[WikiEN-l] Partial solution to rampant deletionism

[Rick]

Why should it be up to the "deletionists", as you choose to call those of us who use and value VfD, to improve garbage which is garbage to begin with and will always be garbage?  Please tell me how to improve [[Tsesungunille]], an article about a place that the original author made up.  Or [[Old Granny Sweat Weed ]], which no one can find any source to prove that it actually exists, except for the source cited in the article, which no one can find either.  Or [[Disappearing hoagies]], which is supposedly about sandwiches disappearing from the parking lot during Philadelphia Eagles games.  Or [[Abek]], about the supposed colonization of Brazil by Basques, which no one can verify.  Or [[The mode of production of free software ]], which is the Marxist theory of free software.  If we are ordered to improve these articles, I'd love to know how.
 
I'm also sick and tired of being ridiculed about the snooker guy.  At the time I placed it on VfD, the article consisted of "Born 1949. A snooker champion. He turned professional in 1971. He drank and smoked during tournaments helping sponsored tobacco advertising. Today he is better known for his throat cancer and a stand against tobacco industry."  Please tell me how I'm supposed to know that this is a meaningful article about an important person, based upon this information?
 
RickK

James Duffy <jtdire at hotmail.com> wrote:
>I think a statement by Jimbo, if he agrees, that it is up to the 
>deletionists to improve articles (rather than >deleting them) will be 
>somewhat useful for the non-deletionists. I am tired of seeing articles 
>listed for >deletion, simply because somebody thinks it "sucks"; I am tired 
>of being threatened, "You either improve >this article within the week; OR, 
>we are gonna kill it!"

(A classic example was the proposed 
deletion of an article on a famous one-time winner of the World Snooker 
championships, someone known to millions worldwide but simply not known to 
Americans, therefore thought of as not warranting a page. Though to be fair, 
the proposer of this ludicrous deletion did realise from the laughter of the 
rest of the world that he had made a mistake. Not all proposers of loopy 
deletions accept that they made a mistake and crusade to delete perfectly 
fine articles simply because /they/ don't accept the article.


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