Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not/Outtakes (3rd nomination)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellaneous 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 discussion was: no consensus. This is has near 50/50 opinions on whether to delete or keep, with some tendency to keep (and less so to move out of a policy's subpage). So, I'd say it is a clear keep by no consensus to delete. And that is it as "official" closure goes. For disclosure, I will also tag as historical, humor, and take 67.209's suggested move target as a good one and proceed as such. - Nabla (talk) 18:01, 13 December 2024 (UTC) Nabla (talk) 18:01, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not/Outtakes

What even is this? It is certainly not a humorous essay, looks more like a steaming pile of hot garbage. It was kept when nominated fourteen years ago, and as far as I can tell has gotten progressively more stupid and pointless since that time. Perhaps the project has matured a bit since then and we can agree to just not have... whatever this is supposed to be. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 20:52, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Delete It's a waste of precious bits. Simonm223 (talk) 20:56, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Bits are created, not saved, upon deletion. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 22:07, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I am aware. It's still a waste of psychic space - and full of rather inappropriate failures at humour. Simonm223 (talk) 13:02, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete this should have never been created to begin with. Catfurball (talk) 21:31, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep - Yes, Wikipedia used to be a sillier place. In articlespace, that's usually a good thing. In projectspace, I'd like to know what is gained by deleting a bunch of silliness that 508 people have contributed to in the past 18 years. Should it be linked from anywhere serious? No, of course not (and I just removed the link from WP:NOT). But that's true of all of the "humorous" pages. If kept, I also plan to remove a couple bits that are critical of specific Wikipedians. It kind of reminds me of the "graffiti wall" some BBSes used to have, where people wrote random thoughts, jokes, or nonsense, usually anonymously. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 22:07, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It’s project-reflection, which makes it ok. I find a little bit of value in the reflection, but I’m not sure it is worth anyone’s time to read to find. It sort of comments satirically on WP:NOT being serious and important. It’s not funny, it’s not clearly educational, but I am loath to agree to delete anything project-reflective that is not actually offensive in any way. Maybe blank. Maybe blank archive and protect. SmokeyJoe (talk) 22:27, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Honestly, the more I look at it, the more I do see things that are offensive. Comments about suicide, comments mocking Black Lives Matter protests, comments about gun control, comments about raping and killing hitchhikers.... And I've only read a small percentage of it. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 23:52, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good point. SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:17, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It being on balance negative makes me lean to “blank and archive”. SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:54, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Is it on balance negative? I just removed the crazy hitchiker business and a section devoted to apparently quite serious dunking on Neelix. If you see offensive nonsense, just remove it. I don't see any mocking black lives matter, but I didn't look that hard. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 03:26, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
On balance, it is garbage. I don't personally like garbage, YMMV. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 05:47, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Middens are of great value, in some ways, even if few would agree. SmokeyJoe (talk) 06:13, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Mark as historical or Delete nonsense -1ctinus📝🗨 23:02, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'd add that if for some reason this is kept, it should be moved so as not to be a subpage of an actual policy. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 23:46, 27 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete as useless, nonsensical, and weird. Ed ^{[talk] [OMT]} 03:59, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Ancient cruft of no actual relevance to the Wikipedia of 2024. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 04:46, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - there are very few items that are retrievable, they should go somewhere else. The whole humorous essay collection could potentially be exterminated in the face of comments made here - the fact that anything remains is worth noting, as things get far too serious these days. I fully agree with JSS that it should not be attached to or associated with a live real policy. JarrahTree 07:40, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete or move to the historical archive, along with Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not/BJAODN (which maybe should be added to this nom, or something)? – both those options would work for me (and I'd rarely be OK with deleting a page from 2006); this essay is too long, un-funny, and barely relevant to Wikipedia, but, for example, this early version makes a lot more sense. I have boldly undone all the recent edits by Gahex220, which made the page significantly worse; all of the text removed by Rhododendrites was added by Gahex220. There's also the search results for mentionns of this page to consider, but none of them are any more than trivial, and I wouldn't normally say that. Graham87 (talk) 07:50, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Also if this page is moved to the historical archive, I wouldn't mind if some form of protection was applied to it to reduce the chance of it being fiddled with further. Graham87 (talk) 07:55, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And it was Gahex220's activities that led me to even be aware of this, he was making some highly questionable edits elsewhere so I was looking through his contribs, and ran across this. I considered just undoing his edits myself but I couldn't say they were all out of step with what is expected on this page because it appears to be a complete free-for-all, which is why I nominated it for deletion instead. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 20:18, 28 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep (and move, I guess) - I get why people think this shouldn't be a subpage of a real policy, but not why it would need to be deleted. Its humor value is obviously debatable, but also very subjective. Hatman31 (he/him · talk · contribs) 03:41, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep Perfectly fine humourous essay and a piece of Wikipedia history. Ca ^{talk to me!} 15:03, 29 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep as harmless but maybe also lock page. Or make extended-confirmed required. Harmless as a fragment to old Wikipedia humor but let's let people make their own new humor pages for 2024, not do unfunny renovations of old humor pages like apparently happened here. SnowFire (talk) 00:49, 30 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep I like this article, and it is a piece of Wikipedia history. I read it when I was first getting involved in the project some 7-ish years ago. However, it has become much different than the version I read then, and much of the newer material could stand to be deleted. There is some value in the earlier stuff, like the commentary on appending Wiki- to everything, does have genuine humorous value and serves as a pointed commentary. JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 18:43, 30 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
mildly amused that nearly everyone in favor of keeping this is also removing large portions of it....

It's almost like it's a pile of junk with no real purpose... Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 05:43, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The purpose was socialization/expression, which there was more tolerance for years ago. It's worth keeping traces of that olde tyme Wikipedia culture via a page with 500 contributors, and worth pruning offensive stuff that does actually violate policy (most of which was apparently just recently added by one person). Being stupid doesn't change that value. I'd be fine with locking the page now, though. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 14:24, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep It's a joke page. It's not hurting anyone. The Master of Hedgehogs ^(converse) ^(hedgehogs) 01:12, 2 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

*Keep. Calling a page a "steaming pile of hot garbage" is not a valid deletion reason. 180.129.92.142 (talk) 06:15, 2 December 2024 (UTC)this ip was blocked for CU-confirmed block evasion. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 19:55, 5 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep Wikipedia can't be all serious. There needs to be some places to channel the goofiness. Maybe someone that would have otherwise vandalized saw this and decided to add another section. I know it's unlikely, but maybe! Shovel Shenanigans (talk) 19:09, 2 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep This is not simply a humor page, but obviously ~~an integral part of the main policy~~ is itself the main policy. Closer should be aware that the offensive stuff was added by a single blocked editor and was swiftly revdel'd, the article looked fine in October 2024 [1]. Kenneth Kho (talk) 21:03, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete why does this page even exist? its not funny in the slightest and it shouldn't even be part of the main policy. 37.210.71.142 (talk) 12:31, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. See Wikipedia:Humor. Drdr150 (talk) 17:17, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. CodingYT (talk) 19:31, 4 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Move to Wikipedia:Silly Things/Outtakes of What Wikipedia is not. 67.209.128.126 (talk) 15:12, 5 December 2024 (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 page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.