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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. TravellingCari 20:50, 14 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Aberra Molla

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Aberra Molla (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

This is a vanity page created and written by Molla. (It was originally deleted, but then reinstated at Molla's request, which explains why his is not the first edit in the page history. The identity of User:Ethiopic and Molla is apparent among other places by his giving permission on the talk page for another editor to use his picture.) It is completely unnotable except for the quite dubious claim that he Unicodified Ethiopic, which I am unable to confirm with the Unicode Consortium. One source, on a web site which Molla has written several articles for (these articles are primary "sources" for the article), a paean calling him the "Father of Ethiopic", says that he created the first computer font for Ethiopic. Possibly true, but a long way from creating the Unicode proposal, and in any case we don't have bios on every person who created a font or even who wrote an accepted Unicode proposal. Molla has also added a claim to the Ge'ez alphabet article that he computerized the script,[1] and then repeatedly deleted claims that other people were also responsible for computerizing Ethiopic.[2][3] kwami (talk) 20:42, 9 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  • Delete, basically per nom. The only serious claim to notability is the claim to be the first to computerize the Ethiopic language. However, such a claim would need some serious verification and collaboration by independent reliable sources which does not seem to be available here. Moreover, the diffs provided by the nom show that there are valid competing claims references to which User:Ethiopic has been removing. Little or nothing of relevance in googlenews[4] and googlebooks[5]. Also, apparent WP:AUTO/WP:COI problems here. Nsk92 (talk) 00:19, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep Dr. Molla is quite notable for his achievements within the Ethiopian community, both online and off; note the Amharic version includes this article, and if you cut and paste, google search for his name in the Ethiopic text, you will get many more hits to Amharic language sources. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 02:04, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Which achievements are those? AFAIK he hasn't contributed to Unicode as he claims, and lots of people have created Ethiopic fonts. In fact, in what I've read on his website, he lambastes Unicode for not accepting his proposals (the "enemies of Ethiopic" are making imperfect proposals, etc.). His English and Amharic sources are mostly written by himself, or interviews with him posted at his website. According to the 1991 article, he created an Ethiopic IME, but I don't know that that's notable. Maybe mention of his name in the Ge'ez alphabet article, but a vanity autobiography? Also, what is notable for Amharic wiki may not be notable here—I'm sure there are lots of local US politicians who are not notable enough to make it onto Amharic wikipedia—and the Amharic article is just a stub.
I've checked Google. There are 17 hits.[6] They are Molla's own website, English Wiki, Amharic Wiki, wiki mirrors, a couple web stats sites, a site on AIDS that mentions the CDCP brochure he translated into Amharic, and an Oromo blog, which allocates Molla one line of print for one of his patents, and then in the very next line credits Obbo Ayana Birru for having "Invented Amharic Type writer and brough the Geez scripts to the 21st century." That is, the only independent source denies Molla credit for his claims! kwami (talk) 03:02, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Be sure to also check the more common spelling "አበራ ሞላ" that brings up 69 more hits including several more articles about him in Amharic press. The Amharic wiki has only 3000-3500 articles total and is still waiting for many articles to be written, including many notable US politicians, but as knowledge grows over the decades and centuries, who knows how much more complete it could be one day 100's of years from now. But if you do not want to include notable information for the English encyclopedia, it is probably your loss. Til Eulenspiegel (talk) 12:47, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A search for "አበራ ሞላ" gives 70 hits in the plain google search[7] (of which only 13 appear to be from unique addresses[8]), but 0 hits in googlebooks[9], 0 hits in googlenews[10] and 0 hits in googlescholar[11]. Of the 70 plain google search hits most appear to be some kind of wiki-mirrors as well as blogs ands bulletin boards, and certainly not passing WP:RS. A far cry from even passing WP:V, not to mention WP:N or WP:BIO here. Nsk92 (talk) 15:17, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete Whether he actually did what he claims to have done is beyond the scope of our discussion here, but appears to be at the very least disputable and not exactly supported by any reliable sources I could find. Additionally, while autobiography/COI is not always in itself a reason to delete, when coupled with marginal-at-best notability the case becomes far more clear. Delete as being of questionable notability and unsupported by reliable sources and thus failing WP:BIO. Andrew Lenahan - Starblind 14:16, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep per TE's rationale. Chris (クリス • フィッチ) (talk) 14:36, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comment I'd asked User:Codex Sinaiticus to join us, as he contributed to the Amharic article, and now that I'm writing this I see he's Til Eulenspiegel, above. Til, you'd said he's a "prominent businessman among the Ethiopian community", but that you don't know about his Unicode claims. From what Molla's been writing, it would seem the Unicode stuff is his main claim to fame, veterinary work is second, and he makes no mention of his business. (I assume you mean his computer business, not his vaccines?) He describes himself as "an Ethiopian veterinarian and writer", but the only piece of writing he describes is an Amharic adaptation of an CDCP Aids brochure—hell, I'm a writer if that's all that's required: I've published malaria pamphlets in languages that didn't have any, and published in other fields as well, but wouldn't claim to be notable. So we're down to his veterinary work. Is being a USDA veterinarian, the field test (two patents for the same test, it would seem), and student work at CSU "notable"? The field test that the patents are for isn't notable enough for even Molla to explain what exactly it is. But my opposition stems primarily from his self-aggrandizement (evidenced also by his deleting mention of any other contributors to digitizing Amharic). kwami (talk) 19:40, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Keep you all are being ridiculous, and some, such as kwami, are just being childish - why else would he start a discussion with the comment "This is a vanity page". If you can't read amharic, then you may not know all of the contributions that Dr. Molla has made to the Ethiopian community or to advancements in computers. Until you learn, you cannot say what information is out there or the effect of Dr. Molla's contributions. Those who can read and understand Amharic know better than to delete this page. Also, wikipedia is meant to be a global encylopedia, not just an encylopedia for those who speak English. The fact that you are considering deleting a page because you haven't found corroboration in English is an insult to the community. Finally, there is nothing wrong with deleting information that is incorrect, which is what was done in the past, which frankly just makes me wonder if you bothered to discuss the reasons for deleting that information as much as you are discussing this now.... no... I didn't think so. [anon.]

Amharic sources are fine, but this has no supporting sources whatsoever. There are no significant Amharic sources online, not just no English sources. We also have a general policy against autobiographies, and this is a vanity page—I mean, come on, stuff he helped his professors do in school? I could make my life sound worthy of an encyclopedia article if you gave me free reign. It has nothing to do with him being Amharic. If you, our anonymous voter, want the article to stay, why not add the Amharic sources that back it up? kwami (talk) 04:48, 13 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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.
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