Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/David Mertz/Archive

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 keep. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 05:49, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] David Mertz

Not particularly notable. Created by, and the vanity page of, User:Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters, jguk 21:39, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

For the avoidance of doubt, if indeed there is some, whilst it is through looking at David's userpage that I became aware of this article, I do not think writing for IBM DeveloperWorks makes someone notable enough for a WP article. Just in the same way as I don't think someone writing a column for my local newspaper is notable enough for a WP article. That is why I think this page should be deleted, jguk 22:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Delete as vanity. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 22:04, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)
• Lulu, there seems to be a fairly strong consensus that Wikipedians should avoid creating articles about themselves. Please see Wikipedia:Autobiography. However, it does look like you are sufficiently notable; Keep. Samaritan 22:12, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Delete as vanity and self-promotion-- Doc Glasgow 22:19, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)withdrawn
• Weak Keep.

Apparently User:Jguk has a vendetta against me because s/he disagrees with me on the proper Wikipedia policy regarding use of styles. S/he wishes to delete the page about my non-Wikipedia activity/publication, by attaching the {{vfd}}.

I apologize to Wikipedians for creating the page initially. I was not aware at the time that there was a policy against autobiography pages. In the last couple days I have read this fact, along with VFD policy and other pages so tagged.

I did not write the original version of the page about me, but borrowed the (public domain) http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DavidMertz. I added it because I had noticed several Wikipedia articles that referred to me before that time. And while I am certainly no Dijkstra, my articles do show up in the first 2-3 hits in Google for several significant CS concepts (e.g. regular expressions, multiple dispatch, python iterators/generators). Also, contra the "local newspaper" claim of Jguk, the articles I write for IBM developerWorks and other places have several hundred thousand readers, which is along the lines of well-known print magazines.Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 18:29, 2005 Apr 27 (UTC)

• Keep, reluctantly. Being CTO of the Open Voting Consortium is enough to reach notability as far as I'm concerned. Kelly Martin 23:02, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)
• Keep, balance of the doubt probably favours notability here, although LOTLE should be encouraged not to edit the page. Slac speak up! 03:00, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep but borderline. Needs expansion. Has some notability. Megan1967 07:50, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Should all six billion Discordian Popes get extra honorifics before their names? As for this article, weak keep, near the edge of notability. Barno 15:41, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. Just because he's a Wikipedian doesn't mean he isn't notable. — Asbestos | Talk 11:22, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Just a little note: when I looked up David Mertz in various computer science bibliographic databases, there were four papers who he possibly authored (possibly, as in there maybe being several people of the same name): two were on philosophical logic, one was apparently on mathematical logic, and the last one, co-authored, was on electronic voting. This indicates to me that David Mertz is not particularly well known in the computer science community. That said, he may be a well-known columnist on programming topics; I don't know. David.Monniaux 20:47, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Followup to David.Monniaux citations moved to David Mertz talk page. Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 20:50, 2005 May 5 (UTC)

• Keep, but LOTLE should completely refrain from editing this article. If you have any changes you think should be made to it, tell me, and I'll have a look. Seems notable! Smoddy (Rabbit and pork) 20:31, 5 May 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.