Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists: Difference between revisions
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 | This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
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Stand-alone lists and "lists of links" are articles that primarily consist of a list or a group of lists, linking to articles or lists in a particular subject area, such as a timeline of events or people and places. The titles of these articles usually begin with "list of" or "timeline of". Stand-alone lists are Wikipedia articles; thus, they are equally subject to Wikipedia's content policies, such as verifiability, no original research and neutral point of view.
General formatting
There are a number of formats, both generalized and specialized, that are currently used on Wikipedia, for list articles.
- Alphabetized lists or indexes, such as List of mathematics articles (0–9) or Index of economics articles, as well as simple alphabetized lists without letter subheadings.
- Annotated lists, such as List of business theorists, or List of bicycle manufacturing companies.
- Subheading-structured lists (i.e., categorized or hierarchical lists), such as List of cat breeds, Lists of mathematics topics or Lists of philosophers.
- Chronological lists, such as Deaths in 2007 or List of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction. (Lists whose titles begin with "timeline of" are always chronological.)
- Sortable lists, which are formatted as tables, such as List of social networking websites.
Specialized list articles
- Timelines, using the timeline syntax, such as Timeline of architectural styles or Graphical timeline of the Big Bang. Most "timeline of" list articles do not use this specialized type of timeline syntax.
- Glossaries, such as Glossary of philosophy or Glossary of pinball terms, where the annotations are definitions of the list's entries.
Usually, the best format to use in designing a list depends on how it will be used by the readers. If the list will be used primarily by those familiar with a subject, then a hierarchical list would be preferred; however, if it will be frequently used by those unfamiliar with the topic, then an alphabetical list may be more practical. Also, consider whether the list will be primarily used for navigational purposes or for developing Wikipedia content (redlinks). Remember, there are a number of formats that can be used in writing a list, that are equally helpful.
Lead and selection criteria
Lists should begin with a lead section that summarizes any necessary background information, provides encyclopedic context, links to other relevant articles, and makes direct statements about the criteria by which members of the list were selected. Ideally, the selection criteria will be unambiguous, objective, and supported by reliable sources.
Future editors should not be left to guess about what or who should be included from the title of the page. Even if the selection criteria might seem obvious to you, an explicit standard is helpful to others. In cases where the membership criteria are subjective or likely to be disputed (for example, lists of unusual things or terrorist incidents), membership criteria should be based on reliable sources. Non-obvious characteristics of the list (for instance, regarding the list structure) should also be explained in the lead section.
When establishing membership criteria for a list, ask yourself:
- If this person/thing/etc., wasn't an X, would it reduce their fame or significance?
- Would I expect to see this person or thing on a list of X?
- Is this person or thing a canonical example of some facet of X?
Normally, entries on a list should meet the notability criteria for their own non-redirect articles in English Wikipedia. Red-linked entries are acceptable if the entry is verifiably a member of the listed group, and it is reasonable to expect an article could be forthcoming in the future. This standard prevents Wikipedia from becoming an indiscriminate list.
The major exception to this notability-oriented standard is lists that are created explicitly because the most or all of the listed items do not warrant independent articles: for example, List of minor characters in Dilbert or List of paracetamol brand names.
"Creation guide" lists containing a large number of redlinked (unwritten) articles are also inappropriate; instead consider listing the missing articles at Wikipedia:Requested articles or in the appropriate Wikiproject.
If a complete list is feasible in 32K and could be useful, go for a complete list. Otherwise, you will need to make sure section editing is enabled or you may want to build a selected list.
When the list includes a short introduction and a longer list, it may be advisible to include a "See also" section, that shows related lists and articles, after the introduction and before the list.
Naming conventions
The name or title of the list should simply be List of _ _ (for example list of Xs). Many lists are not intended to contain every possible member (e.g. List of people from the Isle of Wight obviously does not include all people from the island). Instead, inclusion on the list should be determined by the criteria above. Because of this, "notable" is assumed, and that word (or similar subjective words such as "famous," "noted," "prominent," etc.) should not be included in the title of a list article. Similarly, do not use a title like: Xs nor list of all Xs. If (as is often the case), the list has multiple columns and so is in table form, the name or title List of _ _ is still preferable to Table of _ _ or Comparison of _ _.
A list of lists of X could be at lists of X or list of X: e.g., lists of people, list of sovereign states.
People are either list of Finns or lists of French people, preferring List of _ people. USA folk are a special case; list of United States people redirects to lists of Americans which contains, amongst other things, lists by US state. (Special treatment is necessary because American is ambiguous.) Note, however, that lists of people organized by individual city should be at List of people from (city), rather than "List of (city) people".
