Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Analog-to-digital timeline


 * 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 delete‎__EXPECTED_UNCONNECTED_PAGE__. Liz Read! Talk! 07:28, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Analog-to-digital timeline

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

This will eventually be an unwieldy list of all digital devices (cameras, phones, scales, light bulbs...) Sean Brunnock (talk) 12:03, 19 March 2024 (UTC) Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  Sandstein   17:28, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Technology-related deletion discussions. Sean Brunnock (talk) 12:03, 19 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: History and Lists.  WC  Quidditch   ☎   ✎  19:19, 19 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Keep No valid reason given for deletion. The last invention listed at the end is from 2005.  Also what is a analog or digital light bulb?   D r e a m Focus  20:22, 19 March 2024 (UTC)
 * A lightbulb whose brightness varies with current is clearly analogue. Digital? Perhaps something like this Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 20:46, 19 March 2024 (UTC)
 * This will be a list of thousands of digital devices. Do you think that they stopped making digital devices in 2005? — Sean Brunnock (talk) 21:57, 19 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The article was made in January 2009, with so few edits they all fit on one history tab listing. I don't think thousands of devices will be added, nor would that make any sense at all.  It list the first of each thing, not every single device there ever was.   D r e a m Focus  22:23, 19 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Delete as a confused mess of OR without anything remotely resembling a clear topic. 35.139.154.158 (talk) 04:11, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Delete The article is a list article, and WP:LISTN states: Notability guidelines also apply to the creation of stand-alone lists and tables. Notability of lists (whether titled as "List of Xs" or "Xs") is based on the group. One accepted reason why a list topic is considered notable is if it has been discussed as a group or set by independent reliable sources. I can find no such sources that describe a timeline, as envisaged here, about everything analogue to digital. I can find evidence in specific domains, such as the evolution of music recording, but even there, the information is not generally presented as a standalone timeline without any context. I think this list is misconceived. If we consider the reader, the question is what information might they want or need to know, and how would we best provide that information? An incomplete context free list is not going to help an information need. Instead an article on this wide ranging subject should be written in prose, and may then contain relevant timelines. For instance, would Comparison of analog and digital recording benefit from a timeline? Such a timeline is typically presented as a diagram in sources, rather than as a list. Finally I am unconvinced by the argument above that the page will not become unwieldy simply because no one has edited it. Sure, the lack of interest in touching this page might mean it remains short, but it also means it is very incomplete, and what it contains is editor selected, and thus WP:OR. Sirfurboy🏄 (talk) 08:12, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
 * comment There are a lot of timeline articles just like this one. Category:Timelines by topic  D r e a m Focus  01:51, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, CycloneYoris talk! 09:15, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Delete on TNT grounds. I do think a good timeline article could possibly be written, but this isn't it, and I'm not sure if anything could be salvaged. Currently it's just a list of digital devices. For it to be a timeline of the transition from analogue to digital, there must have been an established analogue thing before the invention of a digital equivalent. This makes perfect sense in some fields (music recordings) but it's absolute nonsense in numerical calculation because Babbage's difference engine didn't replace an analogue equivalent. Yes, there were and are analogue computing devices, but they never did the same job, they never occupied the same ecological niche, and in any case, the article doesn't mention them. Nor does it make any sense to mention the Jacquard loom as there was never an analogue loom because weaving is fundamentally a there-or-not-there process. Book-keeping was always a digital process too; accounts were never analogue. We must be careful not to confuse analogue-to-digital with manual-to-automated. The same applies to most of the stuff about player-pianos. I am prepared to strike my delete if someone is able to do a massive clean-up and reorganisation, but the list in its current form is an ill-defined mess that I feel needs a totally fresh start. Elemimele (talk) 20:26, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Draftify It is best not to delete it but significantly modify before moving to the article space again. Abhishek0831996 (talk) 17:13, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.


 * Delete Tech-history fancruft. This is like a wiki version of those old Ray Kurzweil plots of random things thrown together onto a timeline because they were all "evolutionary innovations" somehow. XOR&#39;easter (talk) 21:25, 4 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Delete. Messy and unclear. I read it and I am not sure what this even supposed to be - the content seems to contradict the lead, or perhaps requires expert knowledge. Fails NLIST, INDISCRIMNATE, etc.
 * Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 02:24, 9 April 2024 (UTC)


 * 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.