Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of ice cream parlors

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. In the discussion below, Colonel Warden's and Robofish's comments alone reflect the broader consensus-supported understanding of relevant policies and guidelines regarding lists of this kind. The WP:PROMOTION argument fails because an article is not promotional just because it lists companies, if those companies merit articles and there are not POV content concerns (I see none presented). WP:NOTDIRECTORY would forbid this list from including contact information, lists of individual franchise locations, or lists of non-notable companies (i.e., the kind of content you would find in a business directory or yellow pages), but it does not forbid a list of Wikipedia articles on notable companies organized by the notable type of company or service they provide. Any non-notable entries can simply be removed through normal editing. And per WP:CLN, the mere fact that a category exists does not preclude other forms of organizing the same information. postdlf (talk) 22:09, 16 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List of ice cream parlors[edit]

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Delete:~~pointless (aside from promotionalism) list.~~ blatantly WP:PROMOTION (free advertising); also question as to notability of establishments in question. Would we have a list of furriers or hardware stores? [email protected] (talk) 18:48, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. I don't see anything about this list being promotional, but this is something that is better served by a category, methinks. --Dennis The Tiger (Rawr and stuff) 04:01, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

WP:CLS explains that it is not our policy to delete lists for this reason. Colonel Warden (talk) 18:27, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy Keep "Pointless" is not a coherent argument to delete. Colonel Warden (talk) 18:27, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Reasoning reworded to comply with Colonel Warden's objection. [email protected] (talk) 18:48, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks but you are still off-target. WP:PROMOTION is about self-promotion but there is no obvious COI here. It seems that you mean WP:NOTADVERTISING but that section indicates that coverage and links to major organisations are acceptable. In this case, the list just provides internal links to articles about the various ice cream chains. Because there are no external links or other text content, the list is well within the constraints of WP:NOTADVERTISING. The organisations listed, such as Ben and Jerry, are extremely notable and are blue-linked, showing that we have separate articles about them all and so WP:NOTABILITY is satisfied. So, all I'm seeing here is a prejudice against commercial organisations. This is not a neutral POV and attempts to remove content on this ground would be contrary to our editing and other policies. Colonel Warden (talk) 20:38, 10 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - nothing inherently wrong with this as a list. The businesses listed are presumably notable, as they have articles; and yes, we have a category for this purpose, but that doesn't stop us having an article as well. As for issues of 'free advertising', well that could be said about all Wikipedia articles, couldn't it? I don't see why a category is acceptable for this but a list isn't. Robofish (talk) 00:10, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think a category would be any better or more acceptable. Also, I assure Colonel Warden that~~, regardless of the outcome of this AFD (which I suspect I know)~~ I am entirely neutral on ice cream parlors, and am not anti-business or anti-enterprise. [email protected] (talk) 00:25, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Food and drink-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 22:39, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Business-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 22:39, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 22:40, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. Wikipedia should not be used as a promotional vehicle, this is nothing more than a directory listing. PlusPlusDave (talk) 23:45, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - In addition to listed objections, an actual list of "ice cream parlors" is likely tens of thousands of entries long and wholly worthless. The argument that the article serves some purpose that a category does not is not in evidence in the article which ~~defines what an ice cream parlor is,~~ lists a random selection of ice cream parlors and ends. - SummerPhD (talk) 21:30, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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.