Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

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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 keep. - Mailer Diablo 11:11, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) – (View log)

This is just one of an infinite number of possible variations on the six degrees of separation game. It is completely arbitrary. Why Kevin Bacon, not Michael Caine or Warren Beatty or Patrick Stewart or any other randomly chosen actor? See the History section: plainly made up in school one day. This might just merit a short paragraph in Kevin Bacon, but that's about it. Guy (Help!) 11:07, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

  • Keep notable meme, plenty of reliable sources. Catchpole 11:43, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, has been the subject of many published articles in non-trivial sources. Vizjim 11:53, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, notable meme that is called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon by many notable sources. 87.86.171.131 12:10, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • It doesn't matter why Kevin Bacon was chosen or if he deserves it, the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing is mentioned quite a bit in pop culture (even in Nature, apparently), with Kevin Bacon's name vastly more than any other actor. It's not Wikipedia's job to regulate whether pop culture memes are acceptable to our standards or not. If multiple reliable sources have covered them, we cover them. --W.marsh 13:11, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong Keep. Arbitrary in the sense that the game didn't have to make use of Kevin Bacon, sure, but ever since it has, it has become a well-known and well-sourced pop culture meme. Tarc 13:16, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. Certainly people could have fixated on Caine or Beatty or Stewart, but google it for Bacon, for Caine, for Warren Beatty, and for Patrick Stewart, in each case knocking-out the other three and Wikipedia. History, arbitrary or not, has produced a clustering around Bacon. Indeed, some might go so far as to suggest that this clustering has become more significant than talent in sustaining Bacon's career (such as it is). —SlamDiego 13:33, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep a rarity of rarities: a "meme" article that's notable and verifiable by reliable sources, and has remained notable for many years on end. The fact that it's been made into a published book is more than enough for me. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 14:07, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, probably WP:SNOWBALL-able. I was actually introduced to the concept of "The Six Degrees of Seperation" as a variant of "The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". Cheers, Lankybugger ○ speak ○ see ○ 14:55, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Delete- maybe add part of this article to the article on six degrees of separation, but there is absolutly no need for this subject to have its own page. Greatestrowerever 15:00, 23 March 2007 (GMT)
  • Keep - we also have Bacon number and even (save us) Erdős–Bacon number. We'll never know why Kevin Bacon, but there he is. -- BPMullins | Talk 15:14, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong Keep; notable in and of itself, and the accepted source of where the phenomenon comes from (even though it was around longer than Kevin Bacon) --Mhking 15:53, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. This is the name by which the concept is popularly known to the most people, and we could probably source it until this time next week. (Whee, and I'm one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon!) RGTraynor 16:29, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong Keep and a potential WP:SNOW candidate here. Agree that while the choice of Kevin Bacon as the poster child for the concept was arbitrary, it was not an arbitrary decision on the part of editors here, it's just how the concept evolved! Arkyan • (talk) 17:22, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, there's already at least one reliable source referenced, and while we should have more references than that, the sheer number of possible reliable sources from Google News alone means that attributing this article should be easy. — Krimpet (talk/review) 17:53, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. Surely this is a joke? When I think "Six degrees of..." the first thing that comes to mind is Kevin Bacon. Burntsauce 17:55, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep One of the most repeated memes on the planet. I'd assume that Mr. Bacon's large repertoire of films combined with his four-syllable full name are what's behind the seeming random choice, but it's out there. Alansohn 17:57, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong keep I see no reason to delete this article. Acalamari 18:13, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong & speedy keep this should never have been AfD'd, this was one of the best known phrases in the 1990s computing community & is still in common circulation. - Iridescenti 18:57, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. None of the other actors mentioned have oracles dedicated to the concept. --Myles Long 20:55, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong keep, big pop culture meme, and I have been surprised to find totally non-internettish people aware of the joke. -- Dhartung | Talk 21:06, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong WTF time to get your head examined keep ... like Myles says above... none of your other suggestions have an oracle dedicated to them.  