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 redirect to Spánverjavígin. Randykitty (talk) 15:27, 19 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

List of massacres in Iceland (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)

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A list of one item is not a list The Banner talk 00:09, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. -- Orduin ^Discuss 00:35, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: this is one of three related articles that the OP has nominated. The others are:

• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of massacres in Guinea
• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of massacres in Jamaica

-Arb. (talk) 13:17, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete Given the lack of actual massacres in Iceland, it's small wonder that reliable sources don't actually discuss this as a topic. Nwlaw63 (talk) 12:58, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Iceland-related deletion discussions. NORTH AMERICA¹⁰⁰⁰ 19:25, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete Should be a redirect to massacre itself on the page for iceland rather than a "list" Jcmcc450 (talk) 19:28, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete - A list of one item is not a list, it is a fork of the article being "listed." Carrite (talk) 14:53, 16 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
• Redirect to the one article listed, to preserve the completeness of the navigational template of massacres by country and the likely search term, until such time as it can be expanded with additional verifiable entries. postdlf (talk) 17:22, 16 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. If this was an isolated list I might be inclined to agree with the OP and advocate redirect. However, it seems to me that lists that are part of a series are a special case. Think of it from a reader's point of view. Suppose a reader is working through the {{Massacres}} navbox (go view it if you haven't) looking at various entries; after clicking two or three their expectation is that each will take them to a List of ... article. So what are the possibilities with a list of one:
  • Delete; they see a red link in the Navbox.
  • Redirect; they are taken to an article. And have to pause from the task in hand to wonder why. If they are experienced in Wikipedia they may eventually figure it out but they may not. In User Interface Design jargon we've "confounded their expectations"; something to be avoided where possible.^[1]
  • Keep; they are taken to a list of one item. They can immediately see that Wikipedia only has one Massacre article for that country and continue with whatever it is they are doing without a diversion into meta-think or puzzlement.

-Arb. (talk) 13:27, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Redirect to Spánverjavígin, the only entry, or History of Iceland if it would be appropriate to mention the former there. Certainly a list of one, as with a list of zero, is not an appropriate topic for a list. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 13:40, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The following was copied to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of massacres in Jamaica as that AfD ends first.-Arb. (talk) 14:28, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• An idea @Arb: (and others), I've just created Draft:List of massacres by country and added the tables from the three nominated articles. This is a distinct topic from list of events named massacres as all that is required is sources call these massacres rather than being named as such. Now any list of one can be added here (along with the rest) as an appropriate redirect target. I don't have time to work on it right now, but will later if others like this idea. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 13:48, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Comment @Rhododendrites:. The trouble with that approach is that there are approximately ninety (90) List of massacres in <country> articles so done properly your suggestion would produce an article with that many headings, all but three of which had under them only a link to a {{Main}}; that brings its own problems of maintainability, etc.

And all because a few editors are uncomfortable with the idea of a list with only one item. And yet such things turn up all the time in the real world, particularly when they are part of a series of lists; think text books, computer programs, etc. Interestingly, List states "A list is any enumeration of a set of items." I'm pretty sure that "any enumeration" can include one. -Arb. (talk) 14:20, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

End of copied text -Arb. (talk) 14:28, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

References

• Comment Saying a list can be a list of zero is starting to verge on the ridiculous. By that logic, I could create any list I wanted, saying I was simply waiting for examples to come along, regardless of the lack of reliable sources about the topic (which is the real issue with this list). Nwlaw63 (talk) 13:43, 18 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Clearly. And that wasn't my intention; edited comment above to clarify as it's in danger of creating a red herring. Talking of red herrings, if there's a problem with sources that'd be in the linked article; List of articles with blue links only do not themselves need sources, for obvious reasons. -Arb. (talk) 22:54, 18 March 2015 (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.