Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2007 July 26

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

26 July 2007

  • Image:Saddam rumsfeld.jpg – In the midst of this debate, new information on Iraqi government copyright law suggested that this image had likely fallen in the public domain. This information is causing the deletion debate of Commons to veer toward a keep outcome. As a result of the Commons uploading, the practical effect of this discussion is moot -- WP may use the Commons image. While the new information is not conclusive, I believe its revelation mid-debate, and the support thereafter, is sufficient grounds to create a consensus to overturn. I won't bother undeleting, given Commons upload. – Xoloz 14:28, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
IfD
)

That picture claimed to be necessary for showing an historical event that can not be reprodued in anyway and the debate was completely in favor of keeping it.

Pejman47 21:11, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
]

The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
Battle Against Bald (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (restore|cache|AfD)

Battle Against Bald is a valuable resource for people seeking hair restoration. It shows informative videos and offers tons of information about hair loss. It's a blog, not a company trying to make money. Respond2 18:10, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
  • University of Washington Police Department – Deletion endorsed, without prejudice against the normal editorial processes, including expansion, where warranted by new sources. – Xoloz 14:36, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
University of Washington Police Department (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (restore|cache|AfD
)

This deletion (well, the deletion vote turned into a redirect) was carried out a long time ago. It clearly passes the notability test, and there are now many other University Police departments with pages on wikipedia (see Category:United States school police departments). Besides, the people on the Norwegian wikipedia don't think it unimportant enough, (no:Universitetet_i_Washingtons_Politi). This article clearly should have not been turned into a redirect. I propose restoring it. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 13:54, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right. Just find some notable material--if it has been involved in matters where its role in the investigation was discussed in some significant way in RSs I think it would meet the requirement. 17:29, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
  • reliable sources supporting the notion that these are "real" religions, with genuine believers, they may begin a separate individual DRV to do so. The result here is that "Discordian Wikipedians" and "SubGenius Wikipedians" are undeleted; while for the rest, deletion is endorsed. – Xoloz 15:00, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
Category:Psuedoreligionist Wikipedians (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (restore|cache|AfD)

Recently, Category:Psuedoreligionist Wikipedians and its subcategories were listed for deletion. The debate was balanced but inconclusive, disregarding some last-minute "me too" and "I don't like it" arguments. Especially in light of the recent decision to keep the entire Category:Wikipedians by religion user category, I think that After Midnight's decision to delete these user categories was misguided. I therefore request that the deleted categories be restored.   — Bigwyrm watch mewake me 09:42, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here follows some relevant information. If you've already decided how to vote, best to just skip it.

Stakes Category:Psuedoreligionist Wikipedians and its subcategories Category:Cthulhu Cultist Wikipedians, Category:Discordian Wikipedians, Category:Flying Spaghetti Monsterist Wikipedians, Category:Invisible Pink Unicorn Wikipedians, and Category:SubGenius Wikipedians

Players

  • Horologium nominated the categories for deletion in part "because no collaboration is possible". Horologium also voted to delete Wikipedians by religion, and all subcategories, specificaly because they were used for collaboration.
  • After Midnight closed the discussion as delete. After Midnight also voted to delete Wikipedians by religion because categories are "divisive".
  • Black Falcon voted delete here. Black Falcon previously nominated Wikipedians by religion for deletion, and ranted extensively in that discussion. Black Falcon deletes a lot of things.
  • Octane has a gorgeous user page, but I digress. Octane voted to delete these categories, arguing on the premise that each subject only has one article. This premise is false. Some of those user categories have many associated articles; some have entire associated subject categories.
  • I voted keep. I think my argument was reasonable, but then, I'm obviously biased in favor of my own arguments.
  • WaltCip voted keep, on the grounds of avoiding discrimination.
  • I think that WaltCip's argument is a good argument. (this is actually an incorrectly placed canvassed vote by Lighthead at 20:32, 26 July 2007 UTC - 1st ever deletion discussion)
  • As previously mentioned, there were a couple other "me too" and "do not want" voters.

Events

  • Wikipedia:User categories for discussion/Archive/June 2007#Category:Wikipedians by religion
    , the precedent discussion; closed as delete, but overturned as keep in review
  • Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2007 June 25 (second entry on the page), the deletion review for Wikipedians by religion; conclusion was keep
  • Wikipedia:User categories for discussion/Archive/July 2007#Category:Psuedoreligionist Wikipedians
    , the discussion in review here

