Merge proposal[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


Following the closure of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Audrish Banerjee, I'd like to propose that we merge the little content we have on Audrish Banerjee into this article - probably using a note.

I didn't participate in the AfD; if I'd have realised that this list existed, I would have suggested merging the article to here - which is the suggestion of the closing admin as a solution. This is along the lines of the discussion that was had in 2018 at Talk:Chitty (cricketer) and a number of subsequent merges.

It's simple to merge and we can preserve the core content and sources for Banerjee so that if further information emerges it'll be easy to re-create the article and add those sources. If anyone objects or has any further thoughts, here's the place to make suggestions... Blue Square Thing (talk) 09:31, 19 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Support – seems like the sensible and best way forward for bios where notability is questionable, sourcing is entirely scorecard based, and everything can be adequately summarised in one or two short sentences. wjematherplease leave a message... 09:54, 19 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Oppose - if you do so just for this one article, you might as well do so for every single article I've created on almost every Ranji Trophy cricketer. Nobody suggested this in the AfD and therefore I am not considering this as a solution. This article and Chitty are very different - as it is, this individual has all biographical information added. What more do you want of this article? His shoe size? If the only difference between the articles I have created and the articles Lugnuts has created are a purdy little infobox and the word "references", I suggest these issues are easily fixable. Sankar Bhattacharjee is the first example I come across. Bobo. 07:31, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
It's a pragmatic solution which preserves the information and keeps the article space available if further information is forthcoming. That might happen, but it seems unlikely that anyone is going to be able to do so just now.
I would rather put forward a pragmatic solution to the problem. Blue Square Thing (talk) 08:10, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I've added a merge hat to the Sankar Bhattacharjee article as this has also been identified as a possible candidate. I'll add a note to the list in a while, but we know of a total of 4 cricket matches the chap played in, one of which (his first) was first-class. Given that these all took place in the mid-80s, I feel it's unlikely that any more useful information is going to be found to add to the article.. There may be other articles I find later today to add to this as well: I'll list them here. Blue Square Thing (talk) 08:15, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I never know what other information you are searching for that would be of any further benefit to an article other than flowery language. All necessary information is there. Bobo. 08:17, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I'd like to know that sources about the person exist and can be reasonably expected to be found within a reasonable time frame. This goes to the heart of notability. Bhattacharjee played four matches, the first of which was his first-class debut. That can't be right - not even in 1980s India. There must be more about the bloke - hut where? Is it accessible? Can we find it? Or do we rely on what is more or less synthesis from a database to provide a "biography"? In Banerjee's case, he played some under-19 matches for two seasons, plays an under-19 Test and then makes his first-class debut; and then totally disappears from our knowledge. What happened? Why? Again, the sources may be there - which is why I didn't vote delete at the AfD - but I'm unconvinced we're going to find them anytime soon. So we can summarise stuff here - using either notes or, if someone's willing to put the time in, a set of tables.
Note that I really don't care too much about these articles. I read the AfD close and thought it might be worth trying to suggest a pragmatic approach. Blue Square Thing (talk) 08:28, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
If you want that if this article then you want that of every single article I've created within the last X years. Sounds like censorship for censorship's sake. Bobo. 08:55, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I've been saying all along that if I had enough time and energy, every single cricket team's players, including Kalat and others, would have links to List of X cricketers anyway. Why did the merge argument not get suggested? Bobo. 08:55, 20 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Firstly, it is clear that the potential for growth here is vanishingly small. Secondly, it has been determined that there is no consensus that the article meets notability requirements; all we have is the "presumed notability" requirements of a guideline that has been determined by consensus to be too inclusive. wjematherplease leave a message... 09:48, 21 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@Lugnuts: - I'm sympathetic to your position here. I'm probably on the "weak(ish) merge" side, but I can certainly see that there is a massive difference between cases where we have virtually nothing to go on and chaps such as these. Blue Square Thing (talk) 08:03, 24 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Thanks for the ping - I'd forgotten about this TBH. I can see both sides of the debate, and as an inclusionist, I'll always veer towards keeping over other options. If you have the one-line stub for a cricketer who has a single appearance, then at least there's the basic skelton of an article for an editor to view and click edit. I think there's a lot of editors on WP who prefer to add bits to existing articles, rather than start one from scratch. If you have the redirect instead, then it goe to the main List of X cricketers. In my opinion, it's less likely someone will take time on working on a redirect to expand it. I know that's all a bit of guesswork, but experience of being here a long time would back those thoughts up. For example, I know that Sammyrice (hope you don't mind the ping!) has done countless expansions of one-line stubs on New Zealand cricketers. The Anglo-centric expansions will always be more prolific than the Asian subcontinent, but that's another issue. Lugnuts Fire Walk with Me 08:17, 24 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

