Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Buxton University

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 - deleted - SimonP 14:01, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Buxton University

Wikipedia is frequently being targeted by diploma mill spammers trying to legitimize their products and the few articles on diploma mills we have (see List of unaccredited institutions of higher learning) need occasional reverting from anonymous contributors attempting to remove incriminating information. Buxton appears non-notable even for a diploma mill. (The poster has on a previous occasion fraudulently added Buxton to the List of British universities and removed it from List of unaccredited institutions of higher learning.)

Nothing in the original article was verifiable and even the website of this "university" has no useful information, at least not without a password. I have tried to completely rewrite it (please see the diff) with whatever little information I have found elsewhere, but I am uncertain whether it is keepable. Beware, though, that if it is deleted, it will probably reappear at some point, so a NPOV article may be better and will to some extent defeat the original purpose of the spammer posting it. upland 06:56, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

• Weak keep as anti-advertisement. I will put it on my list. —Teknic^Talk/Mail 08:18, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, not every semi-legal organization needs its own article. Notability not established. Martg76 13:38, 8 May 2005 (UTC)
• No vote I'm a bit torn on this one. I think we have a certain responsibility to debunk, but the very VERY low Google count (275 hits, mostly unrelated) might suggest that this is too minor to be worth debunking. I also shudder at the thought that even a critical article might lead to them advertising their "school" to be "as seen on Wikipedia" or similar. You're right that it might be recreated though if we delete. No vote, not sure, rather uncomfortable either way actually. Of course, there's always this... Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 13:48, May 8, 2005 (UTC)
• Delete. Debunking hoaxes is fun, in a perverse sort of way, but the average diploma mill is even less notable than the average high school, and nothing in either the original ad nor the writeup rewrite suggests that this one stands out. Keeping an article around on a non-subject just to prevent another spammish advertisement is self-defeating. I'll put this on my watchlist too, just in case. —Korath (Talk) 23:56, May 8, 2005 (UTC)
  • Could you please state why you think the subject is NN? What policy are you basing this on? —Teknic^Talk/Mail 01:06, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
    • Notable, as in "Worthy of notice; remarkable; memorable; noted or distinguished." There's nothing here to distinguish it from any other diploma mill. —Korath (Talk) 02:55, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
      • You don't find it "worthy of notice" that an institution is selling fake diplomas and degrees and trying to pass themselves off as legit? To me, that kind of thing demands notice. —Teknic^Talk/Mail 05:34, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
        • The kind of thing demands notice, but this particular instance does not (e.g. Burglary is informative, but My neighbor's house was broken into last week is not). Delete as NN. Radiant_* 12:20, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
          • Your example is not relevant as you are comparing an establishment to an event (news). When deciding whether or not to annihilate the product of somebody's time and work, please consider the pros and cons of your actions. In this case keeping could provide valuable info for someone who might have otherwise made a big mistake, even if just one person is helped it's worth the cost, which in this case is one more article to be maintained by the 7,000 active editors who are presently capable of handling half a million of them. Are you worried that we don't have enough ink for 500,001 articles? —Teknic^Talk/Mail 18:54, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, looks like nn. Grue 05:40, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
• Will keeping this warn off some unsuspecting would-be graduate from wasting their money ? --Simon Cursitor 08:28, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
  • Unfortunately, I'm afraid not, because they are unlikely to look here. A fool and his money... Radiant_* 12:20, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
• Delete but merge content as appropriate to an article on, say Diploma Mills.
  • (If such an article doesn't exist (as that particular link doesn't work), perhaps it would be a good one, with a list, and then redirect this article there. Whig 07:05, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
• Delete. Diploma mill. Gamaliel 05:21, 15 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.