Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tom Jolls

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep with a request for expansion added to the article. alphaChimp ^laudare 03:07, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tom Jolls

100% pure cruft. This guy isn't Al Roker or Ted Koppel, just some guy who wasn't good enough to leave local TV to get a network TV job where he may actually have become a notable person, someone notable enought to meet the WP:BIO standards. Adam 1212 02:39, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Indef blocked sock, see Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Spotteddogsdotorg. -Splash - tk 21:45, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

• Keep Commander Tom was a long running kids show, therefore makes him notable. Stormscape 04:11, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep 26 years as the same character is notable. I think the nominator needs to broaden his scope beyond Ted Koppel and Al Roker. Agne 06:04, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep Need expansion, but he seems notable enough. Local notability in a sizable area is plenty. Ace of Sevens 06:37, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep and expand. Just as notable as Irv Weinstein, part of the same longest-serving local TV news team in US history. Kirjtc2 11:26, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep - has somebody got in for WKBW staff? Tom Jolls was a member of the longest runnign anchor team, and is well known throughout upstate New York, and Southern Ontario. That passes the bar of notability for me. -- Whpq 13:45, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Send to cleanup: The article is a mess. At the same time, the duration of his time on television, and, most particularly, when he began with the "Commander Tom" show, has passed him from local phenomenon to a minor cultural touchstone. Additionally, the area served (which was pretty large before frequency crowding and the reduction of signal range) has meant a pretty large umbra. This is right on the line between significant enough and not and not a clear keep, but a clean article would pass muster for me. Geogre 14:03, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Delete ~Per nomination. If we include every two-bit personality who has appeared on local TV then Wikipedia will become an indiscriminate repository of information, vulnerable to the adding unverified information faster than we are able to verify it, cluttering the encyclopedia and pulling down its general quality. If the guy ever lands a job at a national network, then maybe we can have an article, but that is unlikely. Just because someonw is notable in Buffalo or has languished on some local TV station for a few decades doesn't make you notable. Yes he is just as notable as Irv Weinstein - something that means that he is not since they both fail the WP:BIO guidlines. There are a lot of parochial intrests here obviously and as someone not from Buffalo I can tell you that this guy is not notable. You need to vote with your head and not your heart, since some people tend to bond with people they see on TV, regardless of how non-notable they are. Voting because you saw the guy on TV in Buffalo for years is a biased vote. This guy and Irv Weinstein mabye deserve a paragraph or two in the main article about the station and that is it, since they really have no relevance or notablity outside of Buffalo. Cheesehead 1980 14:31, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

  Indef blocked sock, see Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Spotteddogsdotorg. -Splash - tk 21:45, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

  • I'm not from Buffalo. I've never even been closer than Philly. The truth is, most notable people are local to some degree. To use the nominator's examples, how well are Al Roker and Ted Koppel known outside the US? If someone has won nine Emmies, even if they are local ones and is known to pretty much everyone in a fairly large area, that's good enough for me. Ace of Sevens 14:53, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
  • I don't even know who Al Roker and Ted Koppel are. I'm Canadian. But I saw re-runs of Commander Tom when I was growing up. That show was awesome. Stormscape 15:16, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Comment-Not from Buffalo and never seen this personality nor any of the other Buffalo & Baltimore area news personalities being AfD. However, I can appreciate the notability and impact on their community that these figures have. Upstate New York and Lower Ontario is not a minute area of the world. There is a large chunk of people who know these figures and would be interested in reading about them. Considering the unlimited nature of Wikipedia not being a paper encyclopedia I see no loss in keeping the article.Agne 17:11, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

• The WP:BIO guidelines specifically state that the criteria being applied are "not intended to be an exclusionary list; just because someone doesn't fall into one of these categories doesn't mean an article on the person should automatically be deleted". This nomination is a blind application of a guideline being interpreted as a rule without due consideration to a bolded admonition not to simply delete when the guidleines are not met. Achieving an iconic status within a locality works for me. -- Whpq 19:09, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

• Delete per nom and per Cheesehead 1980. wikipediatrix 17:26, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep He was on TV long enough and in front of enough people that he counts as notable. Vickser 20:12, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
• Keep per above. AgentPeppermint 20:41, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.