If no one objects, I think it might be helpful to ping the other editors who contributed to the AfD referenced above to seek a wider set of opinions. I'd also like to raise this on the cricket wikiproject talk page and at NSPORTS. I'll leave it a day before I do so in case anyone feels that this is unacceptable. Blue Square Thing (talk) 08:03, 24 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

  • @Devonian Wombat: any chance you could point us in the direction of that "wider consensus"? Blue Square Thing (talk) 08:33, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • That doesn't enjoy the support of the community. Reyk YO! 09:30, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • The relationship of NCRIC to NSPORTS and then to GNG is an area where there has been significant debate. I would struggle to believe that there is actually any consistent consensus when it comes to the grey area between "obviously notable" and "hmm, we know a surname". Hence this discussion. Blue Square Thing (talk) 09:41, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@Devonian Wombat Sure, stubs are fine to create, on the presumption that they can eventually be made into read-worthy articles. At the moment, it seems like that won't ever happen with this article. Stubs should not stay stubs forever. PJvanMill (talk) 12:15, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@SportingFlyer Consider that merging the article into a list is not a commitment never to have an article on that person again. When more sources are found, it can always be branched back out. In this case, merging is a way to preserve the article's content even if it seems (at this point) that the subject is not notable. PJvanMill (talk) 12:15, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I think it's more likely the article will be further improved in mainspace than in list space. Whether the subject is notable at this point is still a judgement call, so we should default to keeping the page for now. SportingFlyer T·C 23:28, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@SportingFlyer Keeping the page is not necessarily the default. The page has less than 1 kB of readable prose and has been that small since its creation, so WP:SIZERULE says it should be merged. Kind regards from PJvanMill (talk) 12:28, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@PJvanMill: SIZERULE says no such thing, it says that you can "consider" a merge. This is a classic case where someone meets a SNG but neither passes nor fails GNG. These are not clear keeps, but at AfD and DRV we do err on the side of keeping them. Again, it's the fact they pass a SNG which allows them to be kept - if someone does a local source search and the article can't be improved, that's when we tend to merge. (This is relatively rare, happens most often with historic Olympics articles for athletes from non-English speaking countries. We err on the side of notability where the GNG is grey.) SportingFlyer T·C 18:34, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@SportingFlyer: Please re-read the closing statement of the AfD. The consensus was clear that this article fails GNG – a judgement that is indisputable given no-one even tried to refute such a statement. There is also very clear direction that articles such as these should be merged into lists. wjematherplease leave a message... 19:00, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@SportingFlyer Indeed, SIZERULE is a rule of thumb, and it does say "consider...". The thing is, you didn't seem to want to even consider it, you seemed to be saying that "in case of doubt, keep" is the rule: a judgement call, so we should default to keeping. Kind regards from PJvanMill (talk) 19:03, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I'm not considering it. This discussion comes up from time to time where an athlete from a non-English speaking country passes a SNG but we can't prove he passes GNG and we can't prove he fails GNG. Users feel strongly both ways. We typically default to not merging. Please trust I'm not pulling apples from imaginary trees here. SportingFlyer T·C 19:11, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • It is "possible to make it good." We need to do a more specific source search, though. SportingFlyer T·C 23:28, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@Coolabahapple One thing at a time. Fish might need to be merged too, but that's another discussion, for another time. PJvanMill (talk) 13:11, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Thanks for pointing out Fish. I've formally proposed a merge there. I think I've proposed merges for maybe 10 articles over the last fortnight - and merged a handful more without proposing as they fall into the "we don't even know their forename" category. It really is a matter of time and finding the articles. The only reason I proposed the merge here is due to the AfD close, not because of an obsession with this article (trust me, there are many other articles I'm much more obsessed by...) Blue Square Thing (talk) 14:09, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • That's a question based on a false premise. I for one have been quietly advocating merging contentless microstubs for some time now, and it's not just this one. Reyk YO! 13:49, 27 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I like how 16 years' worth of work is being dismissed as "contentless microstubs". If you're willing to put 16 years of work in trying to add material to the project, then I will believe you are willing to help enhance knowledge, otherwise I will just assume you are hacking it down for exclusionism's sake. By destroying material you are essentially censoring knowledge. Which is... weird, for a supposedly comprehensive compendium of information... Heck, this article contains a whole bunch more than many other articles, and all the necessary material for such an article. I have written thousands of articles following pretty much the exact same pattern. I'd rather you destroyed them all rather than choosing ones at random. Why was the "merge" option never put forward in the discussion? Where were you all at the time? Bobo. 04:29, 29 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
There is no consensus that this meet notability guidelines (other than NCRIC & CRIN, which wider consensus has determined are too weak to be reliable guides for establishing notability). wjematherplease leave a message... 05:33, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
There are already several merge proposals of these dead-end stubs that can only be sourced from scorecard repositories as a practical and pragmatic solution for cases where notability is questionable (clear consensus outside of WP:CRIC is that NCRIC & CRIN are too weak to be reliable guides for establishing notability). As such, there will not be two-three paragraphs – just one or two short sentences at most. wjematherplease leave a message... 05:33, 28 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • I agree entirely that this isn't in any way dependent on the number of appearances. That was never the intention. Blue Square Thing (talk) 18:11, 29 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • Of course. That's not to say Milo Talbot couldn't also appear on a list of "Gentlemen of the South" players with his statistics listed and name bluelinked to his actual article. Reyk YO! 20:49, 29 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I still maintain that I believe every first-class domestic cricket team should have a corresponding List of X cricketers. Matabeleland would be an example from Zimbabwe - and I'm assuming we would batch into that the players who played for Matabeleland Tuskers - essentially the same team, just with a franchise name added. Bobo. 21:37, 29 June 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • If you can arrange for an admin to pop along then fine. I was planning on closing the discussion tomorrow with a summary - the gist of which was to attempt to summarise the areas where I think there is a growing consensus. I would not have recommended merging the article at this time. Maybe I'll still write that summary, maybe I won't bother - but I'll wait for an admin to come along and formally close it now... Blue Square Thing (talk) 22:50, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
There are two further conversations below. Are we still continuing to argue about three different articles on three different cricketers chosen completely at random, when we all hold precisely the views we have expressed above? Every single conversation is just going to go the same as this one. If people had wished to suggest a merge at AfD, they would have done so instead of dragging random names through conversations like this. Nobody suggested this. Bobo. 23:12, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I have done a request for closure, hopefully those will be closed as speedy as well. As per above, obviously this is not an effective way to discuss the mergers. PainProf (talk) 00:23, 4 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Just for clarity's sake should this comment be on the other posts as well? Bobo. 00:37, 4 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

