The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a
deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
In accordance with
WP:LSC, don't believe that this list is encyclopedically useful, it is an incomplete, potentially enormous and rather subjective list that adds no value to the articles it lists
Mztourist (
talk) 09:07, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
'Delete' this is not an article but is much justified list of POW's but it has no refrences
Author Sanju (
talk) 09:32, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep The nomination does not provide a reason to delete, being a list of
arguments to avoid such as
WP:NOTENCYCLOPEDIC and
WP:NOTUSEFUL. The list topic easily passes
WP:LISTN and a selection of substantial sources follows. Citations are only required for controversial cases and I've not noticed any. Addition of such citations is done by improvement per
WP:ATD, not by deletion. Note also that we have an equivalent
main article and
category, which further demonstrate the validity of the topic.
Prisoners of War in Britain 1756 to 1815
Prisoners in War
Prisoners of War in the Hundred Years War
Prisoners of War at Dartmoor
American Ex-prisoners of War
Japanese Prisoners of War
Stark Decency: German Prisoners of War in a New England Village
Response this list would require that everyone in history who has ever been captured in war should be listed, what is the point of such a list? Of course we have an article for prisoners of war, we don't try to list all of them. I really don't understand the point of your 1-10 above.
Mztourist (
talk) 09:57, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
That's a
straw man fallacy per
slippery slope. There is no such requirement and the list currently contains a modest number of notable cases.
Andrew🐉(
talk) 10:24, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
The slippery slope is that every single person ever captured could be listed. Having a "modest number of notable cases" is as pointless as listing everyone.
Mztourist (
talk) 10:34, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Such
repetition is tiresome so it's time for a daring escape and rescue...
Andrew🐉(
talk) 11:14, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep: I checked LISTN today for another article. This claims it is a list of notable Prisoners of War, and, reading down the list, names were recognised and there were a few surprises I did not know of. This is indeed a notable list, and should be retained. --
Whiteguru (
talk) 12:00, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
You do realise that thousands of people can be added to the list?
Mztourist (
talk) 12:30, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
The OP doesn't seem realise that we have lists with hundreds of thousands of entries such as
list of minor planets or
list of species or
list of sportsmen. Of course, if one page isn't ample then we just split and subdivide it into several pages. This is fine and not a problem per our policy,
WP:NOTPAPER.
Andrew🐉(
talk) 12:41, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep - any list has the potential for lots of cruft, but the fact that it's notable POW's limits who can appear on the list. However, anyone on the list without a WP article should be removed. The lack of references, as per
WP:LISTN is not an issue, since the underlying concept, POW's, is clearly notable. LISTN also states, "Because the group or set is notable, the individual items in the list do not need to be independently notable, although editors may, at their discretion, choose to limit large lists by only including entries for independently notable items or those with Wikipedia articles."
Onel5969TT me 12:46, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Speedy KeepWP:SKCRIT no policy based reason for nominating. This is clearly a list of notable
POWs which is not indiscriminate and provides information for the readers per
WP:LISTN.
Lightburst (
talk) 15:44, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep, list is contained to notable examples, it would be nice if sourcing were included but that is not a requirement. The rest is regular clean-up.
Gleeanon409 (
talk) 16:26, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep per
WP:LISTPURP as informational and navigational list, complementary to
Category:Prisoners of war per
WP:CLN. The nom seems unfamiliar with the fact that we routinely limit lists of people (and other things) only to those entries that have articles. postdlf (talk) 18:03, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep Valid navigation list, all but four of the links are blue, and those are for articles that have been deleted.
DreamFocus 18:32, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep: This is a list of notable entries, useful for navigation. —
Toughpigs (
talk) 20:34, 9 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Response this list isn't useful in any sense and certainly not for navigation. Given the comments above, this page should list every prisoner who has a wikipage from
Vercingetorix to
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I would also note the inherent bias of the existing list being largely Americans/Europeans.
Mztourist (
talk) 03:12, 10 September 2020 (UTC)reply
The articles and subcategories in
Category:Prisoners of war provide guidance as to how this could be developed further and subdivided by header, or split into sublists. Did you list this for deletion without looking at its corresponding category? postdlf (talk) 12:44, 10 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Of course I did. As there are already numerous subcategories of prisoners of war by conflict etc. it shows that this list is too broad to be useful in any way.
Mztourist (
talk) 14:45, 10 September 2020 (UTC)reply
”The articles and subcategories in
Category:Prisoners of war provide guidance as to how this could be developed further and subdivided by header, or split into sublists.” postdlf (talk) 15:47, 10 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Prisoners of war is a valid category, its not a valid list. As I have said above, a comprehensive list of prisoners of war would run to thousands of people who have pages and so would be of no value. We have lists of prisoners of war by conflict, country, nationality etc, which is acceptable and of value, but having a list of everyone who has ever been a prisoner of war is pointless.
Mztourist (
talk) 06:09, 11 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Moral support for deletion: although this list is going to be kept, there's absolutely no way it could ever become encyclopedically useful, because it is far too indiscriminate by its very nature. For
WP:LSC, on of the criteria is "If this person/thing/etc. weren't X, would it reduce their fame or significance?" In the vast majority of cases, the answer is "no". (
t ·
c) buidhe 08:26, 10 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Keep although this list should be strictly notable prisoners of war, i.e. those with Wikipedia articles. Anyone without an article should be removed. They should also all be sourced, although that is cleanup and not relevant for a deletion discussion.
Rhino131 (
talk) 20:38, 11 September 2020 (UTC)reply
Yes but that's what we have Categories for.
Mztourist (
talk) 06:15, 16 September 2020 (UTC)reply
That doesn't mean we can't have lists too in addition. See
WP:NOTDUPE. –
SD0001 (
talk) 06:18, 16 September 2020 (UTC)reply
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a
deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.