Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Roberto Weiss

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. —Korath (Talk) 02:16, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Roberto Weiss

While probably a very good UCL professor, his own grandson was unable to write enough about him to expand the article beyond a stub. A.D.H. (t&m) 21:02, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC) Contrary to my expectations, this article has been expanded into a brief but informative biography. In light of this, and given current consensus, I'm removing the VFD notice. A.D.H. (t&m) 19:59, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)

• Keep. Roberto Weiss was an important scholar who published several influential books and many articles on the renaissance and humanism. He was a member of numerous academies and held the professorhip of Italian at UCL for 23 years. Have you tried searching for information on Weiss before making this nomination? / u p p l a n d 22:31, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
  • There are thousands of university professors and even more published academics—my own family is not without its share—and these accomplishments do not automatically imply encyclopedic notability. The article, a series of single-sentence factoids, is "fluffed" to begin with, and yet still does not exceed a single paragraph. A.D.H. (t&m) 22:54, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)
    • The current policy on academics on Wikipedia is the professor test: "If the individual is more well known and more published than an average college professor, they can and should be included". Roberto Weiss clearly meets that requirement. / u p p l a n d 14:36, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
      • This is not current policy. Please read the linked page you cite. It is a proposal. It has never received consensus. Please do not attempt "proof by repeated assertion." And it is not not a test "for academics," but one proposed measure of notability for inclusion of any biography. Dpbsmith (talk) 15:06, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
        • Fine, it is not current policy then, but is the best we have until people agree on something. A policy is needed. Judging the notability of academics by voting in each case is difficult and puts them at a disadvantage compared to pop-culture celebrities and sportspeople (and slashdot trolls, for that matter). / u p p l a n d 16:50, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
          • That's true, but this isn't the forum for discussing it. I suppose Wikipedia:Village pump would be the best place to raise it and start a discussion. Let me know if you do. Mattley 17:41, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• very weak keep. Borderline for sure but the article is nicely done (overlinked, though). Search on "The Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity" yields 180 hits, virtually all relevant. The book is in print, in a paperback edition that Amazon can ship within a couple of days, but only has a sales rank of 1,216,577 (my personal rule-of-thumb is the rank should be higher than 200,000). The John Buchan connection is mildly interesting. www.abebooks.com turns up 31 used copies books by him; interestingly enough there are many other titles besides "The Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity." My local public library doesn't have any books by him but the local library interloan network has "Humanism In England During The Fifteenth Century." and "The spread of Italian" humanism. I'm being inconsistent because I've voted to delete roughly comparable academics, but, hey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, right? I think I'm being swayed by the snapshot. Note that if the article is voted for deletion, this would be very appropriate material for User:Squiquifox's user page—and Wikipedia user pages are indexed by Google. Dpbsmith (talk) 00:05, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. I'm not especially keen on people writing articles on family members but this man seems more than significant enough for inclusion. It is a specialised field but he seems to have been a very big contributor, with books still in print and widely referenced on university reading lists, and collections established by him in use at several institutions. Note, incidentally, that a Professor at a university in the United Kingdom is what Americans would call a full professor. Mattley 00:27, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. I don't think the fact it was written by his grandson is actually relevant, the article should improve with expansion and some rewording to remove POV. --nixie 02:02, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• Keep, though it's rather bad form to write about one's family. James F. (talk) 02:34, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• Keep, cleanup and expand, notable. Megan1967 04:34, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• Keep and expand. Notable scholar in his field. Capitalistroadster 10:53, 16 Feb 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.