Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Pamphlet Scandal (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 merge to Social cleansing. (non-admin closure) &mdash; Music1201  talk  21:41, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

The Pamphlet Scandal
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Fails notability and unencyclopedic. Originally proposed for deletion last year, but withdrawn by nominator after finding a source: however, source talks about social cleansing in general in South America – there is nothing linking it to this particular event, nor the use of pamphlets. No evidence of any lasting notability: online searches of the name both in English and in Spanish produce nothing. No evidence whatsoever that the name "the pamphlet scandal" was used in association with this event. Richard3120 (talk) 16:55, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Colombia-related deletion discussions. Richard3120 (talk) 16:55, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 01:47, 28 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Keep but rename, perhaps to "Social Cleansing Killings" or "Social Cleansing Homicide" as defined by the article's only cited source, "Violence in Colombia: Building Sustainable Peace and Social Capital", and following the example of Honour killing. No such Wikipedia article seems to currently exist, despite plenty of sources detailing, for example, the widespread killing of "street children" in Colombia. Even the Street children in Latin America article devotes a mere one sentence to that particular issue, and it does not connect such killings to killings amongst other groups and to a wider social process, which the cited source expressly does. "Social Cleansing" + Colombia 1030 results on Google Scholar: . Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 16:58, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks – at best I'd say this could be merged and redirected to Crime in Colombia or something similar, but having a stand-alone article doesn't make any sense to me, particularly one as weakly-sourced as this one. Richard3120 (talk) 18:52, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I would oppose a merge and redirect. I think there is more than enough sourced material for a dedicated article on this "Social Cleansing" phenomenon. Here is a source for the "pamphlet" incident detailed in the article: . And another, and another - there are probably many more if we just don't use this article's title as the basis for the search. Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 20:01, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Excellent work, thank you – well, retitling the article and expanding it to cover previous social cleansing threats does seem to be the way forward now, as we have verifiable sources which also include other references that could be accessed for more information. Thank you for your help. Richard3120 (talk) 20:11, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

In light of the above evidence, I think the best option now would be to close this AfD and then open up a debate at WP:MOVE to rename the article and add the new sources. Richard3120 (talk) 20:24, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Yep, good idea. Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 21:03, 28 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Merge into Social cleansing. Two of the three sources provided by Tiptoethrutheminefield don't look reliable to me. I don't doubt that pamphlets are being handed out but the subject itself (as mentioned) isn't really a thing (at least not with English-language sources). Social Cleansing in Colombia might be an appropriate subject but I still don't see enough material to merit a stand-alone article. Chris Troutman  ( talk ) 00:12, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm not so sure Chris - certainly the last two sources are blogs and not RS material, but reference [3] is fine, and I've gone through the Google Scholar search and there's a couple of downloadable papers in there that are useful. Plus several of the sources above reference a 1994 article in Semana magazine - this is Colombia's closest equivalent to a serious weekly news magazine like Time or The Economist and is 100% reliable source as well, and the article is also available online. So I think there's at least four RS that could be used to create an article on social cleansing in Colombia. Richard3120 (talk) 05:17, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
 * And I see serious problems with the Social cleansing article. It seems to be almost the personal project of one editor. It lacks a lede - a sign that arouses suspicion for me that a lot of OR and synthesis might be going on in the article. How many of these incidents described in the article are actually called "social cleansing" in the sources cited to support their inclusion? Even the assessment by the GA adjudicator is troubling (and in parts breathtakingly troubling) - he/she seems to be urging an OR filling of the article by expanding the content from modern-day problems to include historical events that someone (that someone being presumably Wikipedia editors) might equate to "social cleansing". From the sources I've looked at in connection with this AfD, the phrase "Social cleansing" seems to have originated as a terminology for events taking place in Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s. It is not a euphemism for genocide. It is a euphemism for murder. And just like we do not call every massacre or minor mass killing genocide even if some activists might claim it is, we should not be labeling things "social cleansing" just because it sounds like it, or slightly resembles it, is or because a minor source claims it is. Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 13:22, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I've been looking at the Social cleansing article closer, and as I suspected it is riddled with OR an Synthesis and with references that don't actually ever use the phrase "social cleansing". Given its state, I don't think merging anything into it is suitable at the moment. Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 21:37, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Actually, it is not quite as bad as I thought. The article had been recently vandalized by a single issue account who had deleted the lede and all mention of Colombia. I have restored the deleted content. Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 22:45, 29 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Merge to Social cleansing. That article is unfortunately somewhat deficient in chronology, but it seems to refer to the 1970s and 1980s, when many Latin American countries were dictatorships.  This incident seems to refer to (perhaps) agents provocateur, who began distributing pamphlets in 2008, advocating its resumption.  This was then denounced by the President, as not being a government initiative.  The incident deserves having a sentence (or two) added to the end of the Colombia section of the target.  I disagree with one of Tiptoe's comments: the article appears to be well-sourced.  In the article under discussion "social cleaning" ought to be amended to "social cleansing".  Peterkingiron (talk) 10:09, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Your assessment of the subject matter of this article seems correct. However, how can you possibly claim that the Social cleansing article is well sourced. It is full of faked sources (many sources do not mention "social cleansing" at all) and has much content derived from OR and synthesis. I have already deleted large parts of it that were pure synthesis and OR, tagged other content for sources, and have also restored some legitimate content that was deleted for pov reasons (by someone who seemed to not like bad things being reported about Colombia), but I think it is still in a terrible state. Maybe there is a future case to be made to merge this AfD article into it, once the Social Cleansing article has been stabilized and its off-topic material (which I think still forms the majority of the content on it) removed, but because its content is so much in flux right now I don't think a merge should be considered at this time. Tiptoethrutheminefield (talk) 13:47, 3 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Comment: The Crime in Colombia article has several subheadings such as Illegal drug trade in Colombia, Corruption in Colombia, Domestic violence in Colombia, etc., all with their own articles – it seems to me it would be better to retitle the article Social cleansing in Colombia in line with the above articles and add the new sources, rather than merge it into the general Social cleansing article. Or at the very least, add the new information as a new section under the Crime in Colombia article. Richard3120 (talk) 16:06, 3 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Merge to Social cleansing. There is only one sourced sentence and it is an overview of social cleansing in Columbia. This can easily be inserted in the first paragraph of social cleansing in Colombia. I think it would be better totry and fix the Social cleansing article instead of effectively starting new Social cleansing killings, Social cleansing homicide or Social cleansing in Colombia ones. AIR corn (talk) 05:55, 6 May 2016 (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.