Discuss

  • Note: The nominator, User:Bigwyrm, has canvassed for votes among former members of this category. --ST47Talk·Desk 11:45, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Note to closing admin - among the first group of editors to express an opinion on this matter you will note that I have marked that several of them were canvassed to do so. Please note that the fact that these marks do not continue down the page is not an indication that there are not additional canvased votes here, but rather that I got tired of looking them all up. I am certain that more canvassed votes are here, but I felt that there were better things that I could do rather than tag each one. --After Midnight 0001 04:42, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn, as nom.   — Bigwyrm watch mewake me 09:42, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Endorse. Process was followed. Consensus was clear. I see no reason to disregard the comments that you characterize as "me too". When someone sees what they believe to be a well written nomination and they say "per nom", it is perfectly valid. --After Midnight 0001 10:49, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Endorse consensus to delete. --Kbdank71 10:51, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • (canvassed vote - 1st Wikipedia space contrib in 8 months) Overturn or add Category:Discordian Wikipedians and others to Category:Wikipedians by religion. I don't see why I and other Erisians should be excluded from categorization. --Storkk 11:08, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn until and unless Category:Wikipedians by religion is deleted. I consider all religion a joke, to be quite frank, but Discordianism and Pastafarianism has every bit as much right to expression as Christianity or Islam. Either get rid of 'em all (which is the solution I'd prefer) or allow 'em all, but in this case, there really is no in between. It's not our place or business to decide what's a "real" religion. Seraphimblade Talk to me 11:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • (canvassed vote - 1st Wikipedia space contrib in 2 months) Overturn per nom. There are people who can clearly identify theirselfs with for example Discordianism so I think all those religions should be merged into Category:Wikipedians by religion. --helohe (talk) 11:21, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Provisionally overturn -- as long as Category:Wikipedians by religion is available. There's no obvious reason to discriminate among religions according to their apparent silliness. I wouldn't be upset if Category:Wikipedians by religion (etc) went, though: I'm puzzled by the desire for userboxes. (My page does sport one, but I'll spare you the reason for it and anyway it's religion-irrelevant.) -- Hoary 11:53, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • (canvassed vote - 1st Wikipedia space contrib in 9 months) Overturn - Unless we're allowed to move these subcats straight to Category:Wikipedians by religion, which I'm not saying is neccessarily a good idea, I don't see how the deletion of this cat is anything but discrimination. Saying, for instance, that Discordianism is not a religion is no better than saying Wicca or Paganism are not religions. I realize not everyone was making that argument, but some were. I know there is issue in general with the polemic user cats, but I think it's useful for everyone to know what lens (or grid, if you will) authors are writing from so we can better understand various points of view expressed on both talk pages and article pages. If someone is editing the article about Historical Jesus, I for one would like to know whether they belong to Category:Born again Christian wikipedians, or Category:Wikipedians who worship IPU. Just an example, but I hope you see my point. I don't believe collaboration is the only purpose for these categories. B.Mearns*, KSC 12:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Note - Those arguing that the first vote was sufficient should be aware that members of this category were not notified that such a vote was taking place. Seeing as how this was a discussion over a user cat, I think it was somewhat inappropriate to hold the discussion without notifying users who were in that category. B.Mearns*, KSC 12:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • (canvassed vote - 1st Wikipedia space contrib in 11 months) Provisionally overturn unless "fictional" relgions such as Flying Spaghetti Monsterism and Discordianism are allowed into the "regular" Category:Wikipedians by religionXoder| 13:17, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • (canvassed vote, fourth WP: edit in the last 2 months.)Overturn per nom. I personally don't see what all the fuss about "canvassing" is; some of us don't religiously follow User Categories for Discussion, and the first I knew of this was seeing my userpage modified by a bot. At any rate, I feel that the salient question here is, who gets to decide what is a "valid" religion which merits a category, and what is not? Obviously there's some level of "Making things up in school one day" but I feel that the groups in question here have outstripped that level and are long-standing groups with many members. And yes, before someone puts one of those little comments here, I was notified on my user page of this discussion ("canvassed", if you like, this is my first contribution to Wikipedia space in about 2 weeks) and I am a former member of the Discordian Wikipedians group. Fnord. Ryanjunk 14:15, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Endorse deletion, being as the deletion followed process and policy better than this deletion review. The purpose of DRV is to correct procedural errors in deletion discussions and speedy deletions. Due to the votestacking in this DRV, I am inclined to believe that the deletion of this article through this DRV would be a greater evil than the alleged out of process closing. Pot, meet kettle. ----ST47Talk·Desk 14:16, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn per nom, and per arguments by Seraphimblade and B. Mearns.--Alf melmac 14:26, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • (canvassed vote - 1st Wikipedia space contrib in 2 months) Overturn. Many of the arguments made in the deletion rested on falsities, such as "However, since the "religions" are satirical in nature, one cannot honestly claim them to be a philosophical view." Is Horologium the expert in what people have the ability to believe and believe in? These religions are satirical, but they are not only satirical. In addition, the phrase "no collaboration is possible" is demonstrably false - a number of Discordians came together to work on the
    Discordian Works article, for instance. DenisMoskowitz 14:59, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • Overturn I am not sure the title of the category is a wise choice, but I do not see how we can possibly decide what counts as a real religion. DGG (talk) 17:31, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn per nom, and per Seraphimblade. wikipediatrix 17:34, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment notifying members in a user category is in my opinion not canvassing--it is simply notifying the people who are likely to be interested in the discussion--they will not necessarily all support it--some may think it not worth continuing now that it has been called to their attention--or if none of them do defend it after notification, that certainly indicates a plausible reason to delete. DGG (talk) 17:36, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Response If what you assert is true, then why does
    WP:CANVAS#Votestacking state "Votestacking is sending mass talk messages only to editors who are on the record with a specific opinion (such as via a userbox or other user categorization) and informing them of a current or upcoming vote."? --After Midnight 0001 17:50, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • I'm sorry, but they should not be canvassed in either circumstance. --After Midnight 0001 21:55, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn, despite consensus to delete. Given the existence of
    systemic bias, the avoidance of which is one of Wikipedia's highest policies. Moreover, as a user category, this category is not cluttering up main Wikipedia articles. For these reasons I see keeping this category as doing less harm to the project than deleting it. Evouga 17:52, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • Overturn - As long as Category:Wikipedians by religion exists. I really have no opinion on the various categories under discussion. Torinir ( Ding my phone My support calls E-Support Options ) 20:19, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • overturn as per several others above, i see no valid argument for failing to treat this in the same way as Category:Wikipedians by religion, and failing to acknowledge the precedent-basied argument is in a way a process violation. That said, i hope this would be renamed if kept, to soemthing like Category:Wikipedians with non-traditional religions, or perhaps better just merge the various subcats into Category:Wikipedians by religion, so no distinction is made. But that is an argument for a different time and forum. DES (talk) 21:04, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment - I have a few things to say about this. 1)
      have our cake and eat it too. --After Midnight 0001 21:48, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
      ]
    • Overturn - I concede that I am a bit new to the community, but I have seen a number of articles and categories deleted without any discussion or reasonable consideration. I would support eliminating “Speedy deletions.” It seems safer to err on the side of being too informative, rather than not informative enough. I have noticed a general trend toward keeping any article (however poorly referenced) that fits within the dominant media culture, rather than any of the more diverse subcultures in this global community. Meanwhile, well-referenced articles are deleted, without discussion, simply because one administrator decides it is not notable (even when Wikipedia's criteria is met). The catchall phrase seems to be notability. So Paris Hilton’s drunk driving is notable, while a political movement, the symbol attached to a planet, or a less-known religion is not. As a realm of scholarly reference, Wikipedia needs to be more inclusive of fringe information (so long as sources are cited, referenced or linked).

