Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Time Traveler Convention

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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 no consensus. - Mailer Diablo 04:52, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Time Traveler Convention

A few people at MIT decided to have a party, drink some beer non-alcoholic beverages, and give the gathering a ridiculous premise to get some tongue-and-cheek newspaper headlines. I am sure a good time was had by all, but since no timetravellers actually showed up, I do not see anything more significant about this event than your typical college party or lecture series. Indrian 18:38, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

  • Keep - Recieved NY Times coverage. Note: I have notified editors of this article about the AfD. PT (s-s-s-s) 18:44, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep. Received national press coverage. Sources include Wired and Slashdot. Isopropyl 18:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
    • Please add citations of those sources to the article. Uncle G 19:20, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Weak Keep as per above comments. Notability is established by multiple, independent press coverage. Goofy as all get out, but I think it squeaks by. Scorpiondollprincess 18:56, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
    • I certainly do not deny it received coverage, but I think that it has more to do with the event being a publicity stunt at a famous institution rather than for any importance of the event itself. National press coverage can be indicative of notability, but it is not an automatic sign of importance. Indrian 18:59, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
      • Notability is not fame nor importance. Uncle G 19:11, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
        • According to a guidline of your creation that does not even have the force of semiofficial policy. You are entitled to your own opinion, but it is wrong to make it seem like something more than that. Indrian 20:22, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
          • That is a straw man. Uncle G 23:33, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
            • Um, not really since I have no problem with your arguement, merely with your presentation of it. Indrian 23:54, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
              • It's a straw man since you are arguing that an argument that only you in fact made is wrong. Uncle G 00:05, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep. Sources above should be included in the article. — pd_THOR | =/\= | 18:57, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Delete per nom. Many things receive national coverage, especially events at a prestigious institution such as MIT. However, this does not mean the event is significant.--Shrek05 19:09, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep "The event is potluck and alcohol-free" The primary source from the NY Times indicated the event was alcohol-free. The article appears to follow all of the guidelines for inclusion as outlined by Wikipedia, as you have not mentioned any policies this event has broken for inclusion. Reading the notability guidelines, something such as this that has receieved national press coverage, could be included inside this encyclopedia. --Porqin 19:32, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
Alchohol is banned from MIT campus except for a couple of small graduate bars. Bwithh 01:48, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep per Isopropyl. Perhaps no time-travellers showed up because somebody deleted the wikipedia article before they could read it. Drett 23:04, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep. In addition to the NYT, Slashdot and Wired stories, the TTC was covered by All Things Considered and the Today Show, and was mentioned on Saturday Night Live (see here for recordings, but please don't link to them at that address, as they will likely disappear next week). Besides, if the article gets deleted, how will the time travelers know about the convention? (Full disclosure: I was a contemporary attendee of the convention.) Aerion 23:08, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Merge into some MIT article; possibly MIT Science Fiction Society or MIT hack. (By the way, the "greek" organization Pi Tau Zeta, does not seem to have independent verifiability. Furthermore, there probably have been other "Time Traveler Convention"s. The most logical meeting place for time travellers would be Minneapolis in 1973 [1], probably over Labor Day weekend.) — Arthur Rubin | (talk) 23:24, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Delete. While I did copedit this article in February 2006, I thought even then that this entry lacks notability, notwithstanding the NY Times article. If the NY Times does a "feel good" story about a firefighter rescuing a cat out of a tree, that surely doesn't bestow it wiki status. At best a merger with [[time travel], or better, with some MIT page as suggested above. But probable better off eliminated altogether. -- Dyslexic agnostic 23:37, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep Multiple reliable sources on a unique event. That's enough for me. (I actually remember seeing something about this last year and thinking what an awesome-slash-idiotic idea it was.) -- Kicking222 00:45, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Keep as a real event covered by multiple national news services. Turnstep 01:18, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Delete As I always say mainstream news sources, including serious mainstream news sources carry much trivial content of no encyclopedic notability every day - human interest stories, "funny thing happened to me other day" stories, "news of the weird" stories", "Those crazy geek kids! stories" etc etc etc. This is another example of MIT geek culture humour, which gives the MIT community its unique... uh, flavour as well as helping (perhaps) to keep the lid on the campus's suicidal tendencies. It's a geek stunt devoid (as demonstrated by the conspicious lack of actual time travellers arriving) of historical / encyclopedic notability, and not significant enough to have its own article. This is would be fine as a cut-down merge into MIT hack though. Bwithh 01:45, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Smerge to MIT hack or delete. The attemps at continued advertising, which this functions as, are part of the hack. Not encyclopedic in the absence of any verified evidence (from reliable sources) that any time travelers actually attended. GRBerry 00:56, 2 August 2006 (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.