Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists
Naming conventions
A list of Xs is simply at list of Xs, as opposed to Xs, famous Xs, listing of important Xs, list of noted Xs, list of all Xs.
A list of lists of X could be at lists of X or list of X: e.g., lists of people, list of countries.
People are either list of Finns or list of French people, depending on whether there's an appropriate word like "Finn". USA folk are a special case, at list of people from the United States, due to possible ambiguity of "American".
Poets listed by language are at list of language poets.
Fictional creatures at list of fictional dogs, etc., with real-life examples at list of dogs. However, for dragons and other fictional species, you can stick to the simple list of dragons.
If the list is part of a longer article, the page will use a regular article named, e.g., Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Intro
for complete lists:
This is a complete list of Xs
for partial/selected lists:
This is a selected list of Xs. Xs listed here should be (selection criteria), and ideally have a Wikipedia article.
Selection criteria
If a complete list is feasible in 32K, and could be useful, go for a complete list. Otherwise, you need to make sure section editing is enabled or you may want to build a selected list.
Selected lists of people should be selected for importance/notability in that category and should have Wikipedia articles. For example, list of Christians doesn't include your neighbour, because she's not notable for her Christianity, she doesn't have a Wikipedia article, and she never will have. However, it might well include Jesus.
Questions to ask yourself:
- If this person/thing/etc., wasn't an X, would it reduce their fame or significance?
- Would I expect to see this person on a list of X?
- Is this person a canonical example of some facet of X?
See also
Link to higher order lists where appropriate: lists of people, list of countries, etc. list of Indian language poets should link to both list of Indians and list of poets.
Links to list pages
Often it's nice to have links to list pages on listed articles, but this is debated, e.g., Jesus might link to list of Christians, but NPV not necessarily to List of marketing topics and all other business and economics topic lists.
Categories
Software support for lists (called "categories") is allegedly coming soon, so you might want to hold off on lists and things till that gets online. Or you might want to work hard to prepare for its coming.