G4 (copied from Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2010 November 4#Carli Banks)

  • I'm concerned that IronGargoyle's interpretation may be based on a fear of what can happen with extreme cases. I think what IronGargoyle may have had in mind is a certain often-AfD'd BLP about a man whose initials are DB, or similar cases, and in those cases he has a truly excellent point.

    However, hard cases make bad law, and the slippery slope argument is a kind of informal fallacy. DGG's remark above is very cogent. If we decide that an article that's once been deleted at AfD can be G4'ed ad infinitum thereafter, then are we not overruling the principle that consensus can change? Speedy deletion should surely be reserved for blindingly obvious cases, and material that's survived AfD at one point may be assumed not to be blindingly obvious. In those cases G4 should surely be restricted to copy/paste recreations, or other extremely similar recreations, of the deleted material.—S Marshall T/C 21:38, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

  • What do you understand DGG's point to be, Mkativerata? (DGG's given in shorthand here something that he's explained at great length elsewhere, so misunderstanding is very possible.) I believe that what DGG's saying is far from nonsensical. It seems to me to follow from Wikipedia's custom and practice at AfD that an article that's put through AfD enough times is going to be deleted regardless of its merits, simply because the outcome of an AfD depends so much on who shows up to discuss it, and (dare I say it) whether it's a deletionist who closes it, too. After about five or six AfDs the probability of at least one "delete" consensus approaches unity, irrespective of the actual content under consideration.—S Marshall T/C 21:57, 6 November 2010 (UTC)
  • I just don't accept the proposition. Perhaps I have more faith in AfD participants and closing admins to make the right calls and not treat AfD as a game than you and DGG. --Mkativerata (talk) 22:01, 6 November 2010 (UTC)
  • That's interesting, given your frequent participation at DRV. I find your trust in your fellow Wikipedians heartwarming, and I admire your ability to see so many DRVs without losing faith in the AfD process. But personally I find that my own participation at DRV has led me to believe the proportion of bad decisions is unacceptably high.—S Marshall T/C 22:12, 6 November 2010 (UTC)
  • I tend to find most bad calls at DRV are on speedy deletions; very few AfD closes get overturned and when they do it's often for a reason unrelated to the closing admin's performance. --Mkativerata (talk) 22:23, 6 November 2010 (UTC)
  • Are you talking about bad calls occurring at AfD/Speedy that get reviewed at DRV? Or are you talking about bad calls by DRV closers? In either case, I don't share your cynicism, S Marshall. If it is the former you are concerned about, I think the opposite is actually happening. I could be misreading things, but I perceive a noticeable decrease in the number of pages that show up at DRV on a daily basis, versus several years ago. Other areas of Wikipedia may be a worse battleground now, but I don't think that is true at DRV. IronGargoyle (talk) 02:27, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
  • I'm talking about the former. DRVs are generally closed well, even when I don't agree with the outcome.

    I think "cynicism" is perhaps a bit strong. I'm concerned about FairProcess but the main reason I participate in DRV is because I don't believe AfD closers always get it right. I think the proportion of bad closes to good ones could be improved. And should be improved. I feel our (largely well-meaning) admin corps contains individuals who occasionally rush AfD closures a bit too much, and this bears watching. I also think that sometimes, the discussion itself is inadequate or fails to find an important point. I don't accept that this is "cynicism" and I'm somewhat surprised that others who participate in DRV don't seem to see it that way—why else participate in DRV?

    I agree that there are fewer pages showing up at DRV than a few years ago but I think this correlates with the decline in the number of new editors that Wikipedia's experiencing (which is itself a worrying problem and I think it's partly because most of the important articles have been written now, but also partly because after so many years of WP:CREEP new participants can't make head nor tail of the labyrinthine bureaucracy we've built up and they give up.) I think, too, there's less willingness to discuss administrative decisions because they're increasingly seen as beyond appeal. And I've just seen evidence that there are administrators who think that too. Last night, an administrator came to my talk page apparently in order to tell me that he agreed with my non-admin closure of an AfD, so he wasn't going to reverse me. (Peculiar.) His opinion seemed to be that only administrators are allowed judge consensus. In the Wikipedia I remember joining, the rule was that anyone can judge consensus but only administrators are allowed to delete material.

    In short, I think we're inadvertently evolving towards a culture where administrators are no longer ordinary users with extra tools, and have become mandarins. DRV is an important counter to that, and the decline in the number of cases being brought here is of concern to me because of that. I'm even more anxious to see that anyone who comes here goes away feeling that they've had a fair hearing and the closure has been properly examined rather than simply rubber-stamped.—S Marshall T/C 10:52, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Can't agree with Mkativerata 21:42, 6 November 2010 "The community's consensus should always be measured, definitively". Consensus is not measurable definitively, short of unanimously, and consensus is not unanimity. Requiring definitive consensus would prevent timely decision making. AfDs often close with sparse input. An old AfD represents consensus only per WP:SILENCE. If a subsequent AfD comes to a consensus that the previous Afd was not (or is no longer) correct, then consensus is clearly found in only the latter AfD. Arguments in the former AfD must be addressed in the latter.
However, I do, like Mkativerata, have faith in experienced-wikipedian AfD participants and closing admins. Inaccurate presentation of facts, or policy, or bad faith arguments, and bad closing, are all resoundingly counseled as required by DRV discussions, and such problems are not the norm.
Most admins seem know good content and to readily recognize when a new re-creation should, or should not be G4-ed. But should anyone disagree with the deletion, and the G4 deleting admin insists or doesn't respond, then WP:DRV welcomes such questions. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 01:40, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
That "consensus can change" would be undermined is a nonsensical argument to me. I can see it (though disagree) with relation to G4 as a whole, but not relative to this loophole. Are we saying "consensus can change only if we once decided to keep, or couldn't reach a consensus, however if we decide it should be deleted in all discussions, then consensus can't change...", of course not, the principal of consensus can change should hold in either case and if we see G4 as a restriction on that then G4 itself is the problem regardless of deletion debate outcomes. That said "consensus can change" as I've said before as a bare argument with no "evidence" that it has is a rather impotent argument. We wouldn't/shouldn't entertain relisting of items for deletion in case consensus has changed since last time around, nor should we in terms of recreation. --82.7.40.7 (talk) 13:15, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

As an aside, policy and guideline pages are generally supposed to follow common practice, and not usually the other way round. So if the text on this page doesn't reflect common practice, it should be changed. - jc37 07:17, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

BLPs of people under 18

Discussion moved to Wikipedia talk:Biographies of living persons. Skomorokh 23:09, 19 November 2010 (UTC)