Jump to content

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of stock characters in science fiction

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 no consensus. It's clear that this list not only needs work but clearer criteria for inclusion. But no consensus to delete it exists at this time. Chick Bowen 02:35, 9 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

List of stock characters in science fiction

[edit]
List of stock characters in science fiction (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)
(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

Delete With respect, this is hardly a definitive list of stock characters, and very much open to debate. The entire list is based on one source, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and Wikipedia would do much better to have an article on this than just quoting entries like "computer", "lotus-eaters", "Hitler" and "God" without any explaination. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 17:46, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Keep The main purpose of the list, as currently constituted, is to assist navigation. All the entries in the list are links to other articles. This is one of several lists of stock characters and so forms part of a hierarchy. If the nominator wishes to write some other article about the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction he is free to do so and this article is no impediment. Colonel Warden (talk) 21:32, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment My main concern is that this article doesn't show what it is supposed to: there are multiple interpretations of what stock characters exist in science fiction, and this list just replicates (or plagiarise) one written text, and presents it as a definitive list. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 22:58, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • The list does not represent itself as definitive. The current format just dates from the last time-wasting AFD in which I did some cleanup by reference to a good source. Perhaps I shall add again to it but AFD is not cleanup. If you think the article can and should be improved, you should either engage in talk upon its talk page or, better yet, improve it yourself. Please see WP:BEFORE. Colonel Warden (talk) 08:28, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment If one more source could be provided that says a list or compilation of stock characters is an interesting topic, this list would be okay in my book. Otherwise it is just a sub-index entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Abductive (reasoning) 23:23, 1 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep The purpose of a list is to assist navigation. The list itself does not have to be notable--its just a device to help find articles. If the subjects of the articles are notable enough to have Wikipedia articles, then a list is justified. If it were an articles about Lists of stock characters in science fiction, instead of a list of the stock characters, the objection would be valid. DGG ( talk ) 04:54, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep and move over the first paragraph from each article and add one character, add a fictional mad scientist for example. A list still needs context, other wise a category does it better. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 07:03, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete It's rare that an article gets even worse after it was nominated (see [1]), but this pathetic excuse for an article accomplishes that feat. The first time around, the objections were that this, although an interesting read, was original research. I'm afraid that an indiscriminate list doesn't improve with 32 mentions of the "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction". Send this one out the airlock. Mandsford (talk) 18:58, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep. This is a legitimate subject for an article. The solution for poorly-written articles is improvement, not deletion. --Hemlock Martinis (talk) 20:27, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak delete Reliance on the single source is troublesome. there are some discussions of 'stock' characters in fiction and science fiction but so many of the sources and references are dispersed across different genres and discussing different things. Might come back later w/ some more discussion. Protonk (talk) 04:01, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I hope that you will not mind if some of the former text is put back in. Mandsford (talk) 16:17, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
We don't really need much narrative to explain entries like Mad scientist, do we? Especially when they are linked to separate articles. But you're free to edit as you please in the usual way. Colonel Warden (talk) 16:31, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • You still haven't offered an affirmative defense of the claim that ordinary editing will produce a list that is more than a recitation of a single source or a pastiche of unconnected references to "stock characters" in fundamentally unrelated situations. Protonk (talk) 00:23, 5 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • We do not require an exact definition because we are not here to conduct original research. What we do is summarise the work of reliable third-parties concerning stock characters in science fiction. They may well have different working definitions but this is of little moment because, if we properly cite and explain our sources, the reader will be informed rather than being deceived. Colonel Warden (talk) 09:30, 5 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • What I was saying is that the sources are as good as it is going to get; one (I wish it was two) tertiary attempts at a list, plus quite a lot of secondary sources on individual types. This list is not going to be deleted because there is secondary and tertiary sourcing available, and AfDs end up keeping lists of minor characters from individual works for which there is nothing but primary sources. Abductive (reasoning) 10:05, 5 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep Assist in navigation, which is what a Wikipedia list is suppose to do, and there is a book published listing these, which would count as a reference for those obsessed with the suggested notability guidelines, and most importantly, its just WP:common sense, a policy that outweighs everything else on Wikipedia. These are common stock characters found in science fiction. Aliens, robots, mad scientists, monsters, whatever. If you have a problem with a specific entry, discuss it on the talk page. Perhaps we could list the most popular science fiction works that use each feature, although it would probably be a rather long list. Dream Focus 15:10, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Your use of the word "obsessed" seems as if it is meant to imply that editors who, in good faith, try to build a better encyclopedia by the use of proper sourcing are doing so for fetishistic reasons understood only by themselves. Given that I, an editor who tends towards deletionism, am arguing on behalf of this article and the article is likely to be kept, this seeming dig also seems rather pointless. Abductive (reasoning) 19:10, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep per DGG FeydHuxtable (talk) 18:02, 8 September 2009 (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.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_stock_characters_in_science_fiction&oldid=1138025313"