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 delete. The consensus is that this is basically a list of external links, and as such should be deleted -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 02:22, 3 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

List of active drive-in theaters[edit]

AfDs for this article:

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Absolutely nothing's made the article better since the last AFD, so I'll say the same rationale again:

North America-centric list, used mainly as a linkfarm to link to nearly every drive-in's website. Minimal attempts have been made to source the article or remove the huge number of links. While there are plenty of theater directories online, most of them are based on user-submitted information and therefore not reliable, so I have no idea how a list of this sort could even be sourced. Furthermore, this list seems to be a big violation of WP:NOT#DIR and I don't see how it's any different from, say, a list of store locations (which is also not allowed per WP:NOT#DIR). I'll admit that I'm interested in drive-in theaters myself, but I'm not going to let WP:ILIKEIT stand in the way of a list that can't easily be sourced.

(To elaborate, I can't find verification besides the drive-ins' own sites for the most part to verify that any of these are still open.) Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • ^{(Otters want attention)} 21:28, 26 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Weak delete. - such a list might be important in illustrating the attrition of such theaters, but no reliable secondary sources exist that can verify the list's content and keep it up-to-date. Such information is also available on other web sites. --Jtalledo (talk) 13:37, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep: I'm unconvinced. A number of the arguments above have no basis in policy or guideline; that drive-ins are largely a North American phenomenon, that other websites may contain the same information, that sourcing the article isn't easy or that the drive-ins' websites are often used for verification that they still exist are not valid grounds to delete. There are a lot of sources here, and that the article hasn't hit an undefined percentage of links sourced to newspapers isn't a valid ground either. Ravenswing 21:05, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Comment Most of the links are to the cinemas' web sites. At any rate, it would be hard to maintain reliable sources on such a topic, since these cinemas could close at any time. --Jtalledo (talk) 12:06, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - Reply: No different from any business, enterprise, organization or sports team, many of which come and go, and likewise not a valid deletion ground. Ravenswing 13:25, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - Comment Wrong. Per WP:V, this stuff needs to be verifiable. Also, just because other existing articles/lists are also poorly cited doesn't say anything about this list. See the essay section: WP:WAX. --Jtalledo (talk) 15:45, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      - Reply: Wrong; many of these items are verified. And you're making a straw man argument; I never said those other existing articles/lists are poorly cited, nor do I claim this article lacks citations. My argument was to your implication that the long-term survivability of drive-ins should be a consideration in sourcing. Ravenswing 17:29, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Film-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 16:22, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 16:22, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Delete While I normally find most NOT#DIR arguments uncompelling, I'm forced to agree with the nom on this one. Jclemens (talk) 16:33, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Delete WP:NOTLINK says Wikipedia articles are not a mere collections of external links or Internet directories. Include a link to here or here in the external links section of the Drive-in theater article and leave it at that. VictorianMutant^(Talk) 06:21, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Delete as Wikipedia is not a repository for external links or a directory of non-notable entries. Almost every entry in this article has no article on Wikipedia. Armbrust ^Talk _Contribs 10:10, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep Just because it seems to be American-centric doesn't mean its not a worthy article. -DJSasso (talk) 13:18, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Ravenswing. The argument that the theaters' own websites aren't reliable sources for their current status is clearly spurious; we allow sourcing of such information fom article subjects generally, so long as it is not overly promotional or otherwise self-serving. It would be beyond pedantic to insist on substitution of referencing to the theater tables in the relevant local newspapers, requiring cumbersome frequent updates while providing, at best, the same information. Hullaballoo Wolfowitz (talk) 16:33, 2 November 2010 (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.