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![]() | This page in a nutshell: Some subjects have wide enough coverage to have a source available for anything; that doesn't mean they should be inserted into everything. |
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The Trump Horizon is a highly complex theoretical concept, using calculations confusing enough to ensure unquestionable infallible truth, which states the following:
At a critical point of coverage in available sources, the probability of finding some source relating a subject to any other subject approaches 1.
It was coined in response to attempts to insert references to Donald Trump into literally all 6,872,472 articles[a] on the English Wikipedia just because every single one of them could in fact be backed with references to reliable sources.
Etymology
editThe term Trump Horizon was named after Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, who by 2018 had unquestionably exceeded the limits of the phenomenon which bears his name, and was subsequently inserted, removed, reinserted, reremoved, rereinserted, and rereremoved from literally every article which existed at the time on the English Wikipedia, due to the fact that content about him could be supported by references to reliable sources relating to literally every single article.
There is a general agreement that the phenomenon could have just as well been named after any number of subjects of equal notoriety, but was chosen based mostly on egregious recentism and the desire to illustrate a point, of the type only permitted in cases of extreme silliness. Much of the wording is a blatant rip off of Godwin's law, recklessly done with the expectation it would never reach a level of popular usage that would noticeably run afoul of any applicable intellectual property rights, and probably with myopic disregard for the fact that Mike Godwin is himself a lawyer.
Application
editIn editing Wikipedia, application of The Trump Horizon generally means that just because the power of Google allows editors to find sources which somehow relate Donald Trump with ice skating,[1][2] puppies,[3][4][5] influenza,[6][7], or cellphone reception[8][9] does not mean that mentions of Trump (or things or people associated with him) should be added to all of these articles. Nor should it be added in every way possible for articles which are in fact related, and warrant some mention, although not necessarily mention in every sentence or even every section. On Wikipedia, verifiability does not guarantee inclusion, and any subject that has surpassed The Trump Horizon has, by definition, available verifiable content which could in theory be inserted into any given article.
By virtue of the sheer magnitude of extant sources necessary to reach the horizon, the ability to cite a few, or even several sources, and even those which treat the proposed connection in significant detail, does not establish that making that connection on a Wikipedia article is not still giving the subject entirely undue weight. When dealing with a subject that may have many tens of millions of available sources in many languages, it is important to remember that even dozens of sources are still a fraction of a percent of the whole. For subjects that have met this limit, it is often necessary for there to be near enough sources available to normally justify an entire stand alone article, in order to justify even a section in an existing article.
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ "Trump compares rebuilding U.S. infrastructure to building an ice skating rink in Central Park". The Week. February 12, 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Moran, Lee. "Donald Trump Jr. Attacks Olympian Adam Rippon On Twitter". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Roy, Jessica (December 8, 2016). "Will this puppy be Donald Trump's presidential pet?". The LA Times. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Klein, Betsy (October 21, 2017). "Trump family breaks with presidential pet tradition". CNN. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Delkic, Melina (October 25, 2017). "Why Does President Donald Trump Hate Dogs?". Newsweek. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ McNeil, Donald G. Jr. "Trump, Tell Us About Your Flu Shot". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Moore, Mark (February 6, 2018). "Trump adviser claims 'word of God' will protect us from flu". New York Post. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ "Trump tweets that poor cellphone reception delayed him from offering condolences to Mexico after earthquake". The LA Times. September 14, 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Levin, Bess (November 22, 2017). "How Gary Cohn Faked Bad Reception To Get Trump Off The Phone". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 28 February 2018.