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 merge to Squirrel-sponsored cyberterrorism. SoWhy 18:16, 15 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Squirrel induced power outages in Pennsylvania (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)

(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

Is this a notable topic? Appears to be a WP:POINTy riff on Animal attacks and its subpages (which are absolute disasters). Article creator went from editing Animal attacks to creating Squirrel attacks and then creating this page. Plantdrew (talk) 04:16, 7 June 2017 (UTC) Plantdrew (talk) 04:16, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment Not to mention Squirrel-sponsored cyberterrorism. Meters (talk) 04:20, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep Change it to Wikipedia:Humor--Biografer (talk) 04:31, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Merge to animal attacks. Animal threat to infrastructure deserves at least a section, and this could be merged to such a section (article?). But this topic (squirrels treat in a single US province, or even a country itself - the article is confused about its scope...) is very unlikely to be notable in itself. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:17, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Animal attacks article is about the topic of attacks on human beings. The scope of the article does not include animals attacking inanimate objects like wires, electrical grids, doggy chew toys, catnip toys or my shoes.

Best Regards,

Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 12:12, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Pennsylvania-related deletion discussions. CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 06:14, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. CAPTAIN RAJU^(T) 06:14, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Merge with Squirrel-sponsored cyberterrorism; definitely a similar subject matter, and very short article; uncertain what title it should be merged under. --Colapeninsula (talk) 08:48, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The article was created yesterday and is still undergoing expansion. It will end up being larger.

Best Regards,

Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 12:15, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete. While there's certainly cause to discuss squirrel damage to infrastructure, there's absolutely no reason to attempt to list specific incidents, especially by state. There's nothing special about the squirrels or the power lines in Pennsylvania. And, indeed, the article doesn't try to convince us otherwise; it's almost exclusively a big list of links to news reports of squirrel damage. That doesn't cut it for notability, either. Call this a "trivial intersection" or just silly, but this isn't suitable for inclusion. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 13:36, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Delete this is WP:UNDUE. Some of the sources (e.g. [1]) merely speculate about the involvement of squirrels, they don't confirm it. Power~enwiki (talk) 22:05, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The speculation is sourced. Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 20:59, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep - I created the article Animal attacks and often return to it to edit and add more content. I noted that the attacks of squirrels were missing from Animal attacks, and did my Google search to find that not only do squirrels attack humans, they do it frequently, they do it frequently in Pennsylvania, and they damage power grids while being characterized as terrorists. Watching my editing history only demonstrates that I tend to add content to a number of similar topics at the same time. Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 11:28, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Animal-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:43, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Events-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:43, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Technology-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:43, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• delete as trivia. Heck, on my street alone we get a squirrel-frying outage every year or so. Plenty of other things take down the power all the time: what's next, falling trees? Mangoe (talk) 15:52, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but did your squirrels make it into the newspaper? Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 20:59, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"Making it into the newspaper" is precisely why we have WP:NOTNEWS. One doesn't even have to read the articles, but only run the mouse pointer over the reference numbers to see that this is routine coverage, mostly in small-town papers, of events that are forgotten after a week or two. Mangoe (talk) 11:13, 10 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• delete per WP:INDISCRIMINATE. I think Mangoe sums it up for me. Lots of things can cause power outages, including falling branches. So why would we have a list for outages caused by squirrels? I also note that we have a little spate of squirrel-related articles from this editor at Afd, and this needs to stop, I believe. I note that the article creator is a Wikipedian Visiting Scholar, and Wikipedian in Residence with the University of Pittsburgh. Yet she states on her user talk page that her goal in creating one of the other squirrel articles was not guided by policy, but "to create an article that a third-grader would love." That's really not what we're here for. I don't know what obligations or responsibilities come with being a Wikipedian Visiting Scholar, and Wikipedian in Residence, but surely it's not to create articles like Squirrel induced power outages in Pennsylvania. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 18:21, 8 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Touché, Montreal. I probably should have used my other account, Bfpage for the squirrel-article-creation frenzy, but Pitt is used to my shenanigans by now. I consider having three articles up for AfD something as a badge. I disagree about what we are here for. I write for my grandchildren. That is what we are here for. The future. You think something is wrong with the squirrels, check out my other masterpiece Empathy in chickens. That got deleted once and then was re-hatched after I successfully provided even more astounding references. I'll change it to a list article, if you would like. Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 20:59, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Delete Really, this is going a bit far. Are we going to have one for every state? for every animal? How is this notable? Please don't let the squirrel in your bonnet lead you up the garden path that much, Barbara :p --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 08:09, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Well, yes actually, there could be a page for every state. The best sources are about squirrels though the UK has more problems with birds and power outages. Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 20:59, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Merge as a section of Squirrel-sponsored cyberterrorism. Tvoz/talk 17:06, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Redirect and selective merge to Squirrel-sponsored cyberterrorism. TROUT article creator for WP:POINTy article creation.E.M.Gregory (talk) 19:05, 14 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
• Merge to Squirrel-sponsored cyberterrorism. One article will suffice. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 07:24, 15 June 2017 (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.