That being said, I would support moving this category to a page with a different title. “Pseudo-religion” implies something phony or inauthentic. This is presumptuous for a subject matter where the buzzword is “Faith” rather than “Fact.” One person’s absolute truth is another person’s pseudo religion. The faithful have all kinds of pejoratives for those who differ in their beliefs: heathen, goyum, infidel, gentile, gray-face, damned, condemned, and so on. The bottom line is that alternative religion, or subculture, or minority world-view would be more descriptive.--Libertyguy 23:12, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I will agree with those who've stated that to be truly NPOV, we need to allow for the same categorization extended to those who are involved in mainstream religions and those who are in lesser knowns, such as Pastafarianism. And I'd like to see the opposition from the original VFD speak to this point, as this seems to me to be the clincher. Bo-Lingua 23:26, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Firstly, in order to avoid being tagged, I'll mention that Bigwyrm posted a message to my talk page as well. I will also note that this is my first Wikipedia space contribution in two days (so clearly I'm not an active member of the community and my opinion is useless?). I will also note that I discovered the original deletion debate as it was being closed and so was unable to participate in it. I can only speak for Category:Discordian Wikipedians myself, because I'm not really familiar with the others.

The only argument given for deletion that I cannot thoroughly dismiss is Sawblade05's “Does not belong here,” to which I can only say “Yes, it does.” (Or perhaps “

WP:IDONTLIKEIT
.”)

The nominator's assertion that the religions do not exist I personally find extremely insulting. Discordianism obviously exists, and I don't think we'd have an article about it if it didn't.

The assertion that no collaboration is possible is also false. As DenisMoskowitz pointed out above, Discordians have collaborated before.

The assertion that “they are parodies or satirical religions” is an opinion that may be true, but is not relevant. It says right in his own sentence that they are religions, and I can personally assure you that there is at least one adherent of Discordianism. I see obvious elements of parody and satire in Satanism, but Category:Satanist Wikipedians seems to be free from being deleted for this reason.

The assertion that “People who wish to express their disbelief in deities are welcome to add themselves to Category:Atheist Wikipedians or any of its subcats” is about as relevant to Discordianism as it is to Islam. After all, don't Muslims express their disbelief in thousands of deities in Tawḥīd? Discordianism, FSMism, and IPUism are even named after deities!

Black Falcon's assertion that “There is no collaborative value to these categories” has already been done away with by showing that there is. His point that “Identifying with a given religious philosophy (especially philosophies that parody other beliefs) does not imply an ability or desire to contribute encyclopedic content about them. ” is a very good one, but again DenisMoskowitz has shown that the ability and desire is there.

^demon's assertion that “There is absolutely no collaborative potential for these, and any such would be original research” is incomprehensible to me. It has of course been shown that there is collaborative potential, but the original research comment is just plain strange. Discordianism, like most Wikipedia articles, is not as well cited as it should be, but is it all original research? Sufism “is primarily concerned with direct personal experience” (according to its article); is that article therefore original research as well?

Octane asserts that “The nominated categories cover one article each”, but Category:Discordianism currently has 35 pages and three subcategories.

Any other reasons for deletion I have either overlooked (if I have please correct me!) or have not yet been voiced.

I'm not really sure if there are any obvious procedural violations in the original discussion (just poor reasoning), but I think this counts as “significant new information” per DRV purpose statement 3 (even though that is guided at articles).

