many WikiTreer's enjoy, even if it is not the profile manager's preference. Secondly, adding a sticker helps with categorization and aids the Notables and other teams to locate profiles for challenges and similar activities. So no, the sticker is not mandatory, but it is highly encouraged. (This is basically a repeat of what Jim just said above.)

On a related note, for those who are unclear, it is against WikiTree policy to create a profile for a living person unless they are an immediate relative and you have their explicit permission. This includes living notables. However, an exception can be made if you are working under the direct guidance of a project leadership team. In this case, the project must be made a profile manager and the profile must have a project box (not a sticker). 

Comments

Perhaps a new template type (or other element) should be created to serve this function, rather than to use a sticker beyond its original purpose (of no real purpose, other than adding a visual cue to a biographical section - my interpretation ).

Answer 2

I'm not sure that any sticker is or should be mandatory on a profile, it should be up to the profile manager(s) to decided.

Answer 3

No sticker is mandatory. In fact stickers require unanimity between contributors: any contributor to a profile may remove stickers from it. See

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Stickers#Rules_on_adding_and_removing

However, I hope that contributors will be willing to accept the Notables sticker on profiles which are eligible for it. The reason is that this particular sticker is unusual: it has a special technical effect. When it is present, it triggers the appearance of Notable Connection (or Unconnected Notable) details near the top of the profile, including the CC7 count. See Tudor-1 for example.

This is informative. It is helpful to know the CC7 by such a easy method, for example when looking for profiles to nominate for weekly Connection Finder EPOW themes; or if you feel like finding worthy notables with a low CC7 for whom you might like to try to create new connections.

So while the Notables sticker is not mandatory, it is useful and worthwhile.

Comments

I am disappointed the notables category doesn't do the same thing and it must be the sticker to have the notables CC7 count. Notables may warrant other stickers and the PM may not want to have a sticker. The category is less intrusive and there is a limit on how many may be on a profile.

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If a notable profile warrants other stickers, those stickers can also be added (see Rudy Martinez). They're very common on military notables.

Answer 4

Because stickers can go anywhere in the biography section, the Notables sticker could be placed down near the sources (but not below the sources heading), if you aren't happy with it showing up on the general profile. It is preferred that there be a sticker on Notables profiles, at the very least, so that the CC7 shows up. It's used a lot for various features the Team works on. Though we can search for those numbers manually, they are interesting for a number of reasons and it's easier to have them at the ready.

Comments

If a Notables Sticker is placed anywhere other than below the BIOGRAPHY  header - for example, next to an in-biography statement regards what the person did that was notable (as is the recommendation for stickers) - some other member who has not read the entire page and, thus, has not seen the sticker is already placed, is likely to come along, edit the profile, and add a duplicate {{Notables Sticker}} at the top.

(I'm not sure why anyone would object to someone's profile being visually connected to notability and not wanting the sticker at all, but I guess there are some who dislike stickers on principle and would not want one.)

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Maybe it's not a good idea to edit a profile without reading the whole thing. But yes, someone might add a second Notables sticker. Then someone else could remove it. It isn't a disaster, and what Abby suggests gives a solution for anybody who would like to reduce the visual impact of stickers on profiles they manage.

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Then you get a situation where the removed sticker is replaced (at the top) by that same person, or someone else.

Placing the {{Notables Sticker}} anywhere except directly beneath the Biography header causes issues of duplication.  [source: personal experience]

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If a profile manager is keen enough to follow Abby's suggestion because they don't like seeing the sticker at the top of the profile but don't mind it lower down, they'll be keen enough to revert impertinent changes by people not on the Trusted List. They can MIR them if they persist.

Answer 5

The challenge we run into with Notables is that at some point, anyone may express an interest in editing or improving upon a profile of someone famous or "Notable". If the profile is not currently shown as being a part of the Notables in some way, then we can encounter unresponsive profile managers, reluctant profile managers who don't want to give up control of profiles, and so on. If the project is managing the profile according to policy, the profile would be visible if it meets the criteria, private if it does not, and open in most cases if deceased. There will always be exceptions, but the project at least will try to make profiles as available as possible to genealogists for full collaboration.