Do we have a policy on "best of" lists?
A page "List of best physicists" was quickly deleted. It consisted of
several such lists, some of them with a reference, others without it.
Similarly, our anonymous "year in music" user added several "<year>
in
KROQ" pages (KROQ being a radio station); those were also deleted. In case
2 I agree without reservation, in case 1 I think it might have been
rewritten to be useful (perhaps under the title "Lists of best .." rather
than "List of best ..").
In both cases, we have authorities who are being cited as selecting
information from a larger sample. There could also be "Lists of best
science fiction stories", "Lists of best novels" etc. Some of these lists
would be written by authorities, others based on collaborative filtering
such as the IMDB top movie lists. In the latter case, when the list is
dynamically changing, an external link might be most appropriate.
But if we allow such lists, do we open the door to all kinds of spam-type,
largely useless lists like the "year in KROQ" pages? Will people enter
never ending NPOV disputes over whether their particular list should be
included? I'm uncertain here and would appreciate some feedback. In any
case, we need a clear policy if it doesn't already exist.
Regards,
Erik