Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of groups referred to as cults (6th nomination)
The two biggest reasons being 1) |Patent nonsense and 2) #DIR|Wikipedia is not a directory.  The article is atrocious and can't be fixed as its multiple nominations have shown.  It is loaded with |SYN, |OR, and |POV.  It conflates the many different meanings of the word "cult" in the academic section and the media section is just meaningless.  The problem with this article is summed up in this quote (which happens to be the last words on the entry for the term "cult" in a religious encyclopedia): "The careless application of the cult concept by both the media and opponents of specific groups has made the social scientific use of the cult concept increasingly difficult." (http://books.google.com/books?id=6TMFoMFe-D8C&pg=PA122&dq=swatos+cult&sig=3mWMH5hTS9pkvg3Ltahy5VU0H-8#PPA123,M1 Encyclopedia of Religion and Society p. 123) There are multiple definitions of the term cult, even within a single discipline, they are used carelessly, even in academic journals, and this makes the taxonomy difficult.  Lists "are encyclopedic content as are paragraphs and articles, and they are equally subject to Wikipedia's content policies such as |Verifiability, |No original research, |Neutral point of view, and others." Wikipedia:Lists#List content provides “Stand-alone lists should always include a lead section just as other articles do. Even when the meaning of a list's title seems obvious, a lead section should be provided which briefly and clearly describes what the list is about. In other words, it should present the inclusion criteria items must meet in order to qualify to be added to the list.”  and “If the list's title does not seem obvious, e.g. List of scholastic philosophers, the lead section should clarify the meaning of the title...”  The problem is, because of the ambiguous, multiple and overlapping definitions of the term, the meaning can't be clarified.  The list merely becomes a POV magnet and ends up meaningless.  Wikipedia is not a directory.  Just because there are cults out there does not mean an encyclopedia has to list them, especially when the definition is so slippery and the list ends up just being nonsense
— User:Mamalujo, 23:38, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Stance: delete
Cited policy: WP:NON||WP:NOT||WP:SYN||WP:OR||WP:POV||WP:V||WP:NOR||WP:NPOV (Wikipedia:Patent nonsense)