In summary, I believe that at the least the deletion of Category:Discordian Wikipedians should be overturned. I cannot personally provide much information as to what should be done with the others. — The Storm Surfer 00:53, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment Discordianism comment well-noted, but my point still stands for the rest, unless I'm looking at the wrong parent cat (Category:New religious movements doesn't have a category for any others mentioned here, aside from discordianism). :/ Octane [improve me] 27.07.07 0139 (UTC)
  • Endorse Deletion. Obviously, since I was the one who nominated all of these, I support the decision. There are a few misconceptions that need to be addressed above.

First off, Bigwyrm notes that I endorsed the deletion of all the religion cats, but rather egregiously misrepresents my position on the issue. I specifically stated (at first) that I did not endorse the mass deletion, but when I was informed that the categories were being used to canvass (like what was done here), I supported the deletion proposal. I didn't participate in the DRV, because I really didn't feel THAT strongly about it. Seraphimblade takes me to task for targeting certain "religions" (yes, the scare quotes are appropriate in this case). Four of the five main articles for the categories state that they are parody religions, which means they are not real. I repeat, they are not real. This is the crux of the issue. See Discordianism, Invisible Pink Unicorn, and Flying Spaghetti Monster, all of which specifically state that they are parody or satirical religions; Church of the SubGenius notes that it is an offshoot of Discordianism, and later notes that it mocks Scientology and New Age religion. Cthulhu notes that the deity was created by H. P. Lovecraft as a plot device for his series of books.

I am of the belief that the "religion" category should be reserved for real religions, or the lack thereof. There are several categories that are appropriate for non-believers (

WP:BLP
, which now covers dead people as well; why should we allow categories which openly mock traditional religions to exist?

Note also that this does not affect the userboxen associated with the categories; while I think they are pointless, I would oppose any attempt to delete the userboxen in question. I wasn't around for the great userbox purge, but I would have been there swinging against the deletionists in that case. A userbox is appropriate for noting the affiliation.

If there is a consensus that the categories should be restored, I really think that they need to be moved out of the religion (or philosophy) categories into a category of their own. (Somewhere in Category:Wikipedians by interest would be appropriate.)

