Wikipedia:Featured list removal candidates/List of countries/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured list removal nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was removed by User:Sephiroth BCR 20:58, 29 November 2008.

List of countries
We currently have a talk page consensus to convert this list into a redirect to lists of countries (without merging the content elsewhere), because, as I said on the talk page:
 * This list and the list of sovereign states (which is not featured but probably could be soon) both present the same information in slightly different ways.
 * It is not necessary to present the information twice.
 * The list of sovereign states presents the information more clearly than does the list of countries.

I was advised that this needed to be taken here for community approval because it is a featured list.

The major issue with the list rising from the discussion, aside the fact that it is one of two which present the same information in slightly different ways (and that the other presents it in a better way), is the definition of the word "country" used by the list. This is a problem because the definition used to decide which entries belong does not always fit in with sources for the word "country" - indeed there are several places that would normally be called countries that are not included, and others that would not normally be called countries that are.

Otherwise, structurally, it isn't great (though I would say "so improve it then" if we didn't have the same information with a better structure elsewhere) and it does tend to be a target for edit wars over content (though it is stable, long-term) - partly because of this structure. Pfainuk talk 23:47, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Comment Hmm, you already have consensus for a merge, which makes this 2 week FLRC rather unnecessary. It might be possible to speedily remove it after a week, I'll ask User:Sephiroth BCR and see what he thinks. -- Scorpion 0422  23:54, 23 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I actually already went through with it, but then undid it on User:Sephiroth BCR's advice on my talk. The double redirects and things that I switched still go to their new targets, though if this somehow didn't happen, it would simply be a matter of going through my contribs reverting things. Pfainuk talk 00:02, 24 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Remove quickly The original list as a featured article involved a decision by four people (Featured list candidates/List of countries/archive1 and ) and since then its FL status has been used as one of the justifications for keeping it rather than discussing the list and the problems it has on those criteria. --PBS (talk) 13:18, 24 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Remove quickly Agreement was reached on the talk page for it to be redirected to the lists of countries page, which includes a link at the top of the page to List of Sovereign states which is by far the better list and contains all the data this current list does with out creating the same number of disputes. BritishWatcher (talk) 13:38, 24 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I support the removal of the list of countries and the reinforcement of the sovereign states list. I do agree with the arguments above. I was involved in a discussion on the list of countries page regarding the actual statute of Western Sahara. In fact, WS isn't a country but a territory disputed by Morocco and Polisario Front, a sahrawi separatist faction. I believe the list of sovereign states represents the actual statute of Western Sahara better than the actual list of countries. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Moroccansahraoui (talk • contribs) 18:35, 24 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Comment – barring a significant discussion on the merge, I'll archive this in time for GimmeBot's run on Sunday. I'm busy as hell at the moment IRL. — sephiroth bcr  ( converse ) 23:27, 24 November 2008 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.