Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2010–2011 anti-government protests

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. I'm going to quote King of Hearts' closing summary for Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2010-2011 Worldwide protests, because I think it applies just as well here: "It is not up to Wikipedians to judge whether something is particularly remarkable; what we need are reliable sources...For comparison, the Revolutions of 1989 are naturally coherent because of their common, specific theme (abolishing communism), which of course led to widespread coverage on the topic as a whole. The Revolutions of 1848 are not as related as those of 1989, but scores of historians have discussed this as a lump sum that it is worthy of an article. If future historians do the same for this event, of course the article may be recreated." NW (Talk) 17:41, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2010–2011 anti-government protests

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(Copied from the talk page): This article seems to me a case of synthesis - yes, there have been lots of protests around the world in 2010 and 2011, but that doesn't mean they're related. Do the protests in Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire and the United States really have anything in common with each other, except for taking place within the same year? I doubt it. Robofish (talk) 02:23, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Weak delete It seems to me that this article is salvageable in principle. I wouldn't be shocked if there existed reliable sources that compare and contrast these protests and/or hypothesize a common cause. That said, the only cited comparison so far is between Wisconsin and Egypt, and that's just not enough. Melchoir (talk) 03:01, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per nom. Yeah, some of the protests have one or two sources linking them to the Arab world protests, but I think we'd have to do better than that to create "anti-government protests." Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 03:03, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per above, some of these protests are not even related to the ones in the middle east and we do not need an article of every protest that happen every given year. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 04:13, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete While I would not be surprised to soon see the news media come up with the theory that protests in one part of the world inspire more protests in another, with the internet as the germ carrier, it's original synthesis for any editor here to jump to that conclusion. The premise of the article is that these are all connected, and I think it points out the problems that would come with trying to group protest incidents by year (i.e., 2008 anti-government protests, 2009 protests, etc)-- people would start synthesizing patterns. I'll say "weak" delete because if the press began to push its own theory of worldwide protest, a non-OR article could be made. Mandsford 04:35, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak keep-the topic is salvageable...there have been an abnormal number of protests in various parts of the world thus far this year which do have mainstream coverage. Provided sources are added, the topic is notable enough.Smallman12q (talk) 05:09, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete, keep the info in the MENA article for now; if there are substantial protests in other regions and there's some kind of pattern, we can always re-split. —Nightstallion 10:08, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of News-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 14:19, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Events-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 14:19, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - This is the essence of WP:SYNTHESIS; taking disparate events and tying them together into a topic of one's own creation. Tarc (talk) 15:56, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete the article that matters is at 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests. There's no recognised connection to anything outside of the MENA region. MLA (talk) 21:05, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete really guys...we need to stop making a whole bunch of articles on the same topic. --haha169 (talk) 00:19, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Redirect to 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests, which is an article on the major protests. 65.95.14.96 (talk) 00:21, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Agreed that this is textbook WP:SYNTH. Each of the events described is itself notable, but that doesn't make an overarching article worth writing, unless there's some overarching movement. Which, really, there isn't. