Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Twisting the Cow

This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was keep (no consensus). This one is very difficult, because there are a number of votes from users with very low edit counts. In particular the nomination is by an anonymous user, and the two last keep votes are both from users whos' votes are among their earliest edits. Nonetheless, all these users appear to have been making legitimate edits as well, and all were created before this VFD started. Because of this, and also with the "when in doubt, don't delete"-rule in mind, I will accept all the votes. The main concern here has been verifiability, I will therefore add a {{verify}}-tag on the article. If no verification is provided, the article may well be listed on VFD again in the near future. Sjakkalle (Check!) 07:44, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Twisting_the_Cow

probable hoax; google returns only a few mentions (less than a page) all of which are dubious touristic sites. 128.112.24.137 03:40, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Twisting the Cow is not a hoax. I actually first read about it in a reliable, factual, book which I trust (Bloody Scotland, Horrible Histories series). In fact, I think most of the webpages are almost directly plagiaristic copies of the book. Hey, it's not my fault the Scots like such strange things (haggis) ;) ! If you don't believe the book, I guess the only way to prove it not a hoax is to find the results from the Invergarry Games of 1820. I also just realized that I need to change it from "Twisting the Cow" to "Twisting the cow". How do I rename a wikipedia page?Confusius 03:44, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Keep. This is an actual event that existed in the 19th Century. See [1]. You don't need pages of Google hits for something to be legitimate. This does need expansion and a proper stub tag, however. 23skidoo 04:16, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Well... okaaay. Your HTML reference also refers as its source back to the same book that Confusius remembers seeing it in, a book which also tells you how to "how to terrify a tourist with gory Scottish ghost". I guess I'm just not convinced it's anything other than an urban legend that happened to appear in a children's book (ages 8 and up!) 128.112.24.137 04:25, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

• Weak Delete. Would have voted to Keep and expand, except that I'm unable to verify beyond the same Google reference to the tourism book cited above. --Alan Au 04:54, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
• Firm delete unless there is independant proof (piossibly from a resident of Invergarry) that anything like this ever happend -- which I take leave to doubt. --Simon Cursitor 07:42, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
• Delete unless independantly verified. --Carnildo 19:35, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
• Delete I believe this is the stuff of urban legend (see snopes.com). --jonasaurus 21:27, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

I think the main thing that we're trying to decide here isn't whether to delete it or not, but whether it's an urban legend or not. If it's not, then keep the page. If it is, keep the page but categorize it as an urban legend. Confusius 22:52, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

• Keep I have heard several accounts in my time of such an event taking place in the past in Scotland. It's not one of the more common traditions, but if you look beyond google there's enough evidence to say that, urban legand or real event, it's just about worthy of a mention Zaw061 14:38, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
• KEEP -- It's interesting enough. Hujjat 09:11, 15 August 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 an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.