References

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Proposed merge of Avilin Ghosh into List of Bengal cricketers[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


A barebone article Hatchens (talk) 08:46, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Comment - are T20 matches no longer considered "major cricket" anymore? CRIN specifies "..any senior domestic competition or match", and the Twenty20 article states they are recognized by the ICC as being at the "..highest... domestic level". Bobo. 10:27, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
You are mis-quoting/mis-representing. T20 maybe recognised as such, but the competition involving these two matches is not; it is a level below the IPL, so very obviously not "the highest international or domestic level". wjematherplease leave a message... 10:40, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
CA and CI - both are referenced, not just one or the other - both suggest that the individual meets CRIN. Bobo. 10:42, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Both CA and CI are indiscriminate data repositories; neither may be used for establishing notability. wjematherplease leave a message... 10:50, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Not only that, there is good evidence that they crib off each other (repeating each other's typos even) so they cannot be regarded as independent. Reyk YO! 10:55, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
That can be tagged with as much of a "citation needed" stamp as it would if I were to say the opposite... Jack covered this years ago and I am too tired of these conversations to find said conversation... Bobo. 10:59, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
CRIN doesn't actually explain which ones of these are at the highest level. Does this need further clarification so that people are aware of what does and doesn't qualify as "major cricket" or a "senior domestic competition or match" in each country's domestic competition(s)? Bobo. 10:59, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Yes, that could help. Something along the lines of the stand-alone list the football project has for the fully professional leagues. In the meantime, I've added a few sources for this guy and the one below too. Lugnuts Fire Walk with Me 11:05, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
You raise a point there. Other sports' conversations. I have almost no doubt that if conversations of this nature were to happen on other Wikiprojects they would be slapped down in eighteen milliseconds, and, to be frank, their instigators topic-banned. What are we hiding from with regard to cricket? Where are other sports' rabid exclusionists? And do they base their conversations on anything other than IDONTLIKEIT? Bobo. 11:35, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Yes – multiple quoted (and linked) clauses from guidelines and policies that have wide community consensus (starting with WP:N). The onus is on those arguing against deletion/merger to do more than state compliance with sport SNGs. wjematherplease leave a message... 12:08, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
N clearly states GNG or SSG. And if CA and CI are insufficient, having had consensus from this project for all this time, then feel free to slap down every single article which only contains links to these. Or, y'know... put some work in yourself instead of destroying 16 years' worth of other people's at the touch of a button. I continue to challenge anyone to genuinely find consensus in said conversation. I remember thinking at the time how much of a mess that conversation was and I still question whether there was consensus. Herostratus' suggestion regarding "single-source" articles can be fixed right there and then by anyone who knows anything about cricket. Bobo. 12:12, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
The above linked RFC negates any perceived SNG/GNG relationship in the case of sport, until and unless something changes (new RFC or rewrite of the sport SNG). Using CA/CI databases alone violates WP:NOT in multiple regards (NOTMIRROR, NOTWHOSWHO/NOTDIARY, NOTSTATS, etc.). Finally, consensus is based on (community supported) policy and guideline based arguments; it is not a headcount. wjematherplease leave a message... 12:29, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
SNG and GNG? Why no reference to N? Why no reference to the one guideline we learn on our first day on the encyclopedia? If we could just stick to the basic guidelines we learn on our first day rather than exclusionism for the sake of exclusionism... Bobo. 12:35, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Proposed merge of Amit Banerjee into List of Bengal cricketers[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


