 | This is an essay on the deletion policy. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Disputes about inclusion or redirection are common in music. Why not use a specific rather than a general rule? Why not maximize the number of articles? |
Redirection disputes are common in the music area on article talk pages and at Articles for Deletion. In some of the general areas, there are said to be inclusionist and deletionist editors. In music, there are inclusionist and redirectionist editors. Inclusionists take an expansive view of how many articles the encyclopedia should have. In other areas, deletionists favor deleting articles that they do not consider to be notable or encyclopedic. In the music area, a more common restrictive view is that of redirectionists, who prefer to redirect songs to albums, and sometimes to redirect albums to artists. Disputes also arise concerning performers known as members of a particular group or band, and inclusionists support separate articles, while redirectionists prefer to redirect to the articles on the group or band. The basic issue is usually one of different philosophies of the encyclopedia with regard to how fine a level of granularity is in order for articles as opposed to redirect entries. This difference in philosophies is also characteristic of inclusion and deletion debates in other areas.
Often the interaction between inclusionists and either deletionists or redirectionists can be productive. Sometimes it becomes unpleasant and disruptive.
Some editors like to rely almost entirely on the general notability guideline, which is vague, but is restrictive because of its reference to multiple sources. Other editors, typically inclusionists, prefer to rely primarily on special notability guidelines, and to write the special notability guidelines broadly to permit as much coverage as possible. There are also questions as to whether the special notability guidelines should be interpreted expansively to call for inclusion or only permissively to allow inclusion.
In the area of music, in particular, there is a lengthy and detailed musical notability guideline. However, like some other special notability guidelines, it states that artists, albums, and songs meeting the criteria are likely to be notable, rather than stating that they are notable. This ambiguity often results in contentious Articles for Deletion discussions, and then in Deletion Review discussions, over whether the special notability guideline should prevail, or the vague general notability guideline.
Here are two questions that I suggest be considered in a redirect dispute. First, why not rely primarily on a detailed and relatively clear rule, the special notability guideline, in particular the musical notability guideline, rather than the vague general notability guideline? Second, when in doubt, if there is agreement as to how much content the encyclopedia should have, why not maximize the article count? If an album or song will be mentioned anyway, why not create a heading, and add to Wikipedia's count of articles?