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 of the debate was delete. Babajobu 07:24, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List of people associated with World War II[edit]

This is the sort of thing lists do very badly, and categories do quite well. As far as ridiculously wide scope goes, "associated" with WWII is just about everyone living in one of the involved coutries in the 1940s (how many millions is that? At least 500? Mayeb closer to a billion?). Yes, I know, this should theoretically have only those notable enough for an article, but that's still shitloads (and I see redlinks and non-linkd people listed too). If we want a list of leaders and military commanders and the like we might have something, but any such list that includes the likes of Patrick Clancy has really bitten off more than it can chew. The only argument I've heard for why lists augment categories in cases like this is that lists can show who's missing. If there are important people closely associated with WWII who don't have articles, they are far better served with other articles and more specific lists. Not something that's so general it might as well be List of people with some sort of connection to water. -R. fiend 07:44, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• Strong Delete, I completely agree. Most people alive during the war (and some born after it) would qualify indirectly. Grandmasterka 08:53, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete' per nom and above. --Terence Ong (恭喜发财) 08:54, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete per nom. --Agamemnon2 09:18, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep but purge. List should include only the most prominent people (Hitler, Churchill, the most prominent generals et al). Others could be divided to categories according to organiztion they belonged to (SOE, SS, OSS, French Resistance, etc.) - Skysmith 11:05, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Comment While the page itself may be poorly organized, which in that case would require a simple clean up, a deletion for this reason alone would require the deletion of all the "List of people associtated with" lists. Has this been mentioned at the Military history wikiproject ? MadMax 11:59, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete per nom. --Squiddy | (squirt ink?) 12:06, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Rename, it could be useful, but it needs to have clear inclusion criteria and a better name. I'm drawing a blank with regard to suggestions, though. - Mgm|^(talk) 12:20, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep and Rename as per Skysmith and MacGyver Jcuk 12:39, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete or possibly rename. As the nom said, a category seems more appropriate. JPD (talk) 13:48, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete. Not listcruft by any means, but certainly something that categories can do far better and with less maintenance issues. Zunaid 14:54, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete as open ended listcruft ::Supergolden:: 16:50, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Strong delete If necessary, create a category and categorize notable people. Having an association with the war does not make one notable per se Avi 17:11, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Maybe we should tie this together with List of pointless articles associated with the recommendation of Delete.--み使い Mitsukai 20:14, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• At the moment this list's name is all but open-ended and could/should include a very large proportion of those alive in the middle of the last century. Delete and replace with a category/categories. (If it's retained please rename to be more specific.) Sliggy 20:29, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Comment & no vote the list as currently structured is unwieldy and will forever remain so, we should have subordinate lists, of notable subdivisions, e.g., List of members of the French Resistance, List of people awarded the Iron Cross during World War II, List of people who have written books on World War II cringe...or categorize? Carlossuarez46 21:18, 7 February 2006 (UTC) Delete Good debate, we should also delete List of people associated with World War I, List of people associated with the American Civil War, and List of people associated with the French Revolution for the same reason(s). Carlossuarez46 00:17, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment: we'd run out of space before nearing completion. Propose renaming to List of notable people associated with World War II unless this duplicates an existing list. Adrian Lamo ·· 22:54, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete. No chance to maintain it in a reasonable form as some suggest. Pavel Vozenilek 01:43, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete as a list with no possible end and apparently created just for the sake of having such a list, i.e. listcruft. Stifle 18:36, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Comment. Would it be possible perhaps to reorganize the page to bring it into line with List of people associated with World War I or even List of people associated with the American Civil War ? MadMax 21:42, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• keep this seems like a good collecting point of biographical articles of WWII personalities.Mike McGregor (Can) 03:22, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep and rename to something like "List of World War II leaders." This list organizes people by country, includes birth and death dates, and summarizes their role in the war. That is exactly the sort of information lists can summarize but categories cannot. Durova 03:51, 10 February 2006 (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.