I begin my vacation tomorrow, so my internet access will be spotty to non-existent. If I don't respond, it's not because I don't have a response to whatever you say, it's because I cannot log on or am actually doing something more important than Wikipedia. Horologium t-c 01:40, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Response: The assertion that parody means "not real" is understandable, but none-the-less false. Saturday Night Live is primarily parody, it's real. Further, it is a very genuine belief by some that parody is a very important and very useful tool. While this may not qualify as religous on it's own, you can not merely dismiss something just because it is parody.
As far as the articles themselves claiming they are parody: a) that may indicate the articles need editing since, as is often the case, these religions have all taken on a life of their own far beyond what their originators may have initially intended, so even if the religion began as nothing but a joke or literary device, that does not mean that is the limits of it today. b) In Discordianism, at any rate, the only reference I found in that article for "parody" or "satire" is in the second line where it specifically says it is "regarded" as a parody religion. That doesn't mean it is. There are those who consider Christianity a religion that parodies Goddess worshipping (or reality for that matter). That doesn't mean members of that religion necessarily see themselves that way. If they do, refer to my point above.
As for Lovecraft's invention of Cthulhu as a literary device: a) I would just like to point out that the originator of the Church of Scientology, was a science fiction writer. I'll leave conclusions to you. b) Many of the ancient Greek gods/deities were invented through mythology, i.e., they were a literary device. Would anyone argue that the Ancient Greeks did not have religion?
This is not the first time in this pair of discussions, and certainly not in wikipedia at large, that these religions have been clumped together with Atheism, but that's not at all appropriate in all cases. I too, cannot speak for anything but Discordianism, but as a Discordian, I do not in any way consider myself an athiest, nor do I consider any part of Discordianism as expressing anti-theistic beliefs. We worship a goddess, The Goddess. Her Name is Eris. Just as Christians worship Jesus and Protestants worship an old man in white robes. For myself and many other Discordians, this is not merely a funny tool for talking to Born Again take-yer-picks, it's a genuine spiritual belief, and to try to tell me or any one else that they don't really believe in Her is no different then telling a Muslim that they don't really believe in Ala. So to imply that our religion is not a real religion when we, it's members, are telling you straight up it is, is nothing short of close mindedness and institutionalized discrimination.
There was a comment about not allowing religions that mock other religions. Many religions, particularly western religions, in one way or another mock or offend other religions, notably by saying or implying that other religions are wrong, and their followers will burn in hell (just as an example).
B.Mearns*, KSC 13:00, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
While I'm not sure Wikipedia is a good source for information to be used in deletion debates, I believe you are misrepresenting the contents of the Discordianism article, which begins (after many edits): “Discordianism is a modern, chaos-centered religion founded circa 1958–1959 by Malaclypse the Younger with the publication of its principal text, the Principia Discordia.” The key word here being religion. It goes on to state that “It is widely regarded as a parody religion.” The key word there being regarded; in other words this stance is but one supportable opinion that many have taken (and others, significantly, have not). It happens to be your position that these are not real religions, but please do not represent it as some sort of indisputable fact upon which we should take action.
Roman Catholic Church. Some of it is outside the article space, like when you say Discordianism is not a real religion. — The Storm Surfer 02:44, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
]
I'm not sure what more you'd want me to say to support that “these categories have collaborative potential outside the bounds of original research”, or what was unreasonable about my argument to that effect. — The Storm Surfer 03:31, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment I disagree, Pastafarianiam is real in the sense that it exists. It's not entirely serious and various points within its' 'mythology' confirm this. But it makes as much sense as any set of beliefs, and it is entirely possible that someone holds these as their belief. It should be included based on this and not whether anyone regards these as the 'valid' or 'true' belief. I am of the opinion that the Wikipedians by Religion Category is not useful to Wikipedia as an encyclopedia but if you're going to keep some of it, keep all of it; otherwise delete it all. --Osho-Jabbe 08:37, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm not entirely sure if Wikipedians by religion is a useful category, either -- but that doesn't appear to be the matter at hand. The rest, we'll have to respectfully disagree on. If I saw somebody on the street preaching about Pastafarianism as the one true religion, I'd laugh along and encourage them. If I saw somebody persistently editing the Wikipedia article to present it as anything but a parody religion, I'd warn eventually block them for disruption and vandalism. You seem to have proposed that there's no difference between, say, Roman Catholicism and Pastafarianism. There's a shockingly obvious and very, very simple distinction: one is a parody, the other is not. That's clearly the basis on which one group of categories was kept when another group was deleted. You could argue whether that's a valid basis, but it is an objective and logically sound basis, and to pretend or suppose otherwise is, I suspect, mere tomfoolery. – Luna Santin (talk) 08:58, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Denis that it should in fact be required and automatic and will propose such a change to the UCfD rules if it seems there is support. UCfD is a very obscure process and can easily be seen as unfair. DGG (talk) 15:48, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I specifically do not support this. Let's take an extreme example, someone wants to propose deletion of Category:American Wikipedians and it's subcategories in good faith. Is it proper to leave messages of the talk pages of thousands (tens/hundreds of thousands) of users in those categories? I don't think so. Let's extrapolate this into the article space. Right now, Category:California porn stars is listed at CFD. The category contains 27 articles. Should the talk pages of all 27 or those articles be posted as to the discussion? Should all the editors of those 27 articles be spammed with a notice of the discussion? Once again, I think not. --After Midnight 0001 17:00, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
What's wrong with adding the categories you're in to your watchlist? I'm with AM. Required notification will do nothing but clog up talk pages for no reason. If you are interested in something, why would you rely on someone else to make sure you know about it? I certainly wouldn't. --Kbdank71 19:42, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment: while Pastafarianism and the IPU are clearly the real-world equivalents of
    Zen Buddhism as well. Frankly, I think the parent category is borderline offensive, and think it should remain deleted, but its former children, or at least some of them, should be reinstated and reparented in a more appropriate category. (Whether a by-religion or a by-philosophy category, I don't really care.) As for the general usefulness of Wikipedians-by-religion/philosophy categories, I don't see any broad consensus on that. But it is certainly a non-neutral point of view to claim that these particular categories are any less useful than other religious/philosophical categories. Xtifr tälk 20:24, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • Sounds like you favor a partial overturn, in that case? That may be the way to go -- this discussion is getting fragmented because we have such a mix of categories. – Luna Santin (talk) 21:08, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Compromise (not to highlight my opinion, but because we need another section break)

