Talk:Lists of Americans

Perhaps use category system in place of this article?

It seems to me this article provides no "value-add" to the Wikipedia beyond what the category system can provide. Can anyone make a case for keeping this article? —  Stevie is the man!  ^{Talk | Work} 00:59, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree entirely. This page is worthless. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.76.136.113 (talk) 01:10, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

not at all worthless. Categories and lists are parallel, complementary methods of organization and navigation. neither one is more important than the other. if a subject deserves a category, we can create a list. typically, the list will be organized in such a way as to present the articles differently than categories. categories are often nested, so that you cant see the subcategories easily. here, we can have sub sections and sub sub sections. also, the entries on lists (not on this list of list, though) can have modifiers, like dob/dod, region, specific notability, awards, etc, that categories dont have.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 07:11, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Concerning lists of ethnicities recently removed

The following lists of peoples, List of Finnish Americans, List of Swedish Americans, List of Norwegian Americans, List of Belgian Americans and List of Swiss Americans, have been deleted, as per the following closing arguments, argument 1: editors failed to address why we should have a list and argument 2: editors in a number of cases lacked justification for retaining the list. However, List of Chilean Americans has, as far as I can determine, not been objected to with the use of these arguments and has not been nominated as "trivial categorization". I am therefore reinstating a link to a list of Chilean Americans (created in List of Chile-related topics#Chilean-Americans). This link can be changed later, if someone creates a separate list on the topic (and assuming that such a list is not randomly sent for deletion as well). Pia 04:04, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

I dont know what deletion discussions you may be referring to, but the lists you mention are all extant, and still on this list of lists. oddly, the one you argue for reinstatement is now deleted. There can be no argument for deleting any list of foo-americans, as long as foo exists, there are at least 3 foo americans, and other nations besides foo still have such lists.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 07:02, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

WP:NOTDIRECTORY

Isn't this page exactly a directory, one of the things that Wikipedia is explicitly not? It's hard for me to imagine a page that is more of a directory. This isn't a list of people who are notable for being American (although in this case its hard to imagine who would be on that list); it is simply a directory of people who are notable for any number of myriad reasons and happen to be American. Is there some reason that this entire class of list shouldn't be deleted on that basis? Locke9k (talk) 18:15, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Lists of people based on nationality are the exception to the rule. --Explodicle (T/C) 19:52, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Haha, yes, just found it as a result of your well-found link on the other AFD we are interacting in. Its a clever loophole, and in all honestly probably a good one to have. Thanks for the heads up.Locke9k (talk) 21:31, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, lists of establish lists are well understood to not fall under "directory". directories are exhaustive lists of items that dont have WP articles (or lists). since this page is all WP lists, we can collect them here as we wish. People who are notable are almost always also known by their ethnicity, nationality, etc. its not that they are famous for BEING american, its that just about everyone on earth who knows of famous people will typically know them for what they are famous for, where they came from, their gender, and their ethnicity or cultural heritage. in an ideal world, no one would care about these facts, only the content of their character. but this project is documenting the world, not the world we may want it to be.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 07:07, 21 January 2012 (UTC)