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 delete. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 05:54, 13 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Losebinne[edit]

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This article was PRODded but I'm bringing it to AFD because I didn't feel 100% confident in pulling the trigger on it. The subject is a Chinese writer known only by the pen name Losebinne, who (the article asserts) is a famous novelist.

The PROD nomination was rather long but I'll attempt to sum up the arguments here:

The article doesn't assert notability
The article is badly written and reads like an ad
There appears to be no Chinese Wiki equivalent article
Searches turn up little evidence of the subject

Personally, I disagree with point 1 (the article clearly asserts notability) and point 2 is not a reason to delete an article. I'm just not sure about points 3 and 4: I found a lot of hits for the subject when searching in Chinese (消失宾妮 ) though not many for the Pinyin transliteration (xiaoshibinni), but Chinese is all Greek to me. Some of the article's references can be dismissed out of hand, as they're sourced to Baidu Baike, another crowd-sourced encyclopaedia. But I'm not certain of the others and it would be very helpful to have a Chinese reader weigh in. A Train^talk 15:35, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Since my original nomination was rather equivocal... I support deleting this article based on the reading of the sources by Madalibi below. A Train^talk 19:18, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

*Comment. A Chinese speaking friend sent me this interview with the article subject from Sina.com, one of China's major news portals. I might just retract this nom. I've already pinged WikiProject China for an assist. A Train^talk 16:17, 5 October 2016 (UTC) See newer comments below. A Train^talk 19:18, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Delete as I still confirm my extensive PROD here and, unless actual good sources can be found, which seems unlikely given the listed information, I'm not seeing the substance we would need. SwisterTwister talk 16:48, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: One of many thousands of online writers in China. She should be notable for an entry in the Chinese Wikipedia but most likely not here. Since the vast majority of our readers are outside of China, it is extremely unlikely anyone is going to intentionally search for the subject and there are language problems all over the article. Above all, despite I think the materials in the article are generally true, the sources given are of very poor quality, mostly Baidu Baike (as mentioned) and Douban (which is a forum/Q&A Social Media site). WdS | Talk 16:56, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. Not a single source cited in the footnotes would be considered a reliable source on Wikipedia, and not a single one shows notability anyway. Here's a detailed analysis. Note 1: "360 Encyclopedia": mirror page of that writer's entry on Baidu Encyclopedia (see note 3). Note 2: the writer's entry on the website of her company ("Zuibook", referred to as "Shanghai Most World Culture Development Limited" in the lede). Note 3: Baidu Encyclopedia (also crowd sourced, and with very lax standards of inclusion). Note 4: the writer's microblog on Douban.com, which Wikipedia presents as "a Chinese SNS website allowing registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, and recent events and activities in Chinese cities". Note 5: a thankfully brief collection of platitudes allegedly said by that writer, and presented in the third person ("likes trying all the flavors of milk tea, doesn't care if she will get fat"). Note 6: a reader's assessment of one of the writer's works on book.douban.com (part of Douban). Note 7: Losebinne's blog on Sina.com. Notes 8, 10, 12, and 13: brief entries on her works on Baidu Encyclopedia. Notes 9, 11, and 14: brief entries on the author's work on book.douban.com; no information: just readers' ratings. Summary: a mix of self-published sources, promotional material, and fan content. Not the stuff an encyclopedia is made of. Madalibi (talk) 16:59, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Madalibi, thank you very much for the Chinese reader's perspective. I think that's pretty conclusive. Does this article move the needle in either direction? A Train^talk 17:18, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome, A Train! The link you give is to an interview with three "youth authors" who work for the same agency (the one cited in note 2: see my analysis above). The interview took place in August 2009 at a Shanghai book fair and was held by the Sina correspondent at that fair. Losebinne's lines are mostly about what she thinks of cats (the subject of her most recent publication), her agency, and the (more notable) writer Guo Jingming, who founded the agency. The content of the chat is fairly trivial, and as the three authors (on whom no background information is given) work for the same agency, we can probably assume that the interview was booked by the agency itself. I'm afraid we're still far from "significant coverage in multiple published secondary sources that are reliable, intellectually independent of each other, and independent of the subject" – the basic criteria for notability for people: see WP:BASIC – and from the supplementary criteria listed under WP:AUTHOR. Madalibi (talk) 18:04, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again, Madalibi, really. It's good with articles like this that we aren't just reinforcing our default Western bias and checking with people who can actually understand the sources. A Train^talk 19:18, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome again, A Train. :) Yes, it's always prudent to ask that kind of question. I remember saving the then-not-so-well-referenced article Chinese food therapy about two years ago against an AfD that probably followed this kind of bias. As for the topic at hand, I checked Google News to see if I could find something in Chinese on Losebinne. Most of the 73 search results are articles about Guo Jingming, himself a youth author and founder of the agency with which Losebinne is under contract. And what appeared to be an article on one of Losebinne's new books turned out to be a five-line blurb written by a news agency. I think we're pretty safe deleting this article, unless of course someone can find other reliable sources on this topic, in which case I will gladly reverse my support for deletion. Madalibi (talk) 02:08, 6 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 17:56, 5 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of China-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 17:56, 5 October 2016 (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.