Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Peter Ingersoll


 * 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   merge to Mormonism Unvailed. (or wherever appropriate). Consensus appears to be against outright keeping; where it gets merged to (and how much, if any) is obviously subject to being decided by consensus at candidate destinations. slakr \ talk / 05:47, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Peter Ingersoll

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Non-notable farmer. Living next door to someone notable is not grounds for inclusion in Wikipedia. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 09:38, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of New York-related deletion discussions. &mdash;  Ascii002 Talk Contribs GuestBook 10:16, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions. &mdash;  Ascii002 Talk Contribs GuestBook 10:16, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Merge to Doctor Philastus Hurlbut or Mormonism Unvailed. Ingersoll seems to be known only for having contributed an affidavit discrediting Joseph Smith's character, which was collected by the Doctor in his Hurlbut Affidavits which contributed to the book. I'm not sure which article is the most appropriate merge target so I'm mentioning both. Ivanvector (talk) 15:32, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Keep: Ingersol has received significant coverage in multiple reliable sources authored by professional historians. Dan Vogel's Making of a Prophet and D. Michael Quinn's Early Mormonism  are just two works that offer in-depth discussions of Ingersol.Darmokand (talk) 19:40, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Merge to Mormonism Unvailed: Ingersol is described in the references Darmokand mentions, but the Wikipedia article makes no claim to Ingersol's own notability, and it cannot, since he never did anything noteworthy; he was just the neighbor of someone that became famous, and then he wrote a short account of his experiences with that famous person and their family. The publication of his "testimony" about Joseph Smith is at best a wp:ONEEVENT, and all of the coverage about Ingersol are debates about his credibility and the credibility of his account. — Asterisk *  Splat → 22:28, 16 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Ingersoll's vitals would be out of place on Mormonism Unvailed and a merge would break categories. Additionally, we have the Tucker account and the Saunders account-- both of which occur well after Mormonism Unvailed and would be out of place there.    I do understand your concerns-- Ingersoll is a highly notable historical source for early Mormonism, but no one would ever accuse him of being truthful. :) Darmokand (talk) 09:35, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. Darmokand (talk) 05:25, 20 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  D u s t i *Let's talk!* 00:30, 22 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Delete/weak merge Based on the cited sources, I don't think coverage of Ingersoll passes the "significant coverage" requirement for notability. Doing a quick run down of the references, once you eliminate the duplications there are 12 unique references. Three make no mention whatsoever of Ingersoll, and one doesn't look like it qualifies as a RS. Of the remaining eight, mentions of Ingersoll are trivial (mainly one line mention as the source for a single affadavit against Smith). Only two really go into any detail, but it's detail about the affadavit and its reliability and not any detail of Ingersoll himself, and even then it's no more than a few paragraphs. Outside of that affadavit, Ingersoll doesn't appear to have any other notability. Hence delete most, merge the relevant material into the appropriate other articles. --FyzixFighter (talk) 23:59, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
 * So why delete the bio elements from WP? NOTPAPER. It's important for us not to hold critics to higher standards than we otherwise would--  Ingersoll is one of the very first anti-mormons and has significant coverage.   It's tempting to purge him, but damnatio memoriae isn't for us. Darmokand (talk) 14:12, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
 * While wikipedia is not paper, it also is not an indiscriminate collection of information, hence the notability guidelines which require "significant coverage" of the subject. Based on the references cited, I don't see that kind of coverage, only trivial mention and a couple short discussions about the Hurlburt affidavit and not Ingersoll himself. To paraphrase WP:PSEUDO a bit, an article under the title of a person's name should substantially be a full and balanced biography of that person's public life. If the person is notable only in connection with a single event, in this case the affidavit, and little or no other information is available to use in the writing of a balanced biography, that person should be covered in an article regarding the event, with the person's name as a redirect to the event article placing the information in context. If the event itself is not notable enough for an article, and the person was noted only in connection with it, it's very likely that there is no reason to cover that person at all. --FyzixFighter (talk) 03:25, 29 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, we agree that if Ingersoll were a living person, Avoiding harm and WP:BLP1E would apply.  But he DID die 147 years ago, ya know. I don't think we need worry about harming the man by including him in an encyclopedia.  --Darmokand (talk) 16:07, 29 September 2014 (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.