Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of exotic alien species


 * 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   no consensus. Pax:Vobiscum (talk) 11:10, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

List of exotic alien species

 * – ( View AfD View log )

No sources, no criteria for what "exotic" means in this context. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 21:06, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Keep -Erm, I thought lists didn't necessarily have to have sources? But anyway, the criteria are stated up front "This list is limited to races and groups of genetically related extraterrestrial organisms that exhibit physical features or forms far outside the normal range for a typical terran species while excluding specific individual alien characters." - which seems clear enough. Chiswick Chap (talk) 21:30, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep The list is a subdivision of a much larger set, as the template on the article indicates. It therefore makes little sense to consider this in isolation.  The term exotic is obvious in this context - it means a species unlike any familiar earth form - feline, insectoid, &c. Warden (talk) 22:24, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Fictional elements-related deletion discussions.  — Frankie (talk) 20:10, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions.  — Frankie (talk) 20:10, 9 March 2012 (UTC)


 * On a side note, I would think this article and its related articles should be renamed/reworded to add fictional into their titles, unless y'all know something I don't. :P OSbornarfcontribs. 20:19, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Strong delete - I have to take a strong stance against the claim above that lists don't need to have sources. To pick an explanation of what exotic could mean, in this case "genetically related extraterrestrial organisms that exhibit physical features or forms far outside the normal range for a typical terran species while excluding specific individual alien characters" and then pick which characters potentially fall under the category is pure original research. If someone can find any substantial independent and reliable coverage of the notion of "genetically related extraterrestrial organisms that exhibit physical features or forms far outside the normal range for a typical terran species while excluding specific individual alien characters", then my stance may change.--Yaksar (let's chat) 04:44, 10 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Try
 * Vivian Sobchack. Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. Rutgers University Press, 2nd Ed, 1997.
 * Christine Cornea. Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
 * Annette Kuhn. Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, Verso Books, 1990.
 * I think you'll find there are plenty more. Remember this is fiction, and there are plenty of authors with a lot of imagination out there (and quite a few critics who like to write books on the authors who write books on the aliens...) Chiswick Chap (talk) 13:17, 10 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Strong delete - A totally useless list. Thousands of alien species enter the science fiction literature each year, so the list cannot claim to be exhaustive. Can the list claim to be a "Top 100 Exotic Alien Species" list of any sort? Top in what sense? Most exotic? Most populous? Most dangerous? In the end, this list does nothing more than document a few science fiction fans' reading, television-watching and movie-going habits. Such lists can be fun, but they do not belong in an encyclopedia. Besides which, this list completely misses a lot of my favorites. :-) Stigmatella aurantiaca (talk) 15:08, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Being Exhaustive is no reason to remove an article, there are hundreds of articles that list things that could /never/ be listed 100% like List of extrasolar planets for example. Ncboy2010 (talk) 19:41, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * If a list is not exhaustive, it has to be selective according to some well-defined criteria. For example, the list of extrasolar planets that you cited, whose correct title is "List of multiplanetary systems", is a list of multiplanetary systems only, and presumably at some point will need to be trimmed or otherwise reorganized as the list grows into the thousands. Wikipedia is not a database for the storage of random information. There are other wikis where your contribution might be suitable. For example, check out scifi.wikia.com. Stigmatella aurantiaca (talk) 12:45, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Think of it this way. Suppose I made a List of Women in Fiction with 2000 entries sorted by occupation: doctors, lawyers, goddesses, housewives, and so forth. Would that list be suitable to upload to Wikipedia? Would it even be useful? Stigmatella aurantiaca (talk) 13:02, 13 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep Being exhaustive isn't a criteria to delete, I didn't put fictional in the title because I forgot to and figured it wouldn't matter until we actually find real alien species. Regardless, the inclusion criteria /is/ inclusive, references aren't needed for a list of notable things (Most everything in the list is blue-linked.) If it's notable enough to have it's own article, it's notable enough to be listed (blue links imply notability) I wouldn't mind removing everything but the blue links, but however. Ncboy2010 (talk) 19:41, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete anything that's not anthropomorphic would be "exotic" in the context of fiction. 70.24.251.71 (talk) 07:58, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
 * That's plainly not true - fantasy books frequently use ordinary animals such as horses. Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:33, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
 * They wouldn't be aliens then. 70.49.126.147 (talk) 06:40, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
 * A better example- Avatar's Navi are cat-people that ride six-legged horses. Clearly alien, but about as "exotic" as vanilla ice cream. Angrysockhop  ( talk to me ) 10:29, 16 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete purely subjective "This list is limited to races and groups of genetically related extraterrestrial organisms that exhibit physical features or forms far outside the normal range for a typical terran species while excluding specific individual alien characters." Virtually all little green men (Vulcans, Gorns, Tribbles, Wookies, Ewoks, Jedi, Martians, etc.) qualify.....or not, since Spock looks a look like a human and are his ears "far outside normal range"....who tells us? Shall we phone ET? Carlossuarez46 (talk) 18:48, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep As Warden mentioned above, this list is part of a larger attempt to categorize all fictional organisms, and should be assessed in the context of this greater effort. The term "exotic" should be best understood as "lacking a clear earth analog", as most other lists under the alien subcategory are defined by relation to real-world earth creatures (arthropods, mammals, ect.) All of the examples givien by Carlossuarez46 fit comfortably into the humanoid category, and would be excluded. Angrysockhop  ( talk to me ) 10:21, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep The term is quite clear within the genre. The organisms are either modelled on real ones, or otherwise. and this is the article for the otherwise. Where any one particular entitty goes would be subject to discussion. Not all lists have clear boundaries, but the distinctions are still clear enough if there are two center groups, albeit with some overlap. fuzzy sets are sufficiently sets for our purposes.  DGG ( talk ) 01:33, 17 March 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.