[WikiEN-l] "Best of" lists

[Fred Bauder]

on 1/24/03 5:07 PM, Erik Moeller at erik_moeller at gmx.de wrote:

> 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",

There are. Several of them in fact, even a website that incorporates most of
them into a grading system. (although I can't find it right now by
googling).  Despite being ultimately based on opinion, the information is of
enclyclopedic quality and is useful, for example, in selecting books for a
library collection. No reason we couldn't have an article on the subject.

Fred


>"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
> 
> 
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