- Da-Wen Sun (talk|edit|history|logs|links|watch) (XfD|restore)
As Orangemike's advice, I have carefully removed any promotion quotes. I believe the page is no longer promotional. However it was deleted unilaterally by Sandstein. Then Graeme Bartlett restored it, but it was deleted again by Sandstein. I believe the idea here is to improve Misplaced Pages, not to delete things that one does not like. By looking at the history, for some reasons, it seems that Sandstein has a strong view against the page although the page has been edited by many experienced Wiki Editors in the past few years Mayonglan (talk) 13:53, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- temporarily restored for discussion at Deletion Review DGG ( talk ) 18:30, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- Restore and edit further. Examining the article, at this point it is not a G11, though there remains promotional content: the lists of conference keynotes is usually so considered, and so are inclusion of minor awards, including awards given by one's own university). But these can easily be removed by ordinary editing and I will do so after the article is restored. I also object to Sandstein's most recent deletion as wheel-warring. Graeme Bartlett had the right to reverse a deletion, though normally we ask first, but when an admin action is reverted, rightly or wrongly, for the original admin to revert that back to their own state is unambiguous wheel-warring.
I do not think a single case is grounds for de-sysop, bur unless Sandstein will himself revert his improper actions, it should probably be discussed at a suitable admin board. (That the action seems to be contradicted by the plain facts makes it a little worse, but wheel-warring is never permitted and I would say just the same were this in fact a highly and unfixable promotional article) . . DGG ( talk ) 18:57, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- I object to the contention that I was wheel-warring. Per WP:WW, that only applies to actions "you know that another administrator opposes". I undid Graeme Bartlett's out-of-process undeletion only after he did not reply to my messages on his talk page, in which I sought to discuss the issue with him, for three days, while he was otherwise editing actively. Two days before I undid his restoration, I wrote to him: "Because you have not replied to my message, but have edited in the interim, I assume that you do not object to my re-deleting and re-salting the page". Not replying to this for two days, while otherwise editing normally, must in good faith be construed – at least – as a lack of opposition, but such opposition would be required for the reversal to constitute wheel-warring. See . Sandstein 19:23, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- Mayongian did not notify the deleting admin, which he should have done; I have now notified him,and also GB.. DGG ( talk ) 19:01, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- I maintain that my WP:CSD#G11 speedy deletion was valid. G11 applies to "pages that are exclusively promotional, and would need to be fundamentally rewritten". I contend that this applies to the article at issue. It is limited to fawningly listing and highlighting the subject's accomplishments in a manner that one would expect in a CV. Such CVs and lists of accomplishments are how academics promote themselves. The article is therefore exclusively promotional. Furthermore, the content was written by accounts such as the nominator, Mayonglan (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), that are either single-purpose accounts or accounts whose editing pattern suggests that they likely have a close affiliation with the subject. That makes the content profoundly suspect, even to the extent it may superficially appear salvageable, as we would need an editor without a possible conflict of interest to double-check each sentence to verify that it is true and neutrally worded – in effect, rewriting the article. For these reasons, the article also meets the requirement that it would need to be fundamentally rewritten.
In brief, this is an example of what we used to call vanispamcruftisement, although admittedly one of the less obvious and glaring examples, and such practices should be repressed rather than supported by administrators. Sandstein 19:40, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- Graeme Barlett's unilateral undeletion was discourteous but it might have been better if Sandstein had brought his protest to DRV rather than unilaterally undoing the unilateral undeletion. I don't think there's any benefit in wrangling over whether there has been a technical violation of WP:WW, since I don't think this case belongs in front of Arbcom, but, trouts all round.
