Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Paul Addis (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 delete. There appears to be a rough consensus against retaining this page which becomes more pronounced if we underweight the keep from a SPA account. Ad Orientem (talk) 04:03, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Paul Addis
AfDs for this article: 
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This individual is not notable except for one event - an act of vandalism - and the article itself has survived simply through procedure. In its first AFD discussion, the result was delete; in the second it was procedurally closed because it was moved from Draft to main space. That did not make the article any better.

I started cutting away at fawning language and undue content but eventually came to the conclusion that the only thing that should be there is the Burning Man vandalism, so the question then becomes "why should this even be here?" Jorm (talk) 23:28, 3 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Delete, as proposer.--Jorm (talk) 23:29, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete not enough coverage to show notability.John Pack Lambert (talk) 00:24, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep Addis is notable for burning Burning Man early, for getting arrested for allegedly threatening to burn down Grace Cathedral, San Francisco and finally for committing suicide. In addition, he was a playwright.  There was quite a bit of coverage in the mainstream press about Addis' burning of Burning Man early.  Wired had a short Q&A with him, Wikileaks has an email about his plea. Wikipedia has a number of vanity bio pages, and I've tried to have a few deleted.  However, I believe that Paul Addis is notable. Cxbrx (talk) 02:53, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Where is this coverage, and how does it support this person having their own article, and not support a single event?--Jorm (talk) 02:55, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Via Wikipedia, I have access to newspaperarchive.com.  Searching newspaperarchive.com for "Paul Addis Burning Man" "2007-2019", I get 730 hits.  Yes, not all of them apply, but 23 of the first 25 do apply, I stopped counting after that.  An example is at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35625824/paul_addis_arrested_for_attempted_arson/.  There a three main events, the early burning of Burning Man, the arrest at Grace Cathedral and the suicide.  In general, I see the point of WP:BLP1E and WP:BIO1E.  I believe that the initial event (the early burning of Burning Man) was notable because of the amount of coverage.  Yes, Addis was no John Hinckley Jr., but Addis' role was substantial and well documented.  However, if enough editors feel this article should go, then I'll yield and not take up any more time.  Maybe we can apply the same standards to  Joseph Matheny's article, which appears to be a self-edited vanity page? Or  Hui-Hai Liu, which is appears to be another self-edited vanity page? Cxbrx (talk) 03:50, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * This is my point: it's 1 event. As far as the other articles, I have no opinions about them as I have no knowledge of their context.--Jorm (talk) 04:07, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Artists-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 13:23, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Theatre-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 13:23, 5 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Delete - non-notable individual. Made the news for the one event of vandalism at Burning Man. That's not enough to warrant an encyclopedia article. Netherzone (talk) 16:00, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete and I will admit this is not entirely on policy. There is some marginal notability here, but I find the enshrinement of someone with obvious mental illness (as alluded to in the article, in the sources and in the resulting suicide) to be a bit macabre. If it is a keep it is very weak, and it relies on the Burning man event and the potential cathedral attack and their sources. The article, while more or less factual and neutrally voiced, ends up being a bit of a hatchet job on someone's troubles in life. ThatMontrealIP (talk) 22:47, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Keep Addis was an artist also known for hanging testicles on the Burning Man man in 1997 and for his production about writer Hunter S. Thompson, "Gonzo, a Brutal Chrysalis," which starred him and played in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Mystikfae (talk) 02:21, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Note: Mystikfae's only edit in contrib history is to this AfDThatMontrealIP (talk) 02:55, 6 September 2019 (UTC)


 * How does this not fall into the "one event" criteria? --Jorm (talk) 02:28, 6 September 2019 (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.