[Wikipedia-l] Entries for deletion.... issues from the Third World

[Robert Brockway]

On Mon, 8 Jan 2007, J.L.W.S. The Special One wrote:

> While working on articles about Singaporean movies, I've encountered a
> similar problem: difficulty finding references due to systemic bias.
>
> Some seem to have the impression that Singaporean = non-notable. I've
> seen articles on many Singaporean topics, which no Singaporean would
> contest the notability of, get nominated for deletion, under the claim
> of non-notability.
>
> That Wikipedia suffers from systemic bias is not surprising.

I'm afraid I've seen this also.  Non-US articles appear much more likely 
to come up for AfD.

But it's not just geographic.  The Maui Cluster Scheduler actually came up 
for deletion with a result of "no concensus".  This is a piece of software 
that is an integral component of high performance clusters the world over. 
One voter apparently wanted it deleted because it was not useful for his 
home PC.  At the very best this is parochial.

I'm glad this topic has come up for discussion.  IMHO the entire deletion 
process (including speedy deletion) needs to come up for review.  It's too 
easy for articles to come up for AfD.

It was interesting to sit in a Greater Toronto Area Linux User Group 
meeting recently and hear people list many (IMHO) reasonable articles that 
had been deleted.  This was a spontaneous discussion.  I bet if so many 
people in Toronto are concerned about the deletion process that we aren't 
alone.

Rob

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