User:Geo Swan/opinions/Should we have some topic specific notability criteria for extrajudicial captives...

I have suggested that it might be useful to have topic specific agreement on what constitutes an "event" when considering whether individuals who have been held in extrajudicial detention merit separate articles.

One of the general factors we consider when we consider creating a separate article for a particular individual is whether they are known only for a "single event".

However, there is a broad range of interpretations as to what constitutes a single event.

Consider Bowe Bergdahl, an American GI held captive by the Taliban. Prior to his detention he was just another GI, and couldn't possibly have been justified a separate article. If he had been jailed for, let's say, drunk driving, at home in the USA, or when posted to Germany, South Korea, the UK, WP:CRIMINAL would apply, and he wouldn't justify a separate article. Should his detention by the Taliban a single event? If so, is his detention one of the exceptional cases WP:BLP1E allows, where someone is recognized as meriting a separate article, even though he is known for just a single event?

As Bergdahl's narrative has evolved alternate versions of how he came to be captured have been advanced -- that he was captured when he fell behind on a patrol, versus he was captured when he left his base alone when he was off duty. Was that a separate event? Was the release of each separate capture video a separate event?

I have listed here some suggested reasons why we might have a separate article on a captive held in some kind of extrajudicial detention.

I phrased the explanation around whether the reason would constitute a second event, so BLP1E no longer applies.

I have listed these reasons in a rough hierarchy of how likely I think readers are to agree those individuals will merit a separate article. I invite readers to look at the list, and stop when they get to a reason they don't think is sufficient to be considered a separate event.

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