  • Compromise as follows(and it represents a change of my earlier views, based upon some of the arguments, particular those directly above)
  1. WP has no basis whatever for classifying religions as true or false, not what counts as a "pseudo"-religion. This is especially true considering it probable that some beliefs originally put forth a a joke have been seriously adopted by others. I recall Gibbon's famous line in chapter 13 of Decline and Fall “The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord."
I have pretty definite personal views on the likeliness of various religions, but I have no intention of saying what they are here at WP. Personally I follow what has been said about my profession: But I can see that some people might want to self-identify as a sign of faith, or as a sign of background, or as a joke. I do not see that it hurts the encyclopedia--some of the most objectively neutral editors here on religious topics identify strongly and openly with particular religions. Sp my inclination is to let them do so. But if anyone may do so, everyone may. If any religion may be asserted as a matter of personal concern, all must be allowed, regardless of anyone's opinion about them. Nor can we possibly decide who among them are the genuine believers.
So each individual category is valid, and must stay, or else we lose the core principle of NOTCENSORED, and the even more important general principle of allowing freedom of religious expression in private and in public in all non-sectarian contexts.
But what about the super-category--this category is opinion, pure and simple. I think a few of these categories are pseudo- in every sense of the word, and many or all of the individuals involved would share it. I can see how those of other religious beliefs might think it wrong to admit some of them to the supercategory religion, and how to deal with that is another matter--perhaps by renaming it religious and spiritual beliefs.
I accept there is a category of pseudoscience, because there are objective standards--but I am not happy with it. Personally I think there is pseudo-social science as well, but there would certainly not be general agreements about what would fall under it. But pseudo-religion? No human can safely say that. I think we must remove it. As a compromise, I can see renaming it: spiritual beliefs. That at least they certainly are. DGG (talk) 21:32, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • I disagree with several of the points you raise, because (in the case of the IPU the FSM, and Cthulhu) there is no assertion that anyone follows the "beliefs" of the two religions, which are (as noted above by a couple of editors) rather POINTy. The other two are a little more believable, but still essentially joke religions. If someone who belongs to either "religion" has managed to get the IRS to grant them a tax-free status as a result of their affiliation, I'd be much more inclined to agree that they are real, but (AFIAK, IANAL) that is not the case. I rather strongly feel that any retained categories should be moved into a "Wikipedians by interest" category, rather than into the philosophy or especially the religion categories. For those who want to show their "affiliation" with the category as a joke, there are a variety of userboxen (well-designed and otherwise) to use to display such an affiliation. But (especially in the case of the IPU and FSM, and less so for the Discordians, the CotSG, and Cthulhu) there is little or no use to retaining them as categories. As an aside, I find it interesting (and really, rather ironic) that most of the coordinated actions on contesting this deletion are coming from the Discordians. (!) Isn't that sacrilegious for them, or something? Horologium t-c 04:34, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    Nothing is sacrilegious for a Discordian unless they want to comment sacrilege for some reason. Episcopisian Discordians believe that the dichotomy between order/chaos is false (and that people who believe in order for order's sake are Greyfaces), and that the dichotomy that matters is creative/destructive. That said, Discordianism is somewhat of a roll-your-own-religion anyway. (I still think that these categories are useless, but whatever.) - Pope AMIB II 05:54, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
the IRS classifies religions for tax purposes according to its own set of rules, and I don's ewe that that has anything to do with what WPedians choose to say they affiliate with.DGG (talk) 18:05, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I think the main thing to remember is that since all religions are false, there is no justification for saying some are falser than others. As for some being jokes: Scientology is a joke, the result of a bar bet between L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Heinlein. Would you honestly say that no one believe it? Kww 18:27, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I primarily oppose restoration of the IPU and FSM categories as obvious and undeniable parodies. It seems quite unlikely that those two in particular have any collaborative use that a quick glance at the relevant article's history page wouldn't already provide. – Luna Santin (talk) 21:12, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You may call them parodies, but they are religions nonetheless, valid, and with a cult popularity. Religion is defined by faith, and without faith it is nothing. Therefore, if these are deleted, so too must be Category:Wikipedians by religion.--WaltCip 01:59, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No, they are not. From Talk:Flying Spaghetti Monster:
From time to time, editors argue that FSM is a real religion. This has been suggested several times, and consensus has always been to call FSM a parody. If you disagree, please read the archives and use this Talk page, before editing the article.
And from Invisible Pink Unicorn:
It is accepted that there are no actual believers in this mock goddess, but it has become popular, especially on
phenomena outside human perception.[1][2]
There are no worshipers of these "religions"; they are parodies. What is so hard to understand about this rather elementary concept? Horologium t-c 02:25, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
And how is Buddhism not a parody of Hinduism?--WaltCip 04:31, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You're seriously equating the Invisible Pink Unicorn with Buddha? Classy. – Luna Santin (talk) 22:06, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hardly equating; not all religions are equal, though they are very similar. Is it wrong for a religion of the Invisible Pink Unicorn to be created by a man with a big idea just as Buddhism was created (this time by a big man with an idea)?
"I'm not equating them, but here, let me equate them again." We're not here to indulge vanity. To turn around the Saturday Night Live example used several times above, while yes, SNL is real in the sense that it exists; no, we don't categorize it as a documentary or drama series, because it isn't either of those things. By the apparent argument of many of you here, we could categorize SNL in Category:Crime television series because a skit, at some point, mentioned criminals. That obviously doesn't add up. – Luna Santin (talk) 00:46, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment I agree with the sentiments that Discordianism and The Church of the Subgenius have grown into groups in their own right, and think that they should be categories in the Wikipedians by Religion because of this and because collaboration is possible within those two groups. However, Pastafarianism and the IPU aren't good for inclusion in Wikipedians by religion. Pastifarianism is too new to have grown much beyond the original purpose of its creator as a parody and probably shouldn't be included until more people have used as more than a POINT arguement and a joke, and actively hold it as a true belief. With the IPU I don't think anyone uses it as anymore than a POINT argument and as it is unlikely to ever grow beyond this it shouldn't be included. I've not had enough experience with Cthulu to comment on it. Those that probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia by Religion could be put into a subcategory of Wikipedians by interest called Wikipedians interested in Parody Religions, with sub-subcategories addressing them specifically, and the Category:Psuedoreligionist Wikipedians can be left deleted. --Osho-Jabbe 23:17, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment I think the consensus I see is this: Nobody wants Psuedoreligionist Wikipedians recreated, most everybody wants the Discordians and Subgenii recreated, and there's still widespread disagreement about Cthulhu, IPU, and Pastafarianism. Is that accurate? DenisMoskowitz 13:24, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ISBN 1-4120-3096-X. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help
    )
  2. ^ Jason Scott Yeldell (2005). "A Call to Sanity Web Forum". A Call to Sanity.
The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
  • Image:Girls by the pool.jpg – While the consensus clearly is that the deletion rationale was misstated, the point (made late in the discussion) that the image is unsourced is unrebutted and, therefore, determinative. Re-uploading with proper sourcing is welcome. The original deletion is not endorsed, but the image remains deleted for different reasons. – Xoloz 15:19, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
File:Girls by the pool.jpg (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) (restore|cache|AfD)

