Wikiquote:Votes for deletion/Category:Former heads of state

Category:Former heads of state
This category serves no useful function, and just creates a maintenance headache because the category would need to be changed every time someone leaves office or dies. Do we also need categories like Former physicists or Former Americans to denote that someone has died? — Abramsky (talk) 20:30, 20 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Vote closes: 21:00, 27 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Keep At any one time there will only be a finite number of heads of state (about 180 depending on the definition of state). Elected heads of state leaving office is not a daily, weekly or even monthly occurrence. Most of the life presidents and the 29 monarchs would leave office even less often. I'm not asking anyone to keep this updated because I'm quite happy to change the category with HotCat when necessary. As for former physicists et al, obviously there would be much larger numbers involved so I wouldn't agree with such categories.  Green Giant  ( talk )  21:15, 20 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I have three comments: There is no guarantee that you will remain active on this site for as long as it endures, which we hope will be several decades; it is more important to split large categories than small ones; by your logic, there should be categories such as Former British prime ministers.--Abramsky (talk) 05:30, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Well... I've been fairly active on Wikimedia for ten years (if you don't count the occasional self-imposed wikibreaks). I hope Wikimedia remains online for a very long time too. I also agree that categories should be broken up into smaller ones. I disagree about country-specific categories like former British PM's but I was thinking of smaller categories by time period, such as 20th century, 19th century etc where appropriate.  Green Giant  ( talk )  10:30, 21 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Delete – Socrates: "Former philosopher"? William Shakespeare: "Former playwright"? Albert Einstein: "Former scientist"? I think not. Insofar as Wikiquote aspires to collect timeless quotes, "a legacy of knowledge passed onward, from one generation to the next", the current status of the author's work is hardly germane to categorizing them here. ~ Ningauble (talk) 11:42, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete - I agree with some of the points above. However, I don't think this applies to this category in the same way e.g. Barack Obama is the current US head of state, but it would be incorrect to say that former presidents Carter, Clinton and the two Bushes are also heads of state, even if they are addressed as Mr President as a courtesy. Grouping them together like this is oversimplifying the case, yet it is not worth arguing over because the main purpose is quotes.  Green Giant  ( talk )  12:41, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I've removed all the pages from that category to make it easier for the deleting admin.  Green Giant  ( talk )  19:53, 26 August 2015 (UTC)