 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: If you don't even know the name of an upcoming album, you probably don't know enough about it to write an article. |
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TenPoundHammer's Law: If the name and track order of a future album are not yet known, the album is very likely to have its page deleted from Wikipedia. Pages of this sort usually take the naming convention "[name of artist]'s [nth] studio album". There are occasional exceptions to this law, as sometimes a future album will contain enough verifiable information for a decent article even if the title is not known.[1] But if all you can do is look into a crystal ball or base your information off rumors posted to message boards, blogs or MySpace, then it's best not to create a page on the album until you've got something more to say. Wikipedia isn't going anywhere; it's not going to hurt you to wait.[2]
Other applications
By extension, TenPoundHammer's law can also refer to any future subject for which a name is not yet known and no verifiable information from reliable sources yet exists.[3] This might include "future" video games, movies, computer hardware, consoles, books, DVDs, software and other types of media and products. It can even apply to a future band whose name and final members aren't known[4] or proposed constitutions.[5] It could also apply to speculation about potential or theoretical, but undiscovered, chemicals.[6]
Footnotes
- ^ For example, In Rainbows had a fully fledged article before its name was announced, because the page already contained sufficient sourced information for an article. Similarly, Chinese Democracy had sufficient content to warrant an article years before a track listing was finalized.
- ^ Also consider the fact that arguments like "everybody knows it will be put out soon" or "this is going to be [name of artist]'s biggest album", or worst of all, "you just hate [name of artist], don't you?" don't hold water.
- ^ Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wii 2 is the first deletion discussion to cite this essay beyond the scope of albums.
- ^ Yes, that actually happened; see this comment
- ^ Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Next constitution of Zimbabwe
- ^ See the dicussions at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nitrofullerenes and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ununoctium fluoride.