Poets listed by language are at, for example List of German-language poets – see list of poets.
List of fictional dogs is a list of fictional creatures, whereas list of dogs is a list with real-life examples. Note that the lead section of both lists states what they include.
For multi-page lists (aka "long lists"), see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (long lists).
Set index articles do not need to be titled with "list of" unless there is also a disambiguation page using that title. For example, Dodge Charger is a list of cars named Dodge Charger, but does not need to be titled List of cars named Dodge Charger. However, since Signal Mountain is a disambiguation page, the related set index article is at List of peaks named Signal Mountain.
Chronological ordering
Chronological lists, including all timelines and lists of works, should be in earliest-to-latest chronological order. Special cases which specifically require frequent daily additions, such as Deaths in 2009, may use reverse chronological order for temporary convenience, although these articles should revert to non-reverse order when the article has stabilized, such as Deaths in 2003.
Appropriate topics for lists
The potential for creating lists is infinite. The number of possible lists is limited only by our collective imagination. To keep the system of lists useful, we must limit the number of lists.
Lists that are too general or too broad in scope have little value, unless they are split into categories. For example a list of brand names would be far too long to be of value. If you have an interest in listing brand names, try to limit the scope in some way (by product category, by country, by date, etc.). This is best done by sectioning the general page under categories. When entries in a category have grown enough to warrant a fresh list-article, they can be moved out to a new page, and be replaced by a See [[new list]] link. When all categories become links to lists, the page becomes a list repository or "List of lists" and the entries can be displayed as a bulleted list. For reference see Lists of people, which is made up of specific categorical lists.
Lists that are too specific are also a problem. The "list of one-eyed horse thieves from Montana" will be of little interest to anyone (except the person making the list).
Some Wikipedians feel that some topics are unsuitable by virtue of the nature of the topic. Following the policy spelled out in What Wikipedia is not, they feel that some topics are trivial, non-encyclopedic, or not related to human knowledge. If you create a list like the "list of shades of colors of apple sauce", be prepared to explain why you feel this list contributes to the state of human knowledge.
Lists of people
Selected lists of people should be selected for importance/notability in that category and should have Wikipedia articles (or the reasonable expectation of an article in the future). For example, lists of atheists doesn't include every individual with a Wikipedia article who happens to be an atheist, because not all of them are notable for their atheism. However, it might well include Sigmund Freud. See also Wikipedia:Notability (people). Lists may include people who are notable for a single event or activity and therefore do not have their own article, if they are of particular importance in the context of this event or activity.
An exception is nationality/ethnicity. List of Albanians includes persons who are famous in any category and who belong to Albania. The criteria for identifying as an Albanian does not solely depend upon the official citizenship laws of that country – a person could be related to the place by birth, residency, parentage, or by his or her personal admission, considers himself or herself to be an Albanian at heart.
Lists of people must follow Wikipedia's policy on biographical information about living people. For example, care must be taken when adding people to the list of gay, lesbian or bisexual people, and must be sourced reliably.
Lists of lists
Wikipedia has many list of lists articles. On lists of lists, nonexistent lists should not be included. That is, all the links in a "lists of lists" should be active (blue, not red).
Lists of lists should also be available as alphabetical categories. Put lists that have actual content in one of the subcategories under Category:Lists.
Lists of words
Some lists of words – as opposed to lists of articles – may be better suited to Wiktionary, in accordance with Wikipedia is not a dictionary, particularly if it is just a list of words, with little comment. However, glossaries (annotated topical lists) are an established aspect of Wikipedia, and some lists can yield an encyclopedic page, such as List of English words containing Q not followed by U.
As useful as lists are, certain lists may get out of date quickly; for these types of subjects, a category may be a more appropriate method of organization. See Wikipedia:Categorization and Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates for more information on the appropriate times to use lists versus categories.
Taxonomic links
For many genera there may be a considerable number of species. For the smaller genera a taxobox may suffice but for the more specious including genera such as Anopheles it is probably better to move these into their own page. The bulk of the page will be taken up by the list. Such lists do qualify as encyclopedic: for many of these genera there are specialized monographs to assist in the identification of these species.
Lists and the "Related changes" link
A very useful Wikipedia feature is to use the "Related changes" link when on a list page. This will show you all the changes made to the links contained in the list. If the page has a link to itself, this feature will also show you the changes made to the list itself.