[WikiEN-l] Speedy deletion patrol

[Daniel P. B. Smith]

> From: David Boothroyd <david at election.demon.co.uk>
>
> I agree with this. A few days ago I created [[338171]]. Being rather
> bored at the time I gave a facetious edit summary which claimed the
> article was all about the number 338,171. It was swiftly tagged with
> a speedy delete tag, and then deleted (despite me having quickly put
> a {{hangon}}).
>
> The article was actually a redirect to T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of
> Arabia"). Wanting privacy, in later life Lawrence re-enlisted in the
> RAF as an Aircraftsman (equivalent of Private in the Army), and was
> given 338171 as his service number. He often signed himself "338171
> A/C Shaw", prompting Noel Coward to ask him "May I call you 338?".
>
> It was quite obvious on reading the article that it was actually a
> redirect. If the admin had checked the article to which it was
> redirected he would have found the reason explained there. So while
> it's legitimate to claim to have been misled by the edit summary,
> that really doesn't justify mistakenly speedying a perfectly good
> redirect. I appreciate that speedy deletion patrollers are often
> overworked but overwork is not an excuse for lack of common sense.

Good intentions are not an excuse for disrupting Wikipedia to  
illustrate a point.