Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Casque & Gauntlet Society

This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record.
The result of the debate was - no consensus - SimonP 05:55, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC)

Casque & Gauntlet Society

It seems the guys from Dartmouth College are back and creating articles about their unimportant student organisations. Dunc|☺ 18:35, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• Delete, merge with Dartmouth College. Tygar 22:40, Mar 12, 2005 (UTC)
• Merge and redirect unless third-party verifiable evidence of anyone else caring can be found - David Gerard 14:00, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. Founded in 1886 and includes Nelson Rockefeller among its former members. Student societies which have been around for 100+ years are notable enough, and certainly more so than fictional spaceships etc. There is some more on the society here. / Uppland 18:33, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
• Merge and redirect to Dartmouth College. Dpbsmith (talk) 02:37, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Comment Last year, Peter C. Wayner, author of some well-regarded books on cryptography, and visiting computer science professor at Dartmouth, was teaching an introductory course for non-programmers. To give them the feeling of what an open source development project was like, he gave them the assignment of writing Wikipedia articles. The assignment clearly stated that they were to read Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not before beginning.

It is estimated that about 350 articles were contributed, most pretty good and therefore unnoticed by VfD. For a typical example, see Sanditon, an article about an unpublished Jane Austen novel.

Unfortunately, a relatively small fraction of the students created breezy pieces, written in promotional language, about minor campus activities. Perhaps thirty or forty of these were contributed, to the astonishment, dismay, and eventual disgust of VfD regulars. Many thought, incorrectly, that Wayner had advised or suggested the creation of these crufty articles. An animus against Dartmouth persisted to the degree that even articles about Dartmoor in England have gotten comments about "the Dartmouth students are at it again."

The episode, while perfectly understandable, was not Wikipedia's finest hour. Let's try to put it behind us and not make snide remarks every time a Dartmouth-related article comes up. Dpbsmith (talk) 02:37, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• That would mean deleting this society is appropriate, no? Radiant_* 14:19, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.