A rigid consensus on inclusion criteria for this list has not been reached. It is preferred to propose new items on the talk page first.
Any proposed new entries to the article must at least fulfill the following:
The common misconception's main topic has an article of its own.
The item is reliably sourced, both with respect to the factual contents of the item and the fact that it is a common misconception.
The common misconception is mentioned in its topic article with sources.
The common misconception is current, as opposed to ancient or obsolete.
If you have an item to add that does not fulfill these criteria but you still think should be included, please suggest it on the talk page with your rationale for inclusion.
This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
List of common misconceptions is a former featured list candidate. Please view the link under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. Once the objections have been addressed you may resubmit the article for featured list status.
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Latest comment: 7 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
this is a list of lists, so why does the article title say "list of common misconceptions" instead of "lists of common misconceptions"? did we simply just forget to do this or is there some weird esoteric reason for keeping the name as is EditWarCriminal (talk) 21:12, 31 August 2026 (UTC)Reply
The list was recently split into three. Renaming it never came up in the discussions, so the answer to your question is that nobody bothered to change it after the split.
Perhaps there would be some objection for renaming (moving) the article, so I'd give it a few days to see if there is any and if not then follow the procedure at WP:MOVE. UPDATE: after reading WP:MOVE I see that there are several technical issues related to moving this page. So, it's not that simple. Doing it properly will take some care and attention. That doesn't mean it can't be done. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 23:55, 31 August 2026 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 21 days ago8 comments3 people in discussion
Most of the recently added "additonal lists" are not list articles. And the verbiage at the top of the page about each entry being a correction rather than a restatement of the misconception does not apply to many of them.
I have no issue with any of these articles being linked at this page, but we should present them differently than the current presentation. See also? Related articles? Open to suggestions. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 02:49, 1 September 2026 (UTC)Reply
Hello. Yes, good point. One possible approach would be to put all the current "additional lists" into the "see also" section, leaving only the three big ones that were originally included in this article. I would favor doing that, I think.... — Mudwater (Talk)12:45, 1 September 2026 (UTC)Reply
...put all the current "additional lists" into the "see also" section, leaving only the three big ones that were originally included in this article
Latest comment: 23 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Floating the idea of common misconceptions within Wikipedia. Something like:
Misconception:"If something passes for notable, it should have its own article."
Wikipedia:Notability says: "(notability) is not a guarantee that a topic will necessarily be handled as a separate, stand-alone page. Editors may use their discretion to merge or group two or more related topics into a single article." \\ref any merge request on the afd page. It doesn't take long to find someone who opposes a merge because the subject is notable and therefore deserves a standalone page\\
Misconception:"A long list of sources proves significant coverage"
Wikipedia:Notability#significant_coverage says: "Significant coverage is more than a trivial mention, but it does not need to be the main topic of the source material." This refers to the amount of coverage in a single source, not how many sources with coverage exist. \\ref afd nominations for small groups or businesses. Theres usually one advocate misrepresenting sigcov\\
We would need reliable sources establishing that these are common misconceptions to include them in the article(s). Note that Wikipedia itself is never a reliable source as per the definition of reliable source. Mr. Swordfish (talk) 13:16, 14 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
I think I see where you're coming from. Even if there was a reliable source about it, only someone familiar with this environment could write it, so it wouldn't be independent of the subject. TLDR; this just isn't the appropriate place for a list like this. Is that more or less what you mean? Sesamehoneytart12:05, 19 October 2026 (UTC)Reply
A bot will list this discussion on the requested moves current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil.
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Done — Mudwater (Talk) 20:55, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
