User:Cdcon/AfD

About AfD
AfD stands for the Articles for Deletion page on Wikipedia. This is where people vote on whether or not an article should exist in Wikipedia.

My AfD Experience
I used to vote on AfD frequently. After a while I began to notice some patterns:


 * Every obviously-nonsense article I voted "delete" on was deleted. This is to be expected. Most voters agreed with my obviously-nonsense delete votes - Wikipedians are especially keen to spotting these sorts of things.
 * Every article on which I voted "keep" was kept. This is also to be expected. I provide solid, rational justification whenever I vote for keeping an article. A closer would be hard-pressed to find a delete rationale superior to my keep rationale, even if I were the only keep voter.
 * Every article on which I voted "delete", but which had at least two distinct vocal (but not necessarily rational) supporters, was kept. This is the problem. Force of will, not force of reason, drives each of these decisions. Regardless of how well I articulate my point of view, if two other people disagree with even minimal justification, I lose.

We can deduce from this that the only articles that are deleted via AfD are the obvious-nonsense ones or those with a lone defender. Since spotting nonsense articles is an entirely brainless activity, it is not a worthwhile use of time. Similarly, arguing against a lone defender is a brainless activity. If this lone defender could not attract anyone in Wikipedia to his cause, how solid do you think his argument is?

It is clear to me now that AfD voting is not a good use of my time. It is a lot like being a janitor. Fortunately, there are plenty of Wikipedians who are eager to do this. To the rest of us: just sit back, hand these people a mop and a bucket of soap, and they'll do the dirty work.

Related Links
My AfD rule set - in progress