Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Fictional portrayals of psychopaths in film (2nd nomination)


 * 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 transwiki to Wikibooks. — TKD::Talk 05:56, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Fictional portrayals of psychopaths in film and Fictional portrayals of psychopaths in literature
AfDs for this article: 
 * – (View AfD) (View log)

This is actually a quite well written essay.

As a Wikiedia article I consider it to be fatally flawed.

Firstly, it's marred by the section on criteria for inclusion Besides being full of self-references such as "This article was created in June 2006 and since then a number of guidelines for inclusion have evolved in the discussion pages", the crtieria described ignore verifiability.

Secondly, which is related to the above, it's full of original research. That's because it's an essay. Essay writers rightly feel free to create whole ad hoc categories for the purpose of organising the ideas presented, an so this essay creates categories such as "Robotic psychopathic characters and psychopathic artificial intelligence", "Extraterrestrial and god-like psychopathic characters", "Lesbian vampires" and the like, which are innovative but not verifiably psychopathic in any concrete sense.

It was previously listed for deletion in April, and kept: Articles for deletion/Fictional portrayals of psychopaths. Since then it has been renamed.

I think this is a pretty good essay, and should be considered for transwiki to WikiBooks. --Tony Sidaway 00:10, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Addendum: I think we should also consider what to do to the article that User:Mangled Nervous System, the principal editor, forked off from it in July: Fictional portrayals of psychopaths in literature. Accordingly I have added the deletion tag to that article, and suggest that we also transwiki it. --Tony Sidaway 02:06, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I concur. This is fascinating reading, and it is not a Wikipedia article. It doesn't belong in the main articlespace, but it'd be a pity to delete it outright. Transwiki. DS 00:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Transwiki to WikiBooks per DS. Article has been worked on quite hard, but it's still quite original research. Ten Pound Hammer  • (Broken clamshells•Otter chirps•Review?) 00:19, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment It's hard to go against lesbian vampires, but it just doesn't fit. MarkBul 00:44, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Delete and transwiki both to WikiBooks. This may be the best-written article I've ever voted to delete. The references are terrific. But it's almost totally original research and not an encyclopedia article. Find a good place for this — just not here. Realkyhick 03:48, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete and Transwiki. The introduction is sourced but the examples of each type are OR. Dbromage  [Talk]  04:35, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep. M.V.E.i. 15:06, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * It will be kept, but in Wikibooks instead. At least I think so. ~Iceshark7 16:48, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Transwiki per comments above. It is quite an essay, and I hate to see the work going into a wastebin. ~Iceshark7 16:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete/Transwiki if anyone'll have it. For all the same reasons it should have eben deleted the last time. Otto4711 18:43, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep the introduction is admitted to be sourced. Given that the individual examples are mostly well known works where there will certainly be reviews discussing he chaacters, I think it meets the requirement of being sourceable.
 * Keep Well-written and informative.--Bedivere 19:12, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep both per above. 65.207.127.12 00:07, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Transwiki/Delete Unfortunately, it's WP:USEFUL and Well-written, but it's complete and utter WP:OR SirFozzie 00:35, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Transwiki and rename Good to keep, quite interesting, terrible article. Also a bit redundantly named. Fictional portrayals? ~Kylu ( u | t )  00:36, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Of course fictional - as opposed to documentaries or films based on true stories.--Bedivere 19:06, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Transwiki indeed. It seems like the most reasonable solution.--Jersey Devil 00:44, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Transwiki & Delete good reading, but bears no relation to a Wikipedia article WP:OR etc.  E LIMINATOR JR  01:27, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * A good well written and researched piece - highly relevant and appropriate - one of the best articles on this subject- good for students - keep —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.138.35.170 (talk) 09:21, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
 * This relatively well-written essay doesn't belong on Wikipedia. There is a famous quote by Wales: "Some who completely understand why Wikipedia ought not create novel theories of physics by citing the results of experiments and so on and synthesizing them into something new, may fail to see how the same thing applies to history." This essay was constructed by taking many characters in films and synthesizing them into the novel concept of a "fictional psychopath". This is a great topic for a term paper in film criticism, but not for Wikipedia. We routinely delete articles in the sciences that develop new theories in this manner. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 12:10, 2 September 2007 (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.