Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/List of California street gangs

I disagree with the proposed deletion of article "List of California street gangs", or the deletion of any article about gangs. I cannot even understand why would someone suggest such action. The gangs will exist regardless of publishing the collection of their names or not. They will not disappear if "someone's head is in the sand". The list serves an important purpose, i.e. people not familiar with gang names, affiliations, insignia, enemies, etc. can learn about them on this page or on the pages connected to this one. Students and scholars research the topic, and others (like me) need to know about them in connection with their work. I am a librarian in a state prison, and even though from time to time we have in-service training about prison gangs, it is easy to forget some of them, as the list is quite long. Both our library clerks and library patrons are inmates, and it great that a reference tool exists where one can look up what a tattoo means. Since gang affiliation is forbidden in prison, one would never get an answer asking an inmate what his or her tattoo signifies. DO NOT DELETE THE ARTICLE! Renszarvas (talk) 06:41, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Note - editor has made no other contributions. Happy‑melon 12:05, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I think you do raise some valid points here, in as much as a featured-quality list would provide the useful resource you seek. But I cannot see how this list as it currently stands, or as the best it could possibly become could meet your or Wikipedia's requirements.  In particular, the point you yourself raise about the difficulty in getting answers about gang insignia and affiliations, highlights the great difficulty that would be had in properly sourcing this list.  I simply don't believe that it's possible to make this list anything more than a magnet for vandalism, vanity and original research.  If it were possible to fight through the spammers and vandals and get a good list out of it, I would advocate doing so, but I don't think there is a light at the end of the tunnel for this article.  Happy‑melon 12:05, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Please also note my response on the discussion page: the deletion of this list would have nothing to do with censorship - there is no desire to deny recognition to these gangs, as they are a notable social phenomenon which, of themselves, are worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia. It is, however, arguable that this particular list page is not the best method of collecting and grouping these articles. Happy‑melon 12:05, 15 February 2008 (UTC)