Rebecca wrote:
The very essence of what makes Wikipedia work is consensus.
Fine! Then why are we bothering with votes?
It concerns me that a handful of inclusionists, who realise that their views are not shared by the majority of the community, simply turn to claiming that "VFD is broken", because it does not get their desired results.
What do you know about the majority olf the community? Thise who participate regularly in VfD, yes and no votes together, are not a majority of the community. The majority of the community can't be bothered with VfD because it's such a time waster.
People have put things on VFD before that I've agreed with. I've argued a case that they shouldn't be deleted, and it's very rare that such an article has then gone ahead and be deleted. If you put up an argument, and the majority *still* think that it should be deleted, then tough. That's the way it works.
Maybe that's the way you wan't it to work. Why should I need to put together an argument about something that I know nothing about just to try to convince someone who knows even less about the subject that it's worth keeping?
VFD *is* growing too large to be maintainable, but that's a result of our continued growth, rather than some evil plan by the deletionists to go on an annihilating spree. A solution to that needs to be found, and I'm not sure what, but allowing junk to remain in the pedia is not the answer.
Much of this so-called "junk" is perfectly harmless. General growth is only part of the reason. Nobody is suggesting that the deletionists are even capable of concocting an evil plan. I find them more like a Dr. Strangelove who will struggle for survival even if it kills him. The delusional missions of zealots are always pursued with the best of intentions ... a phalanx of perfectionists in chasing the impossible.
Many of the disputed articles are stubs, and even in their totality will likely take less space on the server than the verbiage about whether to delete them.
Ec