Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hamish McPherson

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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 delete. - Mailer Diablo 04:58, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hamish McPherson

Hamish McPherson (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) – (View log)
  • Speedy Delete as non-notable. A non-notable president of a university student union in noway deserve a separate article on Wikipedia. Niaz(Talk • Contribs) 12:50, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • keep- Says the man who criticised me only a post ago. the man is notable not so much for his position or achievement, but because of the scandal caused by his removal. Also the page is heavily footnoted and referenced.Jembot99 13:21, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
Heavy footnote cannot make some non-notable person notable. Moreover, it seems this article is created to defame someone. So, I strongly support a speedy deletion here. - Niaz(Talk • Contribs) 13:37, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • If you read down to the actual words, you will observe that he WAS the student president, and WAS removed. This is notable, as he is the only President in ANU student association history to be forcibly removed, and possibly in all of Australian Universities. I wish I had the woroni article in downloadable format, but I don't. Comment- no basis for removing him, he is a noted political activist, writer and political figure, however none of this is the primary reason for keeping him. He is notable because of the incident surrounding his removal, which is unprecedented, and noteworthy. Jembot99 13:21, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
Well, let's other people decide whether removal from a university union post can make someone notable or not! Still I strongly support a speedy deletion here. - Niaz(Talk • Contribs) 13:45, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep Weak Keep changed on the basis of Bduke's comment below--my error, I should have recognized that myself. I am not sure whether the president of a student union in an individual university is notable, but he was president of the national one, the Australian National University Student Association. However, the negative information is sourced to a confidential page at the university, which is not acceptable. Unless there is a better source, it must be removed. Presumably it was in some newspaper. DGG (talk) 17:02, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
Australian National University Student Association is not the national student union, just the student union of the Australian National University - a single university. --Bduke 01:33, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
  • comment- It is very easy to prove it, there are ANU admins here, but it is difficult to expect someone to find an archive of something like this in online format from 1995, before they had widespread use of the internet... JJJ999 19:35, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • comment - Aside from ANU references, we could assume these [1] and [2] ref+ as reliable source. But this link is complete blog.--NAHID 20:08, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
    • comment- That link is hosted by the ANU political science dept, so assumedly they support someone of his stature writing an article on their page, rather than it being a "blog" like article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.148.218.27 (talk) 20:13, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • You'd better to create an account.--NAHID 20:40, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Note: This debate has been included in the list of Australia-related deletions. —Longhair\talk 20:44, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete***. The subject of the article does not meet WP:N and is therefore not notable. The Green Left reference (even assuming it to be independent) only mentions that he gave a speech, which is hardly an in-depth coverage of him. The other reference merely lists his name as subscribing to some resolution. The article written on ANU doesn't meet the other exceptions to WP:N. The secondary sources coverage of the subject of the article can only be considered trivial at the moment. There is no reason why this information can't be kept on the student association page, which is where it belongs. Assize 04:04, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
    • comment- you have to understand, google is not the be all and end all of referencing. There are newspaper articles on him, and he has been mentioned several times in the Student magazine over the years. He is, to a community of 10,000 students, a significant figure. But there are limits to what you can prove for something of this scale that happened in 1995. Since the other info given has proven accurate I think it should stay, and some other ANU admins should inquire into it at the SA archives or woroni backlogs if they are dubious. His removal is also historically relevant to that community.JJJ999 04:28, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
      • I'm aware of the limitations in Google and Yahoo. NSW State Library has zip on this person other than a reference to a photo in the Sydney Morning Herald. There is nothing to stop somebody sourcing paper versions of newspaper to substantiate this, but I think they will trouble finding anything. Assize 03:35, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
  • This AfD nomination was incomplete. It is listed now. DumbBOT 16:17, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete, not a notable position, fails WP:BIO. The president of an actual national student union (is there one?) might be notable, but not one for one particular university. --Dhartung | Talk 18:26, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete, pending sources, per nom & Dhartung's notes about localization and also DGG's note about the sourcing--the criticism and controversy section, which is as close to notability as McPherson comes, links to an inaccessible source and fails WP:Verifiability. WP:BLP guidelines specify that unsourced information about living individuals should be removed immediately, and if the "criticism" can't be sourced, I don't believe it should be included in considerations of the individual's notability. Google search is not helpful in finding other sources. JJJ999 correctly notes that Google is not the be-all of notability, but notability does require significant, reliable secondary sources. At this point, this article lacks those, and I can't find seem to find any. --Moonriddengirl 20:37, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete. There are very few sources for this guy and none indicating notability. Being President of the ANU Students Association is not in itself. While some presidents have gone on to become notable, Mr McPherson hasn't. Further, his removal didn't cause that much of a stir given that I who was a student at the ANU was unaware of it until now. Capitalistroadster 03:18, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete per capital. Twenty Years 08:06, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Link me to this photo of him?JJJ999 05:02, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete. Non-notable bio. Keb25 05:25, 20 September 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 article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.