Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Myth: People are at Increased Risk for Suicide During the Winter Months


 * 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 original article was unsatisfactory, but the consensus is clearly to keep the revised and retitled version. This seems to have been yet another example of people in the Academic Program proceeding to select article topics and titles without adequate prior consultation.  DGG ( talk ) 18:27, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Myth: People are at Increased Risk for Suicide During the Winter Months

 * – ( View AfD View log )

One-sided personal essay, with evident POV. Some content could perhaps be smerged to Suicide. We don't have a WP:NOTMYTHBUSTERS policy, but I reckon WP:NOTESSAY will do. Yunshui 雲&zwj;水 22:48, 22 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep - this is a completely legitimate article. If the extreme POV is eliminated and the article rewritten for better tone, and the article renamed to something more neutral like "Relation between suicide rates and season," it will be a legitimate article. Although I do agree we need a policy about tones like this in articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wer900 (talk • contribs) 23:24, 22 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete WP:NOTESSAY. Despite the above, I am not convinced that there's a legit article topic under all this spaghetti. As I see it now it's a total WP:SYNTH nightmare. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 00:20, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Behavioural science-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 02:18, 23 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete If the article title wasn't so long I'd argue for a plausible redirect to cabin fever, but I can't see that at all. It reads as an essay and is full of synthesis that doesn't really meet what we'd call cabin fever very much.  Nate  • ( chatter ) 05:20, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete Per WP:NOTESSAY and all the rest above. Not encyclopedic at all. 24.129.180.6 (talk) 12:49, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Smerge (selectively merge) to Suicide or Keep, rewrite as needed and move to Seasonal suicide rates. The "mythbusters" style of demolishing a straw-man proposition is not encyclopedic. The article does read a bit like a college research paper, but the edit history shows it being assembled sentence by sentence by a new editor who says he is studying psychology in college. It looks like the good-faith effort of a new editor to create an article on an important topic.  Seasonal suicide rate variation has been a subject covered in several published articles   for over a century.  See  a 1908 article says "June is.. the suicide month" (in the northern hemisphere) and cites Durkheim and other researchers, . Google scholar shows numerous studies which looked at suicide rates in various seasons. The conclusion of higher rates in local spring or summer than in local winter has  support. In summary, I can see a place in the encyclopedia for the information, but the article needs to be moved to a better title and edited extensively for style, if it is not merged to Suicide, where I don't see coverage of its seasonal variation, with a spring or summer peak and a winter trough, a widely researched topic:, . Edison (talk) 13:09, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep but rename and rewrite as Seasonal effects on suicide rates, per Edison (but note my proposed variant of the title). Alternatively merge as its own section of the Suicide article. Needs serious cleanup either way. - Jorgath (talk) (contribs) 03:51, 24 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep but rename I am the professor of the student author who is working on this article. To provide some history and context for this article, the student is part of the APS wikipedia initiative; the goal of which is to provide the public with the most accurate and up-to-date information about psychological science.  The impetus for the article was based on a similar myth-busting article on people using 10% of their brain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth).  That said, we are more than happy to revise the title of the article and its content to provide a more neutral, basic information tone. We are new to the wikipedia editing process, but I can assure you the edits and changes are being made in good faith. Prof Haeffel (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 21:09, 26 March 2012 (UTC).
 * Comment The "busting a myth" strawman-demolition style would be more appropriate in Parade magazine or some grocery store tabloid than in an encyclopedia. Please do not encourage your students to use that particular style of crafting future articles. Thanks to you and them for efforts to improve the encyclopedia. Edison (talk) 18:06, 27 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment  Yes, thank you for your feedback; we will not use this particular style in the future for crafting articles. And, if given the opportunity, the student author will continue to work diligently on this article to improve it.  That said, I would again like to note that this "style" of article was not naively based on something seen in "Parade" or a tabloid, but rather something IN wikipedia. There is an existing precedent for this style of article (see 10% myth article). Prof Haeffel (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 01:41, 28 March 2012 (UTC).
 * Keep I believe that by reversing the order of the lead sentence and moving the Popular belief section to the bottom of the article, that the article is now truly focused toward Seasonal effects on suicide rates. I do not really have any problem with the popular belief > facts presentation, but hopefully those who do will now be satisfied. Anarchangel (talk) 16:47, 28 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, B  music  ian  05:28, 29 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete Per WP:NOTESSAY and above. Iglooflame (talk) 07:09, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep - I've done a significant rewrite on the article to try to word things in a more neutral way . . . that, in combination with the renaming should address the WP:NOTESSAY concerns raised above. There are plenty of references available to meet WP:GNG. -- Stv  Fett erly  (Edits)  16:09, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep. The topic is notable, as is clear from the many reliable sources discussing studies regarding the topic. Any POV issues can be dealt with in the regular way by editing. --Lambiam 17:16, 29 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Keep - This was a titling problem. Content is encyclopedic and sourced. Carrite (talk) 19:54, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment The titled article of this AFD is not an article, it is a redirect to Seasonal effects on suicide rates North8000 (talk) 21:48, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete the "Myth:... redirect article. That mess of a title should not exist even as a redirect. North8000 (talk) 21:53, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Merge the "Seasonal effects on...." article.   It is well written and sourced.   But it is an angle on a topic, not a topic. North8000 (talk) 21:52, 29 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment - I'm not sure I understand what you're proposing. What do you want to merge the Seasonal effects on suicide rates article with?-- Stv  Fett erly  (Edits)  16:21, 30 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep as Seasonal effects on suicide rates. Bearian (talk) 21:50, 3 April 2012 (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.