This file was deleted by User:Jeffrey O. Gustafson for the reason of "18 USC Section 2257". I'm unaware of which speedy deletion criteria that falls under. That law requires producers of porn to maintain records verifying the identities of models used. Since the image was produced outside the US and is not porn but simple nudity, which is exempted from that law, I can't really see how it would apply here. In addition, I don't think that would make this a proper speedy deletion even if it did apply. -Nard 08:12, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is unencyclopedic, unremarkable, and may be agianst the law. There is no benefit to keeping the image, especially if the subjects are minors (a distinct possibility), and if they didn't know they were photographed (also a possibility). I stand by this deletion. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson 08:38, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Do you have any reasoning that doesn't involve citing a law I've demonstrated doesn't apply? -Nard 08:42, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
  • 2the Max – Speedy deletion overturned; sent to AfD. – Xoloz 15:24, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
2the Max (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (restore|cache|AfD)

The company and its product is notable. Its motherboard and power supply is very notable in Hong Kong and China. Its motherboard is one of a few major brand comparing to Intel and ASUSTek[3]. It has 17500 entries in Google. It is unreasonable that the article was deleted within a few hours after its creation, without notifying any major authors and I have no chance to put a hang-on tag. — HenryLi (Talk) 03:43, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Endorse deletion. Please read our
    speedy deletion guidelines - an assertion of notability is required for articles about corporations, or else they may be speedily deleted. The "hangon" tag is just a courtesy - admins are not obligated to allow users time to contest the speedy deletions (that is what DRV is for after all). In fact, admins can speedy delete articles even if they are not tagged for deletion, based on their own judgment. ugen64 10:02, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
According to
Notability guideline
,

If an article fails to cite sufficient sources to demonstrate the notability of its subject, look for sources yourself,6 or:

Ask the article's creator for advice on where to look for sources. Put the {{notability}} tag on the article to alert other editors. To place a dated tag, put a {{subst:dated|notability}} tag.

If the article is about a specialized field, use the {{expert-subject}} tag with a specific WikiProject to attract editors knowledgeable about that field, who may have access to reliable sources not available online.

