Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Surya Das

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 of the debate was no consensus, default to keep. --Michael Snow 05:08, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Surya Das

This article seems to be completely POV-pushing by one editor and lacks encyclopedic value at present. If this person is in fact notable and deserving of an entry, the article needs major cleanup, otherwise it should be deleted. Whig 04:26, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

• Keep. The article needs NPOV work, definitely. I support having a "neutrality disputed" tag on the article. It would be good if we could get some critics of Surya Das to counterbalance it. I think it pretty clearly is a notable and encyclopedic subject, though: Surya Das is one of the more prominent American Buddhists (he was on Politically Incorrect, published a lot of books), and, while this is in no sense an endorsement of his qualifications to teach anybody anything, it does make him fodder for an encyclopedia. - Nat Krause 05:03, 23 May 2005 (UTC)
• Delete POV not notable enough. Leanne 05:56, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
  • Seriously, what are your grounds for saying that Surya Das isn't notable? There are quite a few articles on Wikipedia about modern Buddhist clerics who have sold fewer books and appeared on less media than him. - Nat Krause 07:23, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

    Can you list some of these other less notable articles? Whig 13:01, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

    • If you'd like, you can refer to List of Buddhists and follow whichever blue links strike you as particularly non-notable. - Nat Krause 15:54, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. I made a brief attempt to clean up some of the POV. Surya Das is fairly well known among American Buddhists, and although I am not particularly a fan of his writing, we have read one of his books in my group (a different American Buddhist tradition). I left the "neutrality" tag, but would be happy to see it come down. Bikeable 17:42, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
• Delete sorry, just isnt that notable. JamesBurns 10:11, 27 May 2005 (UTC)
  • I really find this hard to believe. His book "Awakening the Buddha Within" carries blurbs by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Salzberg, and Ken Wilbur -- that's practically a who's-who of American Buddhism (ok, maybe not Wilbur). If you're an American Buddhist, you've heard of the guy. I've said already that I'm not a big fan, but notable he certainly is. Bikeable 17:17, 27 May 2005 (UTC)
• Delete I'm sympathetic to coverage of minority beliefs and faiths in Wikipedia, but for some reason this page makes me uneasy. Somehow it looks like an infomercial. Sorry. WMMartin 10:50, 27 May 2005 (UTC)
• Keep Although I agree its an infomercial, Wikipedia needs more information on Buddhism and its leaders. If an article is biased then someone should fix it not delete the entire article. If you think he's unnotable you're probably not an American Buddhist. Redwolf24 00:42, 7 Jun 2005 (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.