Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Irish Republican Army

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

The result of the debate was keep. The ikiroid (talk·desk·Advise me) 03:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Irish Republican Army

While I'm quite certain that this project was started in good faith, I feel as though this WikiProject fails WP:NPOV. As such, I'd like to how the community at-large interprets our policy on a neutral point of view in application to this WikiProject. Thanks in advance for spending some of your valuable time to discuss this matter. Cheers gaillimh^{Conas tá tú?} 03:26, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

• Keep. While I can unserstand the concerns, I see no sign of any POV material coming from this project yet. It may be worth keeping an eye on it, true, but for now I see no reason why we can't assume good faith in it. I don't see this as being any more or less hazardous as far as POV is concerned than, say, WP:Abkhazia, WP:Western Sahara, WP:Terrorism, WP:Origin of life and related debates, WP:Judaism, WP:Rational Skepticism, WP:Scientology, WP:Prophets of Islam, WP:Christianity, WP:Paranormal, WP:Cryptozoology... I'd say give it a chance: if it turns out to be a problem later, then fix it then - this could be a perfectly valid project.Grutness...wha? 04:02, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep. In contrast to any other wiki-project, I see no inherent POV problems. - WeniWidiWiki 04:35, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Comment: after thinking about this a bit further, this project should probably be retooled into project "Irish Nationalism" or "Irish Republicanism" or something, lest a bad precedent be set, which could have further connotations down the road. While I'm not for deleting the project per se (because it would be setting a double or arbitrary standard due to the current acceptance of all the other PAC type groups on wikipedia), I definitely think it's focus & intent should be slightly altered, lest the efficacy of the project be compromised by the negative connotations inherent in people's minds about the IRA. - WeniWidiWiki 06:11, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

• Comment POV issues aside, this seems like an odd way to group articles for a WikiProject. Is there a "parent" project where this could become a taskforce of? -- Ned Scott 04:53, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

  There are WikiProject:Ireland and WikiProject:Northern Ireland, both of which could serve as an umbrella organisation for this project, which I feel is valid and beneficial to Wikipedia, just not by itself, as it invites controversy and an enormous potential for a skewed point of view. gaillimh^{Conas tá tú?} 05:43, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

• Keep. Are you actually serious? The rationale in the nomination makes no sense at all. We use WikiProjects to organize articles on a core topic. That's exactly what this has set out to do, and there's no evidence here that it's doing anything harmful. I'd encourage the nominator to take a short wikibreak and remember that we don't delete things just because we don't like them. —ptk✰fgs 05:21, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

  Thanks for your input, but I invite you to comment on the nomination and not the nominator (who lives in Ireland, is a native Irish speaker, and is a card-carrying member of both Sinn Féin and ÓSF). Trust me, any potential negative bias towards this topic is not an issue whatsoever, haha. I hope this alleviates some of your concerns gaillimh^{Conas tá tú?} 05:42, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

• Strong keep. Yes, the topic is sensitive and prone to POV issues by its mere nature, but that doesn't mean the articles on the topic get deleted. Since the project itself isn't causing any POV issues itself, I believe the reason for this nomination is not correctly based in policy. The articles listed on the project page show there's enough articles to sustain a project. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:21, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep Project dosn't advocate the IRA, it mearly sparks intrest dealing with issues regarding IRA related topics. - RiseRobotRise 11:26, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep but rename to Wikipedia:Wikiproject Irish republicanism. I think the issue of Irish republicanism in general is a fit subject and more specialist than the generalism of Wikiproject Ireland. However, I would like to see a wider focus. I think the initiator of the project was clearly interested in the IRA splinter groups like the Continuity IRA, but it might be nicer to include also the INLA, IPLO and smaller groups such as Saor Uladh and Saor Eire (both of them). Sam Blacketer 11:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep. The Wikiproject may well be biased, but that doesn't mean it should be deleted. An RfC, maybe, but not deletion. -Amark moo! 14:48, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

*Keep With all due respect, it seems like many good Wikiprojects are being deleted just because the nominator doesn't like it, I'm not criticising just saying, definitely a one to keep.Tellyaddict^{Editor review!} 16:31, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

• Absent any real evidence that this Wikiproject promotes a point of view (and promoting a terrorist organization would be a terrible idea), this should be kept. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JChap2007 (talk • contribs) 20:07, 6 February 2007 (UTC).
• Keep - but strongly suggest rename to 'Irish Republicanism' or 'Irish Paramilitaries'--Doc^g 22:04, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - Fine as is, though I could also support widening it to "Irish Republicanism" (for which we have a cool nav. template). ~ Kathryn NicDhàna ♫♦♫ 02:26, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Strong Keep - I started this project to provide a space for editors working on topics related the the IRA. I think it's Wikipedia's duty to have excellent articles on controversial topics, and this is what the WikiProject is for; to improve Wikipedia's coverage of IRA-related articles. Yes, we may attract users with a bias, but one aspect of having a WikiProject devoted to a given topic is giving a central place to address that bias, and control it if need be. Erin Go Bragh^talk 09:20, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - keep and rename to "Irish republicanism"--Vintagekits 10:04, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - As a compromise though it should become a broader Irish Republicanism project as VK said. Tiocfaidh Ár Lá! 12:37, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep but a change of name would probably be a good idea. Valentinian ^{T / C} 13:26, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Delete- An outlawed terrorist organisation should not be promoted on Wikipedia. Astrotrain 13:45, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep. A wikiproject on this subject is needed. However, a rename is definately in order.GiollaUidir 13:54, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep dont have a problem with name as it appears now 'Irish Republican Army'. There is more to Irish Republicanism than the tradition of applying military means/full force. Fluffy999 13:55, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
• Keep but rename. -- Pauric (talk-contributions) 18:42, 7 February 2007 (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 page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.