Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Robert Michael


 * 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. Shimeru (talk) 08:21, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Robert Michael

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BLP (recently edited to state that subject is recently deceased) that has been tagged BLPUnsourced and remained unsourced for a year. &#124; Uncle Milty  &#124;  talk  &#124;  22:48, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Academics and educators-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 00:27, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 00:27, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment. Has published books on Holocaust studies but I can't find GS cites. has received a notable prize. Xxanthippe (talk) 00:45, 2 April 2010 (UTC).
 * Keep'  Meets WP:PROF as a expert in his subject: multiple books in WorldCat,  many in hundreds of libraries. Many of them translated. Winner of important national level award. 00:46, 2 April 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DGG (talk • contribs)
 * Clarification Requested. The claimed prize evidently does not have its own WP page. When I looked for more details about it, I found this official page, which says the prize is given biennially. The subject's faculty page says he won in the award in 1997, but another official AHA page that ostensibly shows all the prize winners does not list his name. In fact, it seems to say that 1997 was an "off year" in which the prize was not even awarded. Could an expert weigh-in to clarify this matter? Thanks, Agricola44 (talk) 15:06, 2 April 2010 (UTC).
 * My guess is that this refers to the 1996 prize, "H-Net: Humanities Online, based at Michigan State U.; Richard J. Jensen, executive director, U. of Illinois-Chicago; Mark Lawrence Kornbluh, chair, Executive Committee, Michigan State U." — Michael's vita also lists him as former "editor" of three H-net email lists (out of some 70). Since our H-Net article doesn't even mention him, I don't think this award can be viewed as an indicator of notability for him personally. And (obviously) I don't think that mailing list editorship counts towards WP:PROF #8, either. —David Eppstein (talk) 17:18, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks David. The article's wording implies that Michael won the award both personally and exclusively, which seems to be quite a stretch in light of what you've said. Thanks, Agricola44 (talk) 18:19, 2 April 2010 (UTC).
 * The problem is that while library holdings are high cites seem to be inconsistently low. A search on GS for 'author:"Robert Michael" Holocaust' give around total of 21 cites. Xxanthippe (talk) 05:33, 3 April 2010 (UTC).
 * Delete. The Robinson prize issue lessens my trust in the accuracy of the sources about him, so WP:V is an issue as well as WP:PROF. I did some more searching and found this nomination for the Robinson prize for H-net, which (as with other verifiable sources about the Robinson prize) fails to mention Michael. Our article has only one primary source, and although I did find a secondary source about Michael, this obituary, it appears to be so closely paraphrased from our own article (including the Robinson prize claim with as little justification) that it seems to me unusable for fear of circular sourcing. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:30, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep (but tag as a stub) -- The problem with this article is that it is only a stub. The CV which are the external link from the article lists about a dozen books, mostly related to the Holocaust.  I do not regard being moderator of e-mail discussion lists as notable, but contributing editor of Menorah Review might be.  This is a field of history that I so not deal with.  Additionally I am faced with the difficulty that in US all lecturers are "professors", so that I find it difficult to see how distinguished be was.  Peterkingiron (talk) 14:59, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Delete in view of various revelations above. Xxanthippe (talk) 22:10, 3 April 2010 (UTC).
 * Delete not a prize winner, but a contributor to an "Outstanding Teaching Aid". Lack of significant coverage in secondary sources. One short obituary from The Boston Globe and one from his pet project H-Net. --Bejnar (talk) 06:16, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
 * If the Globe piece were an independent obituary, I'd say that it contributed to some amount of notability. But it's labeled as a "death notice", which I think just means that some family member wrote it and paid the Globe to publish it. —David Eppstein (talk) 17:05, 4 April 2010 (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.