Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of postal killings


 * 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 keep - the consensus is that this article should be kept in some form though not necessarily as a standalone page. The question as to whether the sourced parts should be merged into Going postal would be appropriate to a separate merge discussion. NAC. Bridgeplayer (talk) 00:06, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

List of postal killings

 * – ( View AfD View log )

List of generally non-notable news events. A couple of them aren't actually examples of going postal, but rather incidents where others killed postal workers; any of the others that are actually notable should be in the main article, which is short and which is already set up to deal with individual events. –Roscelese (talk &sdot; contribs) 17:00, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Trim, merge, and redirect to going postal. I fail to see why this even needs to be brought up here. Be WP:BOLD and do what needs doing. ~Amatulić (talk) 17:12, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Which ones, besides those which are not examples of going postal, would you suggest trimming? The ones already in Going postal are notable for, eg., resulting in changes to USPS regulations, or being the deadliest workplace shooting in the USA by a woman. (There are others there which may not be notable and perhaps should be removed - I'm just trying to explain what could make one notable, not trying to defend everything that's already there.) Or rather, which ones would you suggest merging? –Roscelese (talk &sdot; contribs) 18:25, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, now that you ask, I agree you have a point. This isn't as simple as I initially thought. Going postal appears to focus on the United States, so it might benefit from expansion with examples from other countries as this article lists them.
 * Some examples lack sources altogether. I haven't looked to find sources for those, but if none can be found, they could be removed. The entry for Canada seems to be a family murder that happened to involve a postal worker but there's no indication that there's a connection between the killing and working for the post office. The Australian ones appear relevant.
 * One question I have concerns vernacular. "Going postal" is a US-centric term, so is it appropriate to merge in examples from other countries? Although "going postal" originated from postal workers doing the killing, nowadays it means (according to the article) getting angry to the point of killing indiscrimminately. It might make more sense to compile a list of mass homicides regardless of where they occurred. List of mass homicides might be a title worthy of renaming going postal and expanding it.
 * I've heard this term throughout my life and seen news coverage of these mass killings, which leads me to wonder if someone has investigated the attractiveness of post offices for carrying out the act. ~Amatulić (talk) 18:55, 6 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Keep meets every requirement for a standalone list. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 19:51, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't you either stay out or identify yourself as the creator of the article? How can you be judge and judged at the same time? Rui &#39;&#39;Gabriel&#39;&#39; Correia (talk) 05:27, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Crime-related deletion discussions.  — • Gene93k (talk) 00:00, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions.  — • Gene93k (talk) 00:00, 7 September 2011 (UTC)


 * keep &mdash; the above discussion highlights the reasons why merging to going postal is probably not a good idea, esp. the us-centricity of both the term and that list. since the people mentioned in this list are in no way independently notable and neither are the individual crimes, but they share a notable characteristic, a list is the perfect place to have this information. this seems to me to fall under the clause in WP:LISTPURP that says that lists may be useful if "grouped by theme". if some of the entries don't fit the theme of the list, why not take them out by ordinary editing?  if anything's going to go, it ought to be that going postal is merged here, but that's not under discussion here. &mdash; alf.laylah.wa.laylah (talk) 00:20, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Merging the other way is a possibility too, but that's out of scope for a deletion discussion. If the article is kept, appropriate merge tags could be placed on both articles and a new discussion would commence on the destination article's talk page. ~Amatulić (talk) 00:40, 7 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Keep Note that any of these events meet the GNG if there are two or more news articles covering them. With that threshold, it's not clear to me (SNGs like NEVENT notwithstanding) that there is an agreement on what counts as a "notable" event.  Note further (ha ha) that per WP:NNC, lists such as these don't need each entry to meet notability guidelines; notability for the topic and verifiability for the entries are sufficient.  Thus, while it might be improved by editing, I don't see any reason to force a merge or deletion. Jclemens (talk) 00:40, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge into Going postal, by only moving the sourced incidence in this article with a simple intro of the term's usage out-of the US. Both articles together are considered a topic, but this alone ain't.     ~ AdvertAdam   talk  03:31, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep - should not be merged. simple.--BabbaQ (talk) 06:20, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete - I don't understand why the overall theme of this list, which seems to be "murders in one of three countries where either the victim, the perpetrator, or both were postal employees" is a useful theme to make a list article out of. What is the encyclopedic interest that combines postal workers who "went postal" with postal workers who happened to be killed on the job?  I don't see one. gnfnrf (talk) 06:01, 8 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge or redirect: pretty arbitrary to focus on all murders not just perpetrated by postal workers, but perpetrated against postal workers. We don't want to see a list like this for every profession or person. Much better to present this in context with "going postal". Dzlife (talk) 16:04, 8 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Keep or Merge: Even if a list article is not appropriate, allow editors to merge the information in to another article. Robert Brockway (talk) 16:23, 8 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge into Going postal. Alternatively Purge unreferenced entries. Stuartyeates (talk) 23:06, 10 September 2011 (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.