Wikipedia:Incomplete lists
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Because of Wikipedia's role as an almanac as well as an encyclopedia, it contains a large number of lists. Some lists, such as the primary pigment colors or the states of the United States of America, are typically complete and unlikely to change for a long time.
Most lists, however, are either not yet fully filled out or are difficult to keep current because the list is constantly changing. These are both referred to as incomplete lists. It's important that our readers understand that these lists should not be considered complete, or even representative of the class of items being listed. As such, we recommend inserting the {{Expand list}} tag either before or after any incomplete list.
It is our hope that other Wikipedians will pick up where we leave off, and add more items to the list, bringing it closer, if not to completion, then at least to a mature state in which only minor updates are required as times change. Of course, it's not clear for all lists what should or shouldn't be on it, and so completion may never be clear for these lists, but there should at least come a point where most representative and widely agreed upon entries are present.
[edit] Lists of incomplete lists
Note: {{listdev}} and {{stublist}} now redirects to {{Expand list}}.
If you like adding items to lists, see this (naturally incomplete) list of incomplete lists:
- Category:Incomplete lists
- expand_list list of incomplete lists
- stublist list of incomplete lists
- listdev list of incomplete lists
- dynamic_list list of incomplete lists
The category may well contain articles in which one of the tags has been rephrased.
[edit] Template examples
The bolding is not present in the actual messages, but indicates a link to this page (Wikipedia automatically bolds out all links from an article to itself).
- {{listdev}}:
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
- {{dynamic_list}}:
