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 - Highland Games are as much about music as they are athletics. I'm quite satisfied that Notability has been established. Nick (talk) 13:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ryan McFarland[edit]

Ryan McFarland (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

Biography of an accounting student/part-time musician who does not appear to meet WP:MUSIC or any other notability guideline. The individual has competed in a number of national music competitions associated with Highland games, but it is unclear if any of these qualifies as "a major music competition" (criteria 9) instead of athletic events with added musical and dance components. Cited sources are lists of competition winners with no information beyond the names of individual winners instead of the non-trivial coverage normally expected for verifiability purposes. Allen3 ^talk 15:34, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Article may have copyright/plagiarism issues as it appears to have been a straight copy from User:Ryan McFarland. Issue is not completely clear as account creation time for Fing Yon (talk · contribs) combined with a rapid recreation of a speedy deleted article suggests that he may be the same person as Ryan McFarland (talk · contribs). --Allen3 ^talk 19:34, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete. Appalling vanity. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:47, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep Thank you User:Allen3 for notifying me of this discussion. Winning the B March at the Cowal Highland Gathering [1] alone places McFarland amongst the top competitive pipers in the world today and satisfies WP:MUSIC guidelines and other numerous notability guidelines. Barring a few exceptions, the greatest professional pipers in the world are all part/time musicians and have full time jobs as well. Entry to the Argyllshire Gathering see [2] is one of the premier piping competitions in the world with rigorous entry testing based on track record of past results and there is no question it meets (criteria 9). To gain entry to this competition places you in the worlds top 100 pipers and to finish in the prize-list at this competition is notable indeed. Please also notice link 8 ([3]) which talks of McFarland as being a 'well known piper' and further evidence of notability.

Please also notice a direct quote here form McFarland published on PipesDrums Magazine ([4]) regarding Bleary & District Pipe Band. Please also notice in Category:Bagpipe_players only 5 of the 25 names listed have achieved more competitive success than McFarland. Please also note that there will be a steady increase in this list over the coming weeks as more of the top competitve pipers in the world from Priemier, A Grade and B Grade will be uploaded such as prize winners form the Argyllshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting[[5], Cowal Highland Gathering [6] to wikipedia. Successful Solo Pipers are cleary defined as the most competent Highland Bagpipers in the world. Fing Yon —Preceding comment was added at 19:53, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Please notice latest updates to the page providing albums McFarland has appeared on and radio broadcasts he has appeared on. Thanks Fing Yon —Preceding comment was added at 20:57, 27 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - Just a further note about the reliability of the links. Allen3 stated “Cited sources are lists of competition winners with no information beyond the names of individual winners instead of the non-trivial coverage normally expected for verifiability purposes”

Pipes Drums Magazine is the world’s largest Piping Publication and is totally independent! ^[1] If Allen3 had taken the time to look through the links thoroughly he would have found this. To be an individual who gets published on PipeDrums Magazine clearly defines that individual as notable and newsworthy. Just to add to Allen3, quote above, these “names of individual winners” as he calls it are indeed news articles of the biggest solo piping contests in the world.

Allen3 also stated “The individual has competed in a number of national music competitions associated with Highland games, but it is unclear if any of these qualifies as "a major music competition" (criteria 9) instead of athletic events with added musical and dance components.”

Please see links to [7] and [8] and make up your own mind these qualify as “a major music competition” (criteria 9). Allen3 also stated that “the individual has competed in a number of national music competitions” If he had have taken the time to look trough the links thoroughly he would have found that McFarland competes at International Level against the greatest pipers in the world at the top solo competitions in the world.

In conclusion I think Allen3's argument is weak and not thoroughly researched. I have proved every one of his points wrong here in this discussion! Don’t take my word for it, just look at the cited sources and you will see for yourself. A strong Keep.Fing Yon

• Keep Whilst the competitive bagpiping world may be geographically contained, achievements within it are no less notable for that. The article could do with some work but I do believe the subject to be worthy of inclusion; in amongst the laundry list of achievements are wins at Highland and Island Young Piper of the Year, an event which the BBC describes as 'prestigious' in a note about another previous winner - Griogair Lawrie [9] and at the All-Ireland Championships a competition which BBC Northern Ireland considers important enough to televise [10]. I think this qualifies them as "major music competitions" and is enough to satisfy criteria 9. nancy ^(talk) 17:33, 2 December 2007 (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.