When something is about notability, it should be handled according to notability guideline (WP:N). If speedy deletion criteria can override the WP:N on notability, what the purpose of WP:N ? There are no actions has been done according to procedure in WP:N. What I want to have is to get the article undeleted and improve it. I have already give the Google count above.
HenryLi (Talk) 16:52, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • overturn To be deltable under A7 it must have no claim to notability. The articles asserted " Its products include [[motherboard]], [[display card]], [[power supply]], [[peripherals]] and [[surveillance]]. Its products are marketed in [[Europe]], [[United States]], [[Australia]], [[South Korea]], [[China]] and Hong Kong. . I consider that a claim to notability enough to prevent A7. That said, I would advise the ed. to improve the article--if notable, there will be some reviews of it in RSs for the subject. DGG (talk) 17:43, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • overturn per DGG. JoshuaZ 19:01, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • overturn selling products in diverse markets is a weak claim of importance (anyone can sell, does anyone actually buy them?) but I guess it's enough. Appears to be some sources on this company [4] but might not be enough. Still, probably should have gone to AFD. --W.marsh 20:11, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • -Overturn as per DDG and W.Marsh. However, unless better sources are added, I woudn't expect this to survive AfD. To HenryLi the bar to avoid speedy deletion is intentionally lower than the one to survive an AfD, so the notability guidelines are generally not relevant when considering an A7 speedy. There is, IMO good reason for this double standard -- to give a chance for arguably notable topics to properly establish and source their notability, even though the price is that non-notable or marginally notable articles soemtimes sit around for a few days. DES (talk) 21:19, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • comment this has been recreated, by User:HenryLi at 2the Max. DES (talk) 04:46, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • My error, the deleting admin undeleted to allow notability to be asserted. I'm not sure he was aware that a review had already been started. DES (talk) 04:54, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • Er, that's she, not he. I was not aware, so thank you for notifying me. --Ginkgo100talk 20:55, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Endorse deletion. I'm the guy that originally put the speedy tag on this thing, not an admin, so I'm not sure if I'm allowed to vote. "We sell stuff" cannot be a claim to notability, not even a weak one. When I go through the list of new articles and mark the spam and non-notables, the vast majority of them are people that sell stuff. To allow "we sell stuff" to become a claim to notability would force a lot of articles to go through the full AfD cycle instead of just cleaning them out quickly. What really mystifies me is the author's reaction: if this company is notable, why didn't he just recreate the article with some external sourcing? Why is it so important for this article to be recreated in its original weak form instead of correcting it and putting it up then? There's no rule against recreating an article that went through speedy delete after you correct the reason for the speedy deletion. Kww 05:25, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment. Contributor is not anonymous and surely can be asked for improvement. It should not be hard for one do one more step. If one is questioning about notability, read the notability guideline. The initial article is not one line spam article, but with source and projects corresponding to. What really mystifies me is the reviewers never check the content, references and contributors, and never do a simple Google search, and conclude rudely it's not notable, and ask for speedy deletion. Before deletion, if we carefully examine the deletion policy, it has stated that "If the page can be improved, this should be solved through regular editing, rather than deletion. A variety of tags can be added to articles to note the problem". The reviewers never think of improvement and disregard the deletion policy. Putting a {{notability}} template is as easy as putting a speedy deletion template. Kww, I cannot agree with you that an article can be deleted because it can be re-created later. Wikipedia ought treat contribution seriously. I suggest you read the notability and deletion guidelines rather putting deletion template for fun. — HenryLi (Talk) 19:05, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
      • Comment. It was not necessary to ask you for an improvement. I did not "disregard the deletion policy." I followed a process, even if it is one you disagree with. I manually review 2000 articles a day to find nonsense, spam, and non-notables, and I tag somewhere around 25 articles a day for deletion. All of my taggings are reviewed by admins, and they override one every two or three days. The purpose of the speedy tag is to rapidly and efficiently get rid of new articles that do not meet minimum standards. In my view, yours didn't, and still doesn't. If you had simply fixed your article and recreated it, it would have been faster and simpler for both of us. If you need to whine more about me, please take it to my talk page ... you know where it is.Kww 21:03, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        • Comment. How can you reviewed 2000 articles a day? It is exactly what the problem is. Just skimming and and put a deletion tag. Is it a competition for number rather than the quality of review. I have no doubt in the value of review and remove spam and non-sense, and non-notable. But it must be taken seriously according to Deletion and Notability guideline. You are relying on admin for review instead of review carefully yourself. If one admin failed to follow the guideline, a mistake will happen. Here the article is deleted in about 2 hours, not 2 or 3 days. Please do it carefully and do what is stated in the guidelines . It is not a number competition. — HenryLi (Talk) 00:15, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Endorse deletion, article contained no assertion of notability, proper A7, and I don't see much hope it can be done. I only see one pretty thin source on W. Marsh's Google News search, the rest are about totally different subjects where "2 the Max" happened to be used, not about this particular company. Seraphimblade Talk to me 07:19, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment. Although it is not well-written, I've found source about the company and its product from ACCA, AMD, Microsoft and others. — HenryLi (Talk) 18:10, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn Notability was asserted so not a valid speedy deletion reason.
    Catchpole 12:33, 27 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
  • Comment from the deleting admin -- I had no idea until just now that this was on DRV. I restored it when the author asked me to. I'm rather nonplussed to find it was listed here before I was contacted, but at any rate it's a moot point. --Ginkgo100talk 01:39, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Further comment I just visited the article for the first time since I restored it, and I would not speedily delete it now, as it claims notability in the form of an award. I make no comment, positive or negative, as to whether an AfD discussion is appropriate. --Ginkgo100talk 20:55, 28 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overturn and list at AfD, article isn't notable enough for inclusion and should be deleted via AfD, but it's not speedyable. ^
    [omg plz] 20:17, 30 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]
The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
The following is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.
Aardwolf (game) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (restore|cache|AfD)

Game is notable - online numbers claims can be verified

This makes no sense, the article was apparenty flagged as needing references since February which was brought to my attention today. References were added today along with links to external reviews and an entire DMOZ category for the MUD, and suddenly the page is deleted. Meanwhile many of the muds on the list of MUDs in "borderline" status cite reviews on Topmudsites and/or The Mud Connector with a note that they will probably be OK based on the reviews - Aardwolf had many of both. After spending several hours today trying to fix our page this is a slap in the face with zero feedback - would appreciate some transparency here please. Part of the contention appeared to be the claim of being one of the "most popular" - we have notified the administrator that we were working on this, but were not given time to complete. The game is notable and online numbers can be verified at any time simply by logging in and looking. If it takes a third party to verify our numbers that can be done too, but just deleting the page right after we start dialog seems unreasonable. Please reconsider. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Aardlasher (talkcontribs).

  • Endorse deletion - the
    WP:OTHERCRAPEXISTS is not a good argument for non-deletion :) ugen64 03:39, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
    ]

[[User:Aardlasher|aardlasher] 26 July 2007:: So you are deciding the references at the two top ranked non-wikipedia sites for 'Mud' and 'Muds', dating back to 1996, are not reliable? DMOZ review of the site and granting it's own category is not noteable? If you decide MUDs in general aren't notable fair enough, but to arbitrarily decide one of the largest MUDs around isn't notable? Why the deletion *today* of all days when the article has been flagged for months? The day we contact you for help and confirm intent to provide those references? Sorry, but this just looks like someone wanted us gone quick before we came back with the necessary info.

[[User:Aardlasher|aardlasher] 26 July 2007:: There was a lot said on the articles 'talk' page today. Apparently this was in the wrong place and should have been on the delete discussion, my bad for not knowing the inner workings of Wikipedia. Please read the 'talk' page from the article before it was deleted and the exchanges with Martijn.

The best thing I can do now is put it up in your
user space and let you work on it. How about that? —Kurykh 04:32, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply
]

""Sounds good, thanks! Can you include a link to info on the process to move from user space back to an article? Appreciate your help with this.[[User:Aardlasher|aardlasher] 04:38 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The above is an archived debate of the deletion review of the article above. Please do not modify it.