ALKIVAR™ ☢ 21:15, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. Umm...just a guess, but "Kevin Bacon" is a good rhyme with "separation." Bobanny 22:01, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Speedy keep and close. Why in blazes is this being AfD'd? --Dennisthe2 22:38, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep I can see why someone unfamiliar with the (rather bizarre) concept might think it not notable, but it plainly is. JuJube 00:17, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep - this was the original "six degrees" meme. --Haemo 00:39, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep and will someone close this please. -- Selket Talk 01:24, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Speedy Keep I can only surmise that the nominator does not understand the incredible ubiquity of this meme. I'd be surprised if anyone in the US under 75 didn't know of it, Net-savvy or not. This may be the most notable meme ever with hundreds upon hundreds of reliable third-party references and dozens of articles about it specifically. --Charlene 02:10, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Maybe Guy just thought that we needed a slight jolt to wake us up to-day. :-) —SlamDiego 04:09, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, of course. c'mon Guy, srsly... FiggyBee 06:56, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep - what the heck, I've always heard of this as the Kevin Bacon game, and was flabbergasted to know that other variations even exist (outside of MAD Magazine, that is). Yes, this is widespread enough. Just because something is made up in the school one day doesn't mean it may become one day notable; last I checked, it's just good practice to say "this is TMUISOD and can't escape its fate, but by all means, welcome back when it is notable". Sometimes it does happen. --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 08:00, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, voicing in. It just happened to be Kevin Bacon, but this is the notable origin name.. MURGH disc. 10:53, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep, although this feels like merely piling-on at this point. Generally, I'm very dubious about these so-called "Internet memes"—often just the fleeting ephemera of a disposable digital age that have been briefly subject to a flash crowd phenomenon—but this is one of the granddaddies of all Internet memes, and it has spread far beyond its digital roots! It's been around for nearly two decades and shows no signs of disappearing. At this point, it's probably more notable than the majority of Bacon's movies, and within a couple of decades, might be more notable than Bacon himself! :) Xtifr tälk 19:56, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • This wasn't especially smart, considering the game was the subject of an entire book published by the Penguin Group, not to mention 121 Amazon book references, and 112 at Google books. Oh, and 67 Google scholar mentions. I strongly suggest withdrawing. --badlydrawnjeff talk 21:34, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Speedy keep. Guy, please seriously consider withdrawing this nomination. RFerreira 23:25, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Speedy Keep - It gets mentioned just about every single time he's interviewed for anything. Offhand it was specifically mentioned in his episode of Biography and by Conan O'Brien while interviewing Bacon on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. -- Y|yukichigai (ramble argue check) 09:28, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
    • Eh, that only says that it's important to Bacon. Other arguments above explain why it is worthy of its own entry. —SlamDiego 14:09, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
      • Reply - I disagree; the fact that it gets brought up so much means it has national attention, making it notable. -- Y|yukichigai (ramble argue check) 18:33, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
        • The reason that you (actually) gave in your original comment only established that the 6° thing should be mentioned in the article on Bacon himself. Please note that I was one of the first to call for keeping the article, for reasons that I gave up above; but it is still appropriate for me to raise an objection to the argument that you gave. —SlamDiego 03:38, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment: Could some admin apply WP:SNOW here and close this out? 31-1 for Keep is about as overwhelming a consensus as you're ever likely to see. RGTraynor 13:26, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
    • WP:SNOW should not be applied here. --badlydrawnjeff talk 13:37, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
      • And that would be because ... ? RGTraynor 13:38, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
        • It would be inappropriate. JzG is paying attention, if he feels that he should withdraw his deletion suggestion, then we can shut this down, not before, there may be a stronger case, but he's not the only one arguing deletion. --badlydrawnjeff talk 13:40, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
          • There is a difference between giving every dog its day and just wasting people's time. This is the latter. NeoFreak 13:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
            • WP:SNOW is dangerous, and should only be applied when the costs of allowing continuation are markèdly high. —SlamDiego 14:16, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
            • I don't agree. --badlydrawnjeff talk 14:25, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
              • There is nothing in WP:SNOW requiring the acquiescence of the nom in an AfD. RGTraynor 14:53, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
                • Well, there's nothing in WP:SNOW. --badlydrawnjeff talk 14:56, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep Subject of many non-trivial references in books, including an entire book mentioned above. David Letterman mentioned it when he hosted the Academy Awards. I can understand getting rid of some of the sillier made-up so-called "memes" on Wikipedia, but this is about as notable as they get. --Canley 15:27, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep per most of the other arguments. Has someone also brought up the actual board game that was released? Definitely notable. TheRealFennShysa 15:34, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep. Very notable meme. - Denny 15:58, 26 March 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.