Do we need a biography of this person? My immediate sniff-test says, no. Despite the long and superficially impressive list of sources in the deleted article, we're missing basic biographical facts. Properly-written biographies begin with some variant of "<Name> (born on <date> in <place>) is a <nationality> <profession>" and go on to explain why we have an article (i.e. an explanation of the chap's notability). In this case we don't even seem to have reliable third party sources for such basic biographical information as his date of birth. What we do seem to have is a laundry list of accomplishments, cobbled together from sources that aren't independent plus sources that are independent but aren't about Professor Sun. I see no hint that anyone's ever disagreed with him at all and no hint that he's ever done anything controversial. Still, we can't sustain a speedy deletion in the circumstances. Speedies are for when it's clear-cut, and I see good faith disagreement. We have to send it to AfD. But I wouldn't expect it to survive AfD in its current form.—S Marshall T/C 19:47, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- From what I understand, I could not have brought a unilateral restoration to deletion review, because this case is not listed in WP:DRVPURPOSE. It would rather have been incumbent on Graeme Bartlett to bring my original deletion (or re-deletion) here. Sandstein 19:59, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- I was seriously considering bringing it to DRV at that point, and Sandstein and I were talking on our talk pages, even if we were not agreeing. However it was re-deleted soon after. I considered that G11 did not apply to this page as editing could easily remove the CV like big lists of awards. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:08, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- Okay, Sandstein, I take your point. The important thing I wanted to get across here is that it's undignified for administrators to keep reversing each other. One of you should have sought community input before it got this far and I feel as if you're both somewhat to blame. I don't think it's a major issue and it shouldn't lead to any drama, but I do think it's a slight falling below the expected standards.—S Marshall T/C 20:10, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- I understand what you're trying to say, but frankly not every disagreement between administrators needs an ANI thread dedicated to it. In the event, my re-deletion remained uncontested by Graeme Bartlett – both before and after the action, although I do find some of his comments a bit difficult to parse. As far as I and apparently he was concerned, that settled the matter without needing to involve others. Sandstein 20:21, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- I agree that we don't need an ANI thread. In this case I had other things to do that I thought were more important rather than continue to support the WP:REFUND request by undeleting again. My opinion is that a speedy delete can be challenged at WP:REFUND. If an administrator agrees that the speedy delete was not appropriate it can be undeleted, but notify the deleting admin. Instead I think we need to focus on the article here rather than how many times it was deleted and restored without community discussion. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:31, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- Article looks like spam, but A) the subject appears to meet our inclusion guidelines and B) the process we've had thus far means that AfD is almost certainly the right way to go. The article needs a huge amount of clipping though. I also think feel the admins involved could have dealt with this a LOT better. Hobit (talk) 22:53, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- Actually, I agree that a discussion here serves the same purpose as AN/I. To a considerable extent, this page should be considered the most suitable place for review of admin actions dealing with article deletion. . I've stuck my suggestion above. My apologies to Sandstein. DGG ( talk ) 00:59, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
- Comment on notability Of course articles need checking. But the 3 key elements for notability are easily checkable, the editorships, the membership in the national academy, and the books written. I tend to be skeptical on both counts, and always check them for academic bios , to see if it's really ed. in chief, not just on the ed. board, and the books are actually written, not just edited, or even just chapters, etc. etc. I've checked all 3: for the editorship, see the journal's website--note that this is an international journal from a major publisher , with a very high Impact factor for the subject, 4th out of 138 in the subject category. this meets WP:PROF criterion 8. I have also confirmed the membership in the Chinese Academy of Science, from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency (also, Royal Irish Academy) That meets criterion 3. As I rather expected from the titles & publishers, Worldcat shows that the books are mostly ones which he has edited, not written entirely. This of course needs to be said in the article. I think editing this group of books from Wiley, a major international publisher, helps notability under WP:PROF, though I would not accept it as showing notability as author. As Sandstein says, items in articles like this need checking, not taking at face value. But there is enough. Similarly, rather than taking the h factor at face value, I'd look at the actual record.
- as for promotionalism, yes, I too get quite concerned at bios listing who's who among the awards. We can take several approaches: 1/ we can throw out every promotional bios, even though it shows provable notability and is easily edited, 2/ we can throw out the ones with marginal notability, even if easily edited, 3/ or we can keep anything we can edit into a borderline acceptable article, if it doesn't take too much work.. I follow the middle course. But even so, if it's marginal I'd be reluctant to use speedy, instead of AfD or prod. Borderline or marginal should imply a need for a community decision. (I will admit that, reluctant though I am, if it's truly borderline and needs more editing than I'd like to give it, I have recently been using speedy--like everyone else here, I'm getting pretty exasperated.) And as applied, here, this is not borderline notability: it meets at least 2 of the necessary criteria--and it does not take much editing. I'm still patient enough for this, though who knows what I may feel like in a year or two if the present trend continues. DGG ( talk ) 03:22, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
- Notability is not relevant in a G11 speedy deletion, which is what's being reviewed here, and therefore notability merits no discussion here. If an editor deems the subject to be notable, about which I personally have no opinion, they can recreate the article in a non-spam version, possibly after userfication. Sandstein 06:46, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
- Overturn: While the page has a promotional tone it does not seem to me exclusively promotional and could easily be edited to produce a an article on a scholar who I think passes WP:Prof. Speedy deletion under G11 there seems to me wrong and editing the article a better approach. (Msrasnw (talk) 10:16, 31 January 2013 (UTC))
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