=Who should recieve this award=

The Biograpphical Barnstar for Brainnumbingly Obscure Web Research should be awarded to registered Wikipedai users who have gone beyond the call of duty in performing extraordinary feats of web research .

=Who can bestow this award=

Any registered Wikipedia user! Just grab the figure, edit it appropriately, and place it in the user page of the awardee.

=What benefits accrue from receiving this award=

In August 2005, after reading the biographies of three obscure mathematicians in , I was left with serious doubt whether or not these persons were in fact notable , and initiated a VfD on the grounds that this should not happen to Wipedia readers.

In the course of the ensuing discussion, one users argued that since one of the articles stated that X had received award A, a Slovenian decoration which none of us (apparently) had ever heard of before, and since this was in principle verifiable, then X must be notable. I complained that this didn t help meet my criterion (an article should describe at least one clearly notable fact, achievement or event in the life of the subject of a biography), since I still had no idea what the obscure award was all about , who awarded it, or why X recieved it. actually found the citation awarding A to X on the web. It was in Slovenian, which I don t read, so I didn t learn why X is notable (if he is notable), but I did create this barnstar and I awarded it to Jitse. Now he qualifies for a Wikipedia biography.