Wikipedia:Overlistification

Overlistification is the overcategorization guideline tweaked for application to lists. It is a tool useful for determining if a list should be deleted or merged in an article for deletion discussion.

Irrelevant intersections by race, gender, beliefs, sexuality, ethnicity, and religion

Examples: List of Hindu sportspeople, List of Catholic businesspersons, List of Libertarian celebrities, List of Jewish publishers

Lists like this should have general backing for the relationship purported in the title.

The question of what relevance, if any, the relationship has cannot be answered by original research (such as suggesting a lack of, or over-representation of, some group in some occupation/area). There must be a reasonable amount of solid, mainstream articles, books, or documentaries specifically addressing the issue of a connection between the intersectees and showing how that relationship is manifested, for it to have some notability as an intersection. The existence of the intersection outside of Wikipedia is not proof enough that it is a notable intersection.

Trivia and trivial lists

Examples: List of songs about tequila, List of films by gory death scene, List of groups of [number], Fight Club in popular culture, List of fictional characters who wear fingerless gloves

This is essentially expanding upon what Wikipedia is not: an indiscriminate collection of information. Lists such as these may prove fun and even useful, but they are ultimately of little or no academic encyclopedic value. Trivia should be saved for sites such as www.imdb.com, or, if pertinent in some way, the articles for the listees.

Agenda-oriented lists

Examples: List of songs by African, Asian, Caribbean and Latin American artists which reached number one on the Hot 100 (US)

Wikipedia is not a vehicle by which to address or promote ideologies of racism, ethnic pride, stereotypes, or revisionism. Such lists are often created by users who exist solely to create and maintain the lists, though sometimes long-standing users may create them with fair reasons without noting the appearance of the list. These lists exhibit original research without actually using any sentences. Often, the lists fail to provide a companion-article, and thus fall into the same box as non-notable intersections.

Over-extensive lists

Examples: List of Europeans, List of African-Americans

When a list is prone to having many listees that can never have an article written about them, or that simply fail notability, the list can usually be deemed as over-extensive and should be renamed, and split into more specific sublists if over-extensive and unmaintainably large. Wikipedia is not paper but it is bytes. The examples above might be more manageable and useful as List of notable French scientists, etc., and List of notable African-American actors, etc.

See also

• Wikipedia:Notability § Stand-alone lists