MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
I felt existed with the current deletion-related policies, that there's no easy way to revisit a deletion that's been closed like this and to challenge votes made without any significant justification provided.
That's the whole point, if there's a Wayback Machine link that shows it was popular there's enough justification for undeletion, but if justification with extra info wasn't required all deletions would be contested by people who are trying to get something into Wikipedia for their own purposes rather than creating an encyclopedia. A safeguard is needed.
I don't have any interest in web comics or the Wayback Machine. This pretty well qualifies me for not having a specific opinion on the matter. I understand that it was Bryan's interest in that subject that led to his comments. To the extent that you quote him it is about a far more important and far more general issue. That issue does not depend on the justifications that you used for deleting a particular type of article.
Bryan has been around since Wikipedia's first year, and has a proven track record of acting in the best interests of the encyclopedia. I don't see him as pushing a POV for his own purposes. The fact that he has endured some of the bullshit that passes for opinion for so long adds considerable weight to his opinion. Imputing the motive that others are trying to keep an article for purposes of their own is an assumption of bad faith.
He is talking about the need for safeguards, safeguards against having deletions that get so caught up in bureaucratic process that no wrong can be undone.
When VfU gets hung up on the matter of process vs. content it has perhaps reached the point where it should be scrapped entirely. Let it be replaced by a policy that *any* decided AfD is reopenable by anyone. This does not imply automatic undeletion, but it will certainly make it easier for those of us who do not spend all our time on AfD like a mother bird waiting for her eggs to hatch, or do not learn that an article has even existed until it is deleted.
Ec