A barebone article Hatchens (talk) 08:48, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Lugnuts, I mean this in the most lighthearted, friendly way possible. Link your article creation contributions to this conversation. Allow people to PROD every single article which fits only the "barebones" of people's expectations. Let them get bored of PRODding seventy-five thousand article creations based on the fact these only contain the "barebones" of information with no "necessary biographical information". Or whatever they want to call it. There's no more or less information on these articles than there is on the cricket articles. Tell me what the difference is between cricket articles and those people claim to contain the "barebones" of information... Well? Bobo. 11:53, 3 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

RFC merger of players[edit]

Since it seems they have been unable to come to a consensus, opening this up to the awareness of others. Jerod Lycett (talk) 11:37, 4 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]

In case such as the four listed here, the case is less clear cut. There's an argument for doing so if we believe that it will be impossible to find sources that deal with the subject in reasonable depth. Each of the four cases is different:
  • in Ghosh's case he played a lot of cricket between 2005 and 2014 - just not very much of it at top level. I don't know what the quality of cricket journalism in India is like, but it's possible that we would see some coverage in suitable secondary sources; I doubt I would have suggested a merge in this case;
  • Amit Banerjee also played a lot of cricket between 2003 and 2014
  • Audrish Banerjee played an under-19 Test but then disappeared from the radar and we know very little about him. The Test makes me think that theres a story to be told there somewhere - but I don't know if we'll ever find the details;
  • Bhattacharjee we only know of four matches he ever played in - one of which was at the top level. I have doubts over whether or not we will ever be able to find sources
Overall I can see merits in the arguments Lugnuts makes above, suggesting that a stub is much more likely to be expanded than a redirect which is more likely to be left. Maybe these are not clear cases for redirect, so maybe they should be left as stubs. I also see merit in Johnlp's argument that sources may well exist in non-English language sources and that that makes it tricky to be clear about the need for a redirect. Certainly in the case of Ghosh I'm likely to be persuaded by this case. Those are both arguments I see merit in and have influenced me the most of all the oppose arguments above.
On the other hand, we do know very little about these chaps. Essentially we're reliant on statistical databases to build articles which are essentially made up of a synthesis of statistics. Can these articles ever be improved - well, yes: if in depth sources can be found; I did so to an article this morning. Does that mean we should keep every statistical synthesis stub?
Ultimately I don't know. My tendency is to prefer to merge to statistical lists and then expand to standalone articles when we know something more, but I can understand why users such as Lugnuts and Johnlp argue the other side of the line. Whatever the case is, I don't think it's a case of how many appearances anyone has made: there are articles where I think it's relatively clearcut that we should merge, but there are a great many articles where I'm a lot less sure. I don't think any of these are clearcut in either direction.
The other argument that can be made is that some of the matches that these men appeared in were not necessarily at the top domestic level in a suitable league. There is, I think, a very strong argument that can be made along those lines for some cricketers, although not necessarily for these players (I'm thinking university matches in recent seasons as one example). Defining a rather less exhaustive list that the dubious wording of "the top of level of domestic cricket" would probably be a good idea - as at WP:FOOTY.
So, yeah. I don't know in these cases but I think we're moving towards an acceptable compromise in other cases. Blue Square Thing (talk) 12:32, 4 July 2020 (UTC)Reply[reply]