Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of American Idol contestants


 * 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.  

The result was delete. Can&#39;t sleep, clown will eat me 08:01, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

List of American Idol contestants

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This seems to amount to a directory of all contestants/televised performers associated with American Idol. I don't see the purpose of this. Plus, the redlinks encourage creation of non-notable biographies, or, alternatively, redirects to American Idol seasons. Tinlinkin 02:13, 20 February 2007 (UTC) *Delete per nom Veesicle (Talk)(Contribs) 03:15, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Strong Delete As it stands now the number of people who are eligible for this list is astronomical. If I am not mistaken hundreds of thousands of people try out for this show and are considered contestants.  I wouldn't mind a list of American Idol finalists as many of them are notable. --Daniel J. Leivick 02:23, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete Per WP:NOT#IINFO. Djma12 02:24, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete just a big list of mostly non-notable people. Wikipedia is not a directory.  Darth griz 98 02:25, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * keep; i have removed all the redlinked names and cleaned it up a little Veesicle (Talk) (Contribs) 19:35, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment Could this perhaps be improved by:
 * Retitling it "List of notable American Idol" contestants
 * Removing all the red-linked names
 * Adding a brief one-sentence blurb to each
 * much like University Alumni lists? I would be happy to do this and would support keeping in this instance. -- PageantUpdater  •  talk  |  contribs  |  esperanza  03:44, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * If anything, it should not be renamed to "List of notable American Idol contestants." I don't remember the exact policy, but I have seen arguments that a list of anything should imply notability; thus adding "notable" would be unnecessary. If you are willing to do it, you can add the additional sentences to as many of the names as possible and we'll see how it looks. I would not remove the red links until after that is done in order to see how non-notable those people are. Tinlinkin 04:10, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, that's not quite true. It's possible for a list as a whole to be notable, but not have every single member of the list be individually notable.  For example, a prolific actor might appear in hundreds of television shows and films, not all of which are notable enough for their own article.  But the "list of works" for that notable actor would probably be notable as a whole and worth including in some form in his article.  Likewise, not everyone on the cast of a notable film is always notable, but the cast list as a whole for a notable film would probably be worth including.  So basically the premise that every entry in a notable list must be notable isn't correct. Dugwiki 21:14, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Well I started by creating a mirror article as a subpage to my userspace which wasn't looking too bad: User:PageantUpdater/List of notable American Idol contestants (although I do get what you're saying about the title). Anyway this was all well and good but then i started clicking on some of the blue links to see what the people were notable for and I found that many of them are simply redirects!  So I'm taking a breather until I decide whether it's worth checking the rest. --  PageantUpdater  •  talk  |  contribs  |  esperanza  04:12, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Here's another consideration: Could each season of American Idol handle the names of notable contestants in their respective season? In other words, if the people are mentioned in each season, would the master list be redundant? Tinlinkin 04:20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me. There's a similar debate over at Articles for deletion/List of Contestants on The Amazing Race --  PageantUpdater  •  talk  |  contribs  |  esperanza  04:34, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The redirects are intentional; they are to avoid a potential article being made when it would not be notable. If they have a subsection in the article, they should redirect. CrazyC83 14:24, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. This is one of those cases where a category, namely Category:American Idol participants, works better than an uncontrolled list with rampant redlinks. YechielMan 05:13, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete nn listcruft. KillerChihuahua?!? 13:12, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete Directory list kruft in the extreme, and patently unencyclopaedic. - WeniWidiWiki 06:06, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. Axl 08:31, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom. utcursch | talk 09:39, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete this page as it is directory. However, many of them should have mentions and brief sections on their season page (needs to be done for the first three seasons). Such a directory belongs somewhere else like on an Idol Wiki site... CrazyC83 14:19, 20 February 2007 (UTC) Keep as this will be more useful once all the redirects are done and sections written on their season pages, or their own articles. CrazyC83 22:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete per Daniel J. Leivick for being too inclusive. If this were a list of finalists, then maybe, but a list of all contestants ever?  No way.  (jarbarf) 18:23, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep as long as it is limited to people notable enough for articles, I see no reason why the list has to be limited to finalists. Savidan 20:27, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * You mean actual articles? Or including redirects? (Anyone with a section in their season article should have a redirect to that article) CrazyC83 20:48, 20 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment I definitely wouldn't want a category like this, as this is basically a list of combined guest spots and full contestents who appeared on television competing on the show, and we don't categorize by guest spots. However, list articles go by a different, easier to meet standard compared to categories, and a list article to handle guest stars on a show is probably ok.  I also do see the potential use of having a list article index of existing Wikipedia articles about Idol contestants, since the show presumably has a fair number of readers interested in looking at articles about various singers on the show.  So overall I'd say no to a category, but I generally don't have a problem in principle with a list of contestents who had the opportunity to sing on the televised show. Dugwiki 21:06, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Strong Keep the category already exists, ergo the list should also exist. Jcuk 21:20, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep participants on a show as notable as American Idol are in themselves notable, and so would a list. Just Heditor review 22:32, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment I strongly disagree. Like I said above there are probably nearly a million Idol participants.  Nearly all of them are in no way notable.  Even the small percentage that appear on TV do not get notability by default, Jeopardy is notable, but there is no need to list every contestant.  The argument that the category exist therefore the list should doesn't make much sense to me either. --Daniel J. Leivick 22:56, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
 * No other TV show gets 30 million viewers every week though! This is the #1 rated show on television, so there is nothing to compare it to. CrazyC83 02:21, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * So just because it is 1# you wouldn't be opposed to a list that had everyone of the million Idol participants? --Daniel J. Leivick 03:31, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't have a problem with a list of all the million, but I don't think anyone other than those who make it to the final rounds are notable, this is what I assume when I think of "contestants". Those people waiting in line are trying out to be contestants. Just Heditor review 02:02, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
 * There is a disclaimer at the top of the page though... CrazyC83 03:42, 22 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Delete per nom. Edison 05:58, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Strong Delete per nom. --Arnzy (talk • contribs) 12:34, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. I am a regular contributor to the Idol articles, but frankly, this list just isn't needed. The American Idol Participants category is sufficient. And as many have mentioned, it's an impossible list to maintain. And figuring out notability is a nightmare as it is when it comes to the Idol articles. This list is just too hard to keep up with. And it's redundant to the cat. --WoohookittyWoohoo! 09:57, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete and definitely DON'T create a "List of notable American Idol contestants" because the only sure way to become notable as an American Idol contestant is to become (at least) a finalist. If anyone is notable for another reason, they could have an article, but it doesn't make sense to have a separate list to accommodate finalists and the odd random non-finalist who also found note somewhere else. --Dystopos 19:11, 25 February 2007 (UTC)


 * 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.