Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:BlastOButter42/Userboxes/User Lost

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellany page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was speedy delete per user request (CSD U1). WjBscribe 04:17, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] User:BlastOButter42/Userboxes/User Lost

Userbox intended to inject spam-linking to online "game" Lost.eu -- contrary to WP:USER#What_can_I_not_have_on_my_user_page?: Games, roleplaying sessions, and other things pertaining to "entertainment" rather than "writing an encyclopedia," particularly if they involve people who are not active participants in the project." The spamming of the domain lost.eu has already led to a URL black-list for all Wikimedia.--Leflyman^Talk 21:22, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

• Weak keep, this is perfectly valid as a userbox. But the blacklisted link has to go. -Amarkov moo! 21:26, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

• Actually, it's not; Userboxes aren't for promoting online games, as User pages shouldn't be used for promotion of non-Wikipedia activities at all. As per Wikipedia:Userboxes#Content_restrictions, "If content is not appropriate on a user page, it is not appropriate within userboxes."--Leflyman^Talk 22:30, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

• Yes, but I'm not seeing why it's inappropriate to say on a userpage "I play this game called Lost." -Amarkov moo! 02:58, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

• The sole purpose of the "game" is to solicit sign-ups through any means possible. In addition, as it offers a financial incentive ($5000) for engaging in such promotions, a userbox is even more problematic-- making it effectively an advertisement. The article Lost.eu, which was just recreated, has already been deleted eight times because of such concerns.--Leflyman^Talk 04:01, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

• Oh, I hadn't realized that this wasn't just some random online game. That weakens my position somewhat, but I still think that this isn't a lot worse than any other userbox about random games. -Amarkov moo! 05:11, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

• Delete as WP:SPAM. MER-C 07:19, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
• Keep if modified (i.e. the link is removed, we don't want spam or ads in plaintext and that counts for userboxes too). As to the "no Games, roleplaying sessions" etc. quote above, I believe this was meant that Wikipedia should/must not be used as e.g. a space where to play those RPGs or host logs of them and similar. I don't think it was meant as "you can't mentionion games & roleplaying sessions or say that you play them" - otherwise alot of other stuff - userboxes and "I'm a XY year old AD&D fan" plaintext would have to go the drain too, which would be - plainly said - stupid. CharonX/talk 14:41, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
• Excuse me? I have no intention of "spamming" anyone with this userbox. It's meant to go on my user page to identify that I play this game -- not too different from any of the boxes in Wikipedia:Userboxes/Games. Yes, it is a game that you win by trying to get people to sign up, but i had no intent to put this anywhere other than in my user page under the boxes that are about things I do, and if someone happened to notice it and wonder what it was, they could sign up for it. (I'm also not in this for the $5000 -- I'm in it just to see how many people I get.) Also, you might notice that I made this box so that anyone else who plays Lost can put in their own code to get people to sign up and put it on their user page; it's not just to get me points. You'll also note that the link does not even work, since it's blacklisted, which means that I can't get anyone to sign up with it anyway. I've tagged it with {{db-author}}. Please go involve yourselves in something more beneficial to Wikipedia than trying to delete a userbox that looks like spam, even though it wasn't made to be, and couldn't even have been used that way. -- BlastOButter42 ^See Hear _Speak 23:57, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

• This is inaccurate; all other "game" userboxes link to Wikipedia articles (as is standard for userboxes). Yours linked to an external sign-up account at lost.eu -- and was set up to pass a variable for others to specify their own sign-up account to link to. Please understand, I have nothing against your playing whatever game you wish-- it's that Userpages/userboxes on Wikipedia aren't for promoting off-site gameplay (particularly one whose stated goal is exclusively to recruit new users.)--Leflyman^Talk 00:18, 25 April 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 page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.