[WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions

[phoebe ayers]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 8:03 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2010/1/21 Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com>:
>> On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Apoc 2400 <apoc2400 at gmail.com> wrote:

>> silent mass deletions are now an acceptable admin tactic.
>
>
> That bit's not ideal, I'd think they should be listed first. Perhaps a
> {{BLP-prod}}, where someone has a few days to put the references in.
> OR THE ARTICLE DIES.
>
> - d.

Agreed with David G. on this point. The general sentiment to keep up
with BLPs is ok, I think; but most of the time sources can be found
for most bios. (And yes, I do make an occasional hobby of sourcing
random BLPs -- it's hard work and takes at least a good hour or two
per bio to do properly, and that's with access to a full university
library). Running a mass deletion does have the unfortunate effect
that there's no time for anyone to scramble for sources, which folks
will do at least some of the time if given a chance. On the other
hand, if *all* unsourced bios are deleted, at least no one can claim
theirs was singled out for deletion! And hey, it gives a clean slate
to start with (she says, somewhat tongue in cheek).

But unless you dive into the categories, it's a little hard to get a
sense of the scale involved here. There's 51,000+ articles in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:All_unreferenced_BLPs, dating to
2006; at my hour-a-bio estimate for decent research, that's 2125 days
or 5.8 continuous years of labor by one very tired librarian. Even if
100 people are working on it, that's still two months of 8-hour days
for each person. Since even that seems pretty undoable, I can
understand the impulse to do something with immediate and visible
consequences.

And to disagree with Gwern: sourcing matters. You can correct subtle
mistakes, misunderstandings, and sometimes errors of fact in the
process of sourcing (I sourced a bio the other day where the husband
of the person involved had died in between when the bio was created
and when I worked on it; someone has to change "is married to.."
eventually and that's not the kind of thing you want to guess at). Not
to mention all the implications for readers, the larger project, etc.
etc. But personally I pick and choose, and only work on people whose
lives I find interesting -- I give the footballers, the olympians, and
the pop stars a miss. Those seem to be the bulk of BLPs, though, and
it seems like there are ought to be a good way to source those en
masse, maybe through the relevant wikiprojects.

-- phoebe