Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Zoey 101 characters


 * 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   keep. Merge can, of course, be discussed at Talk:Zoey 101, but there isn't a consensus to do so from here. Note that the list is large enough (60 k) that Article size recommends keeping it separate. Wily D 07:59, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

List of Zoey 101 characters

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This list seems to be unreferenced and I cannot find any references that are reliable enough to use when I was doing my normal random article editing. Should such an article exist on Wikipedia? I think it may constitute original research or be better suited to a fan-based wiki. For example: Zoey 101 Wiki Junjunone (talk) 16:26, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Television-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 20:36, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Fictional elements-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 20:39, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 20:41, 15 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep Lists of characters for notable television shows have long been approved by the Wikipedia community in lieu of multiple articles on not-individually-notable characters. Anything here can be sourced to primary sources or trimmed, such that the article can be improved through the regular editing process. Jclemens (talk) 20:58, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep per Jclemens. Too many people don't understand that primary sources are sources. Trimming it down and otherwise improving it is a matter for normal editing; there is no AFD concern here. postdlf (talk) 15:26, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Merge to Zoey 101. Though stand-alone lists of characters are permitted, nowhere are they described as automatically notable. The only actual community practices regarding list notability are described at WP:LISTN which states that "Notability of lists (whether titled as "List of Xs" or "Xs") is based on the group. A list topic is considered notable if it has been discussed as a group or set by independent reliable sources", and obviously that is not the case for Zoey 101 characters. Moreover, WP:AVOIDSPLIT states that "Editors are cautioned not to immediately split articles if the new article would not meet the general notability criterion" (which is the case) and "If a concept can be cleanly trimmed or removed, or can be merged elsewhere on the wiki, these steps should be undertaken first before some new article is created". Per WP:WAF ("just because the spinout article is given more space to grow does not mean that excessive plot summaries or fictional character biographies are appropriate"), the list of Zoey 101 characters, with its excessive average of 5kb of plot dump per character, can obviously be trimmed down to an acceptable size so that it can perfectly be merged back into the main article, since the topic in itself is not notable anyway.Folken de Fanel (talk) 12:27, 17 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Merge to main article. Folken de Fanel is correct: not every TV series gets a list of characters. Articles aren't automatically notable, and aren't entitled to exist as a matter of right. For lesser known series with characters that don't really attract much commentary, the policy is to cover them at the main article. Again, we refer to the WP:GNG and WP:LISTN, which reminds us that lists of this nature still need significant coverage in third party sources. Shooterwalker (talk) 23:14, 17 September 2012 (UTC)
 * WP:LISTN, by its own terms, does not apply to all lists. It is one way of analyzing lists, but not the only way. At any rate, merging is fine in my opinion as a normal editing decision. It does look to my eyes like this could be substantially trimmed, and then if size concerns allow, merged back into the main article. But as I said above (and as WP:ATD makes clear), that's not an AFD issue. postdlf (talk) 23:40, 17 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep It's normal to have this for any significant show; the alternative is to have individual articles, which should be reserved for the most important. Trying to merge this all to the main article produces either an unreadable article, or the gradual loss of significant content.  DGG ( talk ) 19:40, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
 * It is not normal to have "excessive plot summaries or fictional character biographies", which is what this list is. And it is perfectly acceptable to trim it to a more reasonable size so that it can merged back into the main article. As it stand, the list is not notable per WP:LISTN.Folken de Fanel (talk) 15:56, 24 September 2012 (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.