User:JP419

Welcome to my user page. I am a public safety professional in state government. I started in college by working for the campus police department. I may switch agencies sometime in the near-future, so I'm not being specific so I don't have to change my page later. (Sorry)

My off-duty interests (in no particular order) include public affairs (...not just politics), counterterrorism issues, disaster and emergency preparedness, history, the militia movement, and the sociology of right-wing culture.

Politically, I identify myself as a libertarian. I'll omit my religious affiliation for now, seeing that religion seems to cause more divisiveness than even politics, but I will aver that I am not an atheist! But in the interest of balance, I will say that I have had more than a couple of friends who were/are atheists. Ditto on politics; I have friends & neighbors who are both 'left' & 'right'.

I'll add wiki links to the above text sometime. [8-2-2009] I am new to wiki editing so please, please pardon my amateur status!

J. Parker


 * Personal note to myself: [user templates] and WP:UBX

Why deletionism is not Best Practices

 * Notability of articles is sometimes very subjective. For some, John Anderson the US presidential candidate might be a noted person; others who don't live in the United States might feel that John Anderson the Scottish scientist is more prominent.
 * First-time contributors tend to be disheartened if the article(s) that they have started are deleted without (in their opinion) a good reason. In their view, at least, the subject matter is noteworthy. WP:Bite or WP:NOOB
 * Instead of deleting the article altogether, it should be merged with another one (see Mergism).
 * Rather than deleting it, why not simply add to it?
 * Deleting a well-written, well-sourced article on the basis of notability reduces the total information of Wikipedia.
 * Deleting an article on the basis of notability both reduces Wikipedia to the level of traditional encyclopedias (which won't cover topics that Wikipedia will for various reasons, including notability), but also doesn't provide the oversight that a traditional encyclopedia has to justify it trimming articles. Part of the reason people use Wikipedia is that it is a vibrant source of obscure knowledge, especially about obscure topics that aren't covered in a more traditional encyclopedia. Other methods of ensuring quality, such as labeling a page "In Need of Editing and Sources", are more than enough to correct problems.
 * Deleting an article, especially when the article covers an esoteric topic, is a form of censorship and violates the fundamental principles on which Wikipedia was created!

Rescue