Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Thacher School

The Thacher School was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was to keep.

Non-notable school, nothing in the article establishes notability. RickK 23:59, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep - nothing in the deletion policy establishes notability as deletion criteria. Mark Richards 00:30, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Nothing in the deletion policy prohibits its use as a criterion for deletion, either. RickK 00:57, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Not notable means not encyclopedic topic means not encyclopedic. --Improv 16:47, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep it. [[en:RaD Man|RaD Man (talk)]] 00:53, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment Please "explain your reasoning for every comment you make, even if it is obvious." I think I once read this somewhere. It seems to me that RickK and Mark Richards have both done so. I'd consider "because I think all schools should be kept" or "because I believe all factual articles should be kept" or "because I belong to the Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians to be explanations, but I don't want to put words in your mouth. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 01:16, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * You can't expect this comment to be taken seriously or as anything other than provocative, if you do not equally make it when you see unexplained delete votes. Do you think that's fair?Dr Zen 01:33, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * You're right. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 02:17, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete Merge and redirect, Keep. See comments below. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 00:14, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC) Unless greatly improved prior to expiration of VfD discussion. Absence of policy on schools means expression of individual opinions on case-by-case basis in hope of convincing others. My personal opinion is that we should not keep low-quality articles about non-notable schools. My rationale is that these articles are unlikely to be improved unless there is a sizable pool of Wikipedians with an intense interest in working to research facts about schools of which they are not alumni. My personal metric for quality is BEEFSTEW; this article gets points D and E for a score of 2/10. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 01:04, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... but it seems that BEEFSTEW point F, "an alumnus notable enough to be the topic of a Wikipedia article," would be a slam dunk... see the article's Talk page ... and I am not, repeat not referring to Noah Wyle. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 03:06, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * You don't get better beefstew than this. If there are 10 high schools in California worthy of the honor, isn't this one of them? Willmcw 09:08, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * BEEFSTEW tries to evaluate the quality of the article, not the notability of the school. (And it sets a low bar). In its present form as of 25 Nov, I see BEEFSTEW points A, B, C, D, E, F, H, J. Point G is arguable, point I is arguable, lets give 'em half a point each, for a total of 9/10. I.e. good article now. The earlier note refers to this revision. I am disliked by both inclusionists and retentionists because I am willing to accept good articles about non-notable schools. In my present personal opinion, The Thacher School is borderline-notable, mostly because of a) Thornton Wilder and b) equestrian-centered learning. I'd like to see more about the degree to which and how horsemanship figures into the curriculum. Does virtually every student end up on a horse at some point, or is it just a popular and available option? I still think there's no particular reason why this should be a separate article rather than part of Ojai, California, but, shrug. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 15:20, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Oh, all right. With the recent addition of an external link, "Teaching at Thacher: A Reminiscence," it clearly gets the full BEEFSTEW point I. Total 9.5/10. And the combination of two truly notable alums, one with a clearly significant Thacher experience, plus one minor celebrity alum, plus the paragraph documenting the distinctive mandatory equestrian program, make it notable. Good article about notable school. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 00:14, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Notable.Dr Zen 01:33, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, nothing to suggest notability. - Vague | Rant 01:41, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Article fails to establish notability. Lord Bob 02:23, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * Vote changed to Keep. It's getting work, and the place has evidentally accomplished something other than being highly-ranked-ish and having an article in its name. I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong. Lord Bob 07:10, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)


 * Keep. The boarding school review link provided with the article ranks the school quite highly. --LeeHunter 02:54, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Keep Good links......
 * Posted by 69.194.201.179. Please note that anonymous votes do not count. Lord Bob 03:00, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep or merge to Ojai, California &mdash; siro  &chi;  o  03:45, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)


 * Delete: Just a school. The article does not live up to the requirements of any encyclopedia entry to establish uniqueness, notability, and/or historical significance.  It's just another escapee from Peterson's.  Geogre 04:01, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Merge into Ojai, California and delete- Skysmith 09:16, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete non-notable --fvw* 10:44, 2004 Nov 19 (UTC)


 * Delete, there must be hundereds of thousands of schools in the world. we can't include them all and this one isn't notable or significant --Bucephalus 10:50, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Have changed my mind. as people below and on the talk page have shown, this school is notable. if the article is expanded, i say keep --Bucephalus 11:41, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * The article is currently a minimal stub with no attempt made to establish note beyond the average school. Merge with Ojai, California unless it is expanded with description of note. Average Earthman 10:57, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment: Howard Hughes attended it. I've changed my vote above to merge and redirect. Normally I would say "merge and delete," which can be done in a GFDL-friendly way fairly easily for work by a single author, but it appears that it was one of two prep schools attended by Howard Hughes which just barely meets my threshold for a redirect entry. I've seen no evidence yet that the school played any particularly important role in Hughes' life, and the Howard Hughes article doesn't mention it. See Talk:The_Thacher_School for an extract from the New York Times obit. And Ojai seems to be a moderately notable place with an existing article that is not bad but could use work. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 11:37, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Either merge to somewhere appropriate (Howard Hughes? Ojia?), or keep, but don't delete. The Hughes connection is enough for notability, but maybe not an article on its own. Or, what would make me happiest, is if it is notable enough in its own right to merit an article and someone could write that article in the next couple of days so we can simply keep. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:18, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. This article should either be merged or expanded, not deleted. - Mo 06:41, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Strong keep. Has anyone bothered to even read the talk page?  Give this article a chance for some organic growth, it shows promise. [[User:GRider|GRider\talk]] 08:17, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Yes, I've "read" the talk page. What do you mean by "organic" growth? Articles are not living things which grow by themselves: people write them. Why wouldn't the fertile environment of Ojai, California, where it would be likely to be seen by people that know the area, be just as conducive to "organic growth?" Why shouldn't it be grown there and only transplanted into a standalone article when it is big and hardy? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 12:12, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, do not merge, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Schools are inheritantly notable. Besides, I also say that there's potential too. --Andylkl 08:14, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, the school is notable (perhaps more for Thornton Wilder than Hughes) and the article has grown. Willmcw 21:23, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Indeed. Particularly since Wilder wrote plays there, whereas so far I have not heard anything about Hughes flying aircraft or producing movies or doing any other The Carpetbaggers-like things there. However, given Wilder's unhappiness there it's possible that the school itself may not be terribly pleased with this association. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 21:52, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Keep. For reasons stated by others that vote keep. --Dittaeva 20:45, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * keep Yuckfoo 05:31, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Gamaliel 05:36, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.