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 keep‎. I'm closing this as Keep with the caveat that even the editors arguing that this article should be Kept (or who have brought sources to this discussion) acknowledge that this article needs some work. Whether that involves Merging content from this article into another article or vice versa can be hashed out on the article talk page. Please take the momentum from this AFD discussion and work on improving this article. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:25, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Metropolis (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)

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This article has lots of references, but there is no definition of "metropolis", so it is essentially a discussion of the etymology and a prose list of some big cities. The etymology belongs on Wiktionary, not as a WP article. The list is far less useful than List of largest cities and the like, since there are no clear criteria for inclusion. There is no potential for the article to grow beyond this, because unlike mega city and megalopolis, there is no agreed definition for "metropolis"; it's just a synonym for "big city".

(Any deletion would probably involve merging or redirecting with Metropolis (disambiguation), which obviously should remain) Furius (talk) 01:17, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Politics, Economics, and Lists. WCQuidditch ☎ ✎ 05:14, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep This might be a case of WP:TNT but I don't think we will benefit much from deletion. Shankargb (talk) 09:18, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  The point is that once WP:TNT was complete there would simply be nothing left. What do you think would be the content of this page after clean up? Furius (talk) 15:25, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

• Merge with Metropolitan area. Agree with nom that there's no consistent definition and little substantive overview content, most of which is redudant to what's in the other article. Many of the country-by-country listings are pretty blah, just listing cities and populations with more prose than necessary. Reywas92^Talk 15:59, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep. The article is not in good shape at the moment but the concept of a "metropolis" is trivially notable. Astaire (talk) 04:55, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  What is it? This is like having an article on tome when we already have book. Furius (talk) 11:45, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Merge. Agree with @Reywas92 that the content is mostly redundant with metropolitan area Earlsofsandwich (talk) 21:42, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Merge and redirect to Metropolitan area, per Reywas92 and WP:NOPAGE. Sal2100 (talk) 17:17, 31 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Relisting comment: A review of sources would be helpful at this point. Before taking action on this sizeable article, I'd like to see a stronger consensus and also hope we can get more participation from some longtime editors and AFD participants.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:21, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. There is sufficient scholarly study of the concept of "metropolis", distinct from "metropolitan area" or "large city" to meet WP:GNG and support a standalone article. Sources include:

• Ritzer, George; Ryan, J. Michael (2011-01-25). "metropolis". The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 397–398. ISBN 978-1-4051-8352-9. (tertiary source showing the topic is covered by specialty encyclopedias; lists additional sources)
• Williams, Ralph Olmsted (1890). "The Word "Metropolis" as Used in England and America". Our Dictionaries and Other English Language Topics. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 47–65. (detailed etymological history)
• Farías, Ignacio; Stemmler, Susanne (2014-03-27), Brantz, Dorothee; Disko, Sasha; Wagner-Kyora, Georg (eds.), "Deconstructing "Metropolis": Critical Reflections on a European Concept", Thick Space: Approaches to Metropolitanism, transcript Verlag, pp. 49–66, doi:10.1515/transcript.9783839420430.49/html, ISBN 978-3-8394-2043-0, retrieved 2025-01-05
• Rodger, Richard (2014-03-27), Brantz, Dorothee; Disko, Sasha; Wagner-Kyora, Georg (eds.), "The Significance of the Metropolis", Thick Space: Approaches to Metropolitanism, transcript Verlag, pp. 85–104, doi:10.1515/transcript.9783839420430.85/pdf?licensetype=restricted, ISBN 978-3-8394-2043-0, retrieved 2025-01-05
• Basaldua-Sun, Sophia Marguerite (2019-10-01). "Metro(Polis): Decentering Urbanity in Conceptualizing Metropolitanism". Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 102 (4): 345–370. doi:10.5325/soundings.102.4.0345. ISSN 0038-1861.
• Cunningham, David (2005). "The concept of metropolis". University of Westminster.

Jfire (talk) 02:27, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep as is, please. This article by itself has 319 watchers. Also see Metropolis (disambiguation). And then there's the 155 watchers on Superman's home of Metropolis (comics). Too many possibilities for a merge of any two individual articles. — Maile (talk) 02:34, 5 January 2025 (UTC)Keep as is[reply]

  I don't think I've ever seen the number of watchers as a basis to keep an article. There's clearly substantial overlap between these two articles, as well as substantial fluff and non-specific content. Reywas92^Talk 01:28, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep The article probably needs a cleanup, but the metropolis is clearly a notable topic - see scholarly articles such as [1]. SportingFlyer T·C 03:33, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  Metropolitan area should probably be merged to this page instead of the other way around. Lots of duplication and cleanup needed for sure. Reywas92^Talk 01:29, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  Yes, there's definitely some editing which needs to be done. I think we'd probably need to lose the list entirely and refocus the idea based on scholarly articles. SportingFlyer T·C 07:21, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  For instance this is a really interesting article. I may have a go at completely rewriting this. SportingFlyer T·C 07:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions. SportingFlyer T·C 06:33, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep: Agree with SportingFlyer above Asteramellus (talk) 23:59, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
• I have added a new "Concept" section to the article. I think we should remove the list of cities considered metropolises and continue working on this article from the angle of an academic concept. But it is absolutely notable... SportingFlyer T·C 17:36, 11 January 2025 (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.