Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Rubén Serrano

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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. King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 02:01, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rubén Serrano

Rubén Serrano (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) (delete) – (View log)

All the language versions, as a short investigation at plwiki has shown, have been added with a high probability by one and the same person; all have been added as a translation of a previously prepared template and supplemented by trustworthy-looking photos, also taken by one and the same person. When doubts arise, a number of Spanish-language links are provided as sources by the same person - these do not confirm Serrano to be a writer (a few of the links are dead, one points to a webpage of a photographer, another directs the reader to a philantropist webpage). Other sources quoted in various Wikipedia editions rely directly on Wikipedia (which was the case of the article added to Polish Wikipedia), or sources such as the "author's" blog. Google (http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=pl&client=opera&rls=pl&hs=ffQ&q=%22Rub%C3%A9n+Serrano%22&btnG=Szukaj&lr=) does not return any search results that confirm Serrano's identity other than Wikipedia itself and its mirros. The alleged Selvinderan publishing house also does not exist, and the only information returned by a search query is a number of Wikipedia user accounts by that name. The entry does not meet any Wikipedia criteria.

3 of 5 Serrano's books as presented in the entry are accompanied by ISBN numbers, and they have been published by the person himself (see http://www.xing.com/profile/Ruben_SerranoCalvo , confront author's resume). The have not been sold by neither Spanish nor international Internet bookshops, they have not been reviewed by any critic - Web sources (blogs and blog-like sites) quote only a local meeting with Serrano.

All in all, this seems to be an amateur writer's self-promotional activity on a huge scale, massively interwiki'ed. A variety of users posting opinions defending Serrano pretend to be different people, although they edit from the same location (as seen at plwiki). ISBN does not mean anything - de facto anyone who is a registered publisher may apply for a batch of ISBN codes and assign these to individual books, posting them in an ISBN database. The only thing that can qualify this article as eligible for publication is mainstream distribution of Serrano's books, which is - as shown above - not happening. Wpedzich (talk) 19:01, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Note. This nom was malformed. I've corrected it (I hope) and added the AfD tag to the article Rubén Serrano. Deor (talk) 19:34, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
  • There ale small social networking websites or local Madrid community websites, not notable. Szwedzki (talk) 16:29, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Thank you so much for offering some context there. :) As I don't speak Spanish, I've been finding the nom's statement about the sources that "these do not confirm Serrano to be a writer" a bit confusing, as the (admittedly clunky) translations of the above do seem to do that. :) I feel I can only offer a "weak" opinion here, since I do not speak Spanish and cannot positively assert that there are not scads of good sources covering this individual. But I will say that if these are all that can be found, and if they are local in scale, then he wouldn't seem to meet WP:BIO in terms of multiple independent sourcing. Whether he is notable as an author or not, these sources would, however, seem to suggest that he has achieved at least local notability as a philanthropist. But lacking further sources to confirm wider notability, I would tend weak delete. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:22, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete. This biography has got it all: heavy namedropping as sources for inspiration, selfpromotion all over wikipedia, no significant publisher, and use of charity as a means to advocate ones authorship. --Orland (talk) 00:40, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete - looks largely nn-bio to me, and smacks of self-promotion in a big way. The gawiki versions has already been deleted (disclosure: by me) - Alison ❤ 00:46, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete - per nom. Splette :) How's my driving? 02:40, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Note: Rubén Serrano has been deleted in es:wp because it was a selfpromoting spamming. Mercedes Gusgus talk 07:44, 3 June 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gusgus (talk • contribs)
  • Weak keep, those sources seem to be reliable, the only problem IMO is that the guy wrote the WP article about himself. It is not really good manners, but accusing him of "name-dropping" isn't, either (why shouldn't an author's article list his inspirations?), so now it's 1:1. – Alensha talk 13:09, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
    • Namedropping can be a problem, because it might be understood by an unaware reader as a false argument saying «my/his work should be compared to the works of these». --Orland (talk) 20:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete - massive selfpromoting article, Sir Lothar (talk) 20:07, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete, spam / doubtful that he meets Wikipedia:Notability (people). --Kjetil r (talk) 12:41, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete - Spam + irrelevant.DutchDevil (talk) 12:25, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete, selfpromoting his books.--Arco de Rayne (talk) 15:09, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete the notability of the author is borderlineat best and he abuses wikipedia rather shamelessly self promotion. Also note that in the spanish wiki the article had been deleted several times before and is now listed for deletion in most of the other interwikis as well. --Kmhkmh (talk) 17:25, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Strong delete WP:AB, possibly WP:SPAM and certainly below WP:NOTE. Gorgonzola (talk) 20:32, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete, seems like self-promotion for NN self-pub'd author. So, this was The Massively Sneaky Cross-wiki Spam of 2008? Didn't we do something like this before? Do we need an international task force for this sort of cases, or are these too few and far between? How do we mop up this mess? Just asking... --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 23:06, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
    • Comment/reply. I've only seen, and fighted, one spam case like this before; that was the Ildan case, a while ago. Another writer with wide wikipedia presence is Artur Balder, but he is alledgly translated into some other languages, has a notable publisher, and he is available through amazon.
      Please also note that an anonymous IP is spreading "arguments" on the talk pages of all the other language editions, arguments already parked here. --Orland (talk) 16:47, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
      • Ah! I was thinking my mind was getting swiss-cheesed and I was thinking there had been a preceding discussion about this person, but turns out I was actually thinking of the Ildan case. I see I have commented on that AfD, and I remember it was quite perplexing. Thanks! There's just too much weirdness going on in this website of ours... --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 22:50, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete as spam. Tosqueira (talk) 23:42, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Note& vote Delete! There are serious cross-wiki concerns here (see m:User:COIBot/XWiki/aquiyahora.es for more info about this). There are cases on other wikis where this was deleted already (gl:Rubén Serrano), it feels very spammy to me. --Dirk Beetstra T C 11:18, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete; selfpromoting his books. Leftfoot69 (talk) 11:58, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete as above. --junafani (Hccmqqr) 16:32, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete as spam, self-promotion, vanity... --Nice poa (talk) 19:13, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
  • Delete selfpromotion Afil (talk) 00:52, 7 June 2008 (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.