Talk:Torquay

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People from Torquay

ArbieP: This list is way too long and has the usual problems with WP:NLIST and WP:TRIVIA. There is no point in having Category:People from Torquay and repeating it here as well. This is what categories are for, not articles. ♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 12:08, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

There are a number of notable people in Torquay. There were two pre-existing lists which I extended with minor modifications. Both these lists are different to the [Category] lists - i.e. they have the (1) rationale for notability and (2) dates. I too would prefer these two items to be combined in a single line. When I come to [Sport] I'll do that as a new subsection. I hope the original author doesn't mind.

We continue to disagree on the meaning of and rules about notability. I note the rules say:

There is no present consensus for how to assess the notability of more complex and cross-categorization lists (such as "Lists of X of Y") or what other criteria may justify the notability of stand-alone lists ArbieP (talk) 15:18, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

Rehashing the categories in an article takes up way too much space. WP:TRIVIA says "Avoid collections of miscellaneous facts or examples, since Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Whether presented in list format or embedded in regular prose, these risk becoming trivia magnets, which grow increasingly unwieldy as items are added." This is pretty much what is happening here.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 16:56, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

Confused. I have spent some time today reading what the wiki guidance says on [lists] [notability] [trivia] and some of the linked articles - the result is now nearly complete confusion for me.

Let's return to real life and try and start from there. Most towns / cities / villages are included in Wiki. I don't think we have a problem with that. They have familiar / standard menus / lists of [contents] (like history / economy / geography); again no problem. Most have a section for notable people; again no problem, I suspect. The issue arising here seems to be what the contents of the [contents] section should be; are there restrictions / guidance / limitations?

Most towns too have [Categories] listed at the bottom of the page, clicking on this, leads to a list of categories, one of which is usually [People]. Villages and the smaller town do not have [categories].

The [contents] section of [People] and the [category] section of [People] are not the same; there is usually much similarity and overlap, but they are published separately.

One of my motivations in editing wiki is (1) to use the searching tool to add missing items into the [Categories] list, then (2) match them up and (3) then import the notable people from the [Categories] list into the into the [contents] section.

Am I getting this right ? ArbieP (talk) 20:28, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia has articles, categories and lists, and the three things are separate entities. Articles are written primarily in prose and they are not lists or categories. WP:NLIST recommends that lists are discussed and sourced as a single entity, eg List of Nobel laureates which is a Featured List. Lists of miscellaneous information soon become trivia magnets and run into problems with WP:TRIVIA. Categories such as "People born in X" are fine, but there is no need to add all (or even some) of them to articles if they are not going to be discussed in detail in the article and they have their own articles.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:33, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Thankyou for your thoughts. Three points:-

(1) I continue to find the wiki guidance difficult to understand properly, there is so much "jargon", by which I mean cross-referring what one paragraph says with what another one says in another article.

(2) I'm minded to steer clear of editing notable people from big towns and cities for a while. A long list within the contents of an article seems to be contentious. Looking in advance at the Talk section of an article may be a good idea too, just to avoid the risk of walking into an argy-bargy.

(3) There may be one or two items that need to be tidied up following our discussions / edits on [Torquay] and [Paignton]. If so, do help yourself. ArbieP (talk) 15:18, 29 March 2026 (UTC)