# Fuck Wikipedia and its deletion fiends
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 28, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071 "2008-03-28T17:55:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/1 "2008-03-28T17:55:54Z")
A while ago I came across a Wikipedia page that had compiled the genealogy of the entire Taft family. I just went to look something up on it, trying to see how Taft Broadcasting fit into there, and I see that at the beginning of March it was “speedy” deleted as “blatant advertising.” Jesuswhatthefuck! Since when is it considered a public service to delete information that people find useful?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/2 "2008-03-28T17:57:36Z")
Advertising for what? A Taft biography?
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/3 "2008-03-28T17:59:00Z")
I have no idea. It was basically a family tree with notes on the significant accomplishments of the prominent Tafts. So far as I remember there was no advertising on it.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/4 "2008-03-28T18:15:00Z")
Everything deleted is still there. Just click the History tab and roll back to the version you want to see.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/5 "2008-03-28T18:20:38Z")
Don’t worry, **acsenray** , I found [this nifty image](http://blog.press.org/NPC/NPC_shrdlu/images/Page_027_Photo_sm.jpg) for your family album.
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### Author:  [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/6 "2008-03-28T18:25:15Z")
The [jokers](http://partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1483) at it again?
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/7 "2008-03-28T18:33:09Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti]
Everything deleted is still there. Just click the History tab and roll back to the version you want to see.
[/QUOTE]
So far as I can tell, it’s not. Apparently when an article is actually deleted, it’s gone, baby, gone. It’s not just like editing the content of an article.
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/8 "2008-03-28T18:37:53Z")
It happens that I just noticed a deletion half an hour ago.
Very very occasionnaly, I’ve made very minor modifications to Wikipedia articles (like correcting a faulty translation or similar stuff). For some reason, I looked up the articles I had corrected. One of them was an article about a small french village whose only claim to fame is the attribution of an Ignobel prize to a scout organization whose members had damaged prehistoric cave paintings there.
All references to the scouts damaging the paintings had been removed (even though the Ignobel prize was the only reason why the article had been created), with the mention “removed unsourced scout reference”. I looked up, and noticed that the corrector was apparently mostly (or only) writing articles about the scouts.
I wasn’t particularily pissed off but I couldnt help thinking that it was deleted only because it painted negatively a scout organization.
That said, this is unavoidable, given the nature of Wikipedia.
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### Author:  [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/9 "2008-03-28T19:05:11Z")
I asked a Wikipedia admin about this. Here was the response:
> [@Wikipedia Admin](#):
>
> In this case, the article was deleted by an overzealous admin (a different admin than the one I contacted, obviously - SC). It’s been restored: [Taft family - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft_family)
>
> The article needs better citations to reputable publications (not a freewebs genealogical site) or it will get attacked again – if they (meaning youse guys - SC) have any books or journal articles about the lineage to add, that’d be great.
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### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/10 "2008-03-28T19:14:27Z")
Nothing to add, I just wanted to say that **SisterCoyote** ’s reason for editing is pure gold.
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### Author:  [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/11 "2008-03-28T19:15:21Z")
Why, thank you.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/12 "2008-03-28T20:28:46Z")
[QUOTE=SisterCoyote]
I asked a Wikipedia admin about this. Here was the response:
[/QUOTE]
Great response trom Wikipedia! I had a feeling that hard deletion is very rare, if it’s an error then the text would be irrecoverable.
And to err is human …
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/13 "2008-03-28T20:39:48Z")
**SisterCoyote** , that is absolutely amazing! I never once thought that my grousing here would actually result in something.
(Now I wish I had been complaining about something important. Can I put you through to my mortgage broker? 😃 )
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/14 "2008-03-28T20:54:09Z")
As long as were on the subject of senseless deletions, can anyone tell me why the people pages were deleted? There used to be a simple alphabetical listing (along with their nationality, professions, and years they were alive) of all of the people who had biographical articles about them with links to the articles. It was a handy resource when you weren’t sure of a person’s exact name - as long as you had an approximate spelling of their last name, you could look them up.
As far as I can tell, all of these pages have been deleted. What possible reason did the termites give for that? Did they decide an index was too uncyclopediac? Too biocentric? Did they figure that the index was only 95% complete and it made more sense to delete it rather than complete it? Or did seeing a list of people who were more famous than them fill them with a senseless rage over society’s refusal to acknowledge than the universe revolved around them?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/15 "2008-03-28T22:22:47Z")
>
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### Author:  [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/16 "2008-03-28T23:08:30Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray]
**SisterCoyote** , that is absolutely amazing! I never once thought that my grousing here would actually result in something.
(Now I wish I had been complaining about something important. Can I put you through to my mortgage broker? 😃 )
[/QUOTE]
Trust me on this: I’m the _last_ person you want trying to help you with your finances. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/17 "2008-03-28T23:18:03Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti]
Great response trom Wikipedia! I had a feeling that hard deletion is very rare, if it’s an error then the text would be irrecoverable.
And to err is human …
[/QUOTE]
Deletions are very common, actually. Scores of crap articles are started every day: “Joey P. Alexander” whose main accomplishment is attending Hubert H. Humphrey high school and getting with all the chicks, “Unlimited Technologies, Ltd.” which is bringing the problem solving solutions of tomorrow to the consumers of today, and “Sam is a homofag”, for some examples.
Outright deletions of established articles are more rare, but do happen from time to time. There’s a deletion process that is usually gone through beforehand (and not the “speedy deletion” that was used here).
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### Author:  [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/18 "2008-03-28T23:26:11Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
As long as were on the subject of senseless deletions, can anyone tell me why the people pages were deleted? There used to be a simple alphabetical listing (along with their nationality, professions, and years they were alive) of all of the people who had biographical articles about them with links to the articles. It was a handy resource when you weren’t sure of a person’s exact name - as long as you had an approximate spelling of their last name, you could look them up.
As far as I can tell, all of these pages have been deleted. What possible reason did the termites give for that? Did they decide an index was too uncyclopediac? Too biocentric? Did they figure that the index was only 95% complete and it made more sense to delete it rather than complete it? Or did seeing a list of people who were more famous than them fill them with a senseless rage over society’s refusal to acknowledge than the universe revolved around them?
[/QUOTE]
I asked, but my contact\* may not know the answer.
\*hee. My contact. I feel all big and important and stuff.
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### Author:  [@shigyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shigyu)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/19 "2008-03-28T23:47:00Z")
It seems reasonable to delete an article with absolutely no sources outside of a single web site run by a single person.
Wikipedia has pretty lax policies, but it does have policies. “If no reliable, third-party (in relation to the subject) sources can be found for an article topic, Wikipedia should not have an article on it.”
> **[Wikipedia:Verifiability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability)**
>
> In the English Wikipedia, verifiability means other people using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Wikipedia does not publish original research. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than editors' beliefs, opinions, or experiences. Even if you are sure something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it.\[a\] If reliable sources disagree, then maintain a neutral point of view and present what the various sources...
They certainly have the right to enforce their own rules.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-wikipedia-and-its-deletion-fiends/443071/20 "2008-03-28T23:59:16Z")
Some Wikipedia policies are just dumb. I’ve contributed a considerable amount to an article on a singer with a four octave range. This is the sort of thing that is tossed around quite freely, to the point that people have claimed that Mariah Carey has a “seven octave range”. So I actually verified the singers highest and lowest recorded notes by verifying the frequency of each note. Now I’m arguing the inclusion of this information with the sort of Wiki-Lawyer type who delights in pointing out that this is verboten “original research”. Apparently the cause of an encyclopedia is better suited by external, **unverified** sources rather than proof of facts.
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