Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Vehicle registration plates of the United States for 2021


 * 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. The argument to userfy this is substantially weakened by the absence of any demonstration of notability or eventual encyclopedic value. Vanamonde (Talk) 04:46, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

Vehicle registration plates of the United States for 2021

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Unreferenced would-be gallery (the most recent "reference" is from 2019, for a 2021 list). Unclear why we need lists for each year, when they are mostly identical anyway and don't even indicate what changed. WP:LISTCRUFT. Other years may need to go as well, but let's start with one and see what happens. Fram (talk) 11:48, 13 January 2023 (UTC) Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz Read! Talk! 20:57, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Transportation and United States of America. Fram (talk) 11:48, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete - Fails WP:NLIST and possibly WP:NOTDIRECTORY. The sources indicate that the history of US licence plates may be notable but not that a year by year list of every state's license plates is. Further, this list does not serve any navigation purposes within Wikipedia - there is no way that each state's license plate for 2021 is notable. I'd say this matches point #1 of WP:NOTDIRECTORY: Simple listings without contextual information showing encyclopedic merit. WJ94 (talk) 12:13, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions.  Spiderone (Talk to Spider) 12:22, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete per WP:NOTDIRECTORY. The fact that these have been created for every year does not justify their existence, as the encyclopedic content is covered at the general article Vehicle registration plates of the United States or the articles specific to states if it only applies to one state. Joseph2302 (talk) 13:44, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Keep Both the 2007 and 2019 reference objections have been overcome with multiple 2021 references. Similar to stamps, coins, currency, and other governmental issues, it is important to track these changes. Some of these articles have been around since at least 2016 which means that other admins and editors have thought they the pages were worth keeping and providing useful material. Additionally, the pageview counts also indicate that they pages are useful, important to readers, and provide data others are interested in viewing.Zcarstvnz (talk) 14:35, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * The "multiple 2021 references" are all from the "Automobile License Plate Collectors Association". We don't have article for the new stamps of every year in every country, nor do we list currency per year. Fram (talk) 14:41, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * And this doesn't demonstrate why it's needed in a separate article, and not the general articles for each state. Joseph2302 (talk) 14:53, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * These articles go into more detail about what plates were used when. For the state-by-state articles they pretty much just give a timeline of basic passenger plates and gloss over any non-passenger plates, only listing maybe half the non-passenger types and their current baseplates, or, if you're lucky, the past two baseplates. One thing that these articles provide that the general articles don't is information on older non-passenger plates. If someone wanted to know about, say, truck license plates from the 1940s, they're not going to find any information about it in any of the general articles. GDog 0 (talk) 06:58, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Delete I'd perhaps keep the more notable ones that have some kind of media coverage. They update these yearly and frankly most are routine announcements. Oaktree b (talk) 16:50, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Merge: Maybe merge them by decade? So, the 2020s gets one page, 2010s another, etc. – Illegitimate Barrister (talk • contribs), 00:02, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
 * In my opinion this is a good idea for time periods where there isn't much change from year to year, as separate pages don't add too much. However, for decades where there are many states which frequently replaced plates (i.e. 1950s Illinois yearly plates, for example) this would either force there to be 10 rows for a single state, or choose a single year baseplate to represent a whole decade... which for decades of massive change in license plates (particularly 1956), would be impractical and would drop a lot of important information for the subject. So for more recent decades (maybe 1980 to present?) merging by decade could work and I'd back that up, but for older decades I think they should be left as is if these lists stay as a whole. GDog 0 (talk) 06:45, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.


 * Delete. This is completely USA-centric. Should there be lists for all countries, or just for those (Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates ... doubtless others) that have different licence plates for different sub-divisions of the country? Athel cb (talk) 11:08, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Comment. Still unsure between userfy and plain delete. For sure, this and the other sampled articles in the series are not ready for the main space. Also, while personally leaning toward permissive, do we really want this level of detail? No objection to Illegitimate Barrister's merge idea. Even then, I would like to see this developed outside the main space. gidonb (talk) 02:18, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Userfy will allow the creator to work on this project by the parameters set by Barrister. Userfy and not draftify because this is a very personal and complex project. This should NOT be in the main space before it's done because of the huge gaps (empty spaces) in the current coverage that provide a subpar user experience. Much worse than, for example, an incomplete list that absolutely can be a work in progress in the main space. More like the empty chapters that folks dump in articles with to be expanded below. Also subpar UX. gidonb (talk) 08:47, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Userfy harmless content but needs more refinement. Draftify would be acceptable as well but I don't see any reason to put it in draft space with time pressure since it has languished for years without being completed. This has the potential to be worked into something useful. —DIYeditor (talk) 23:03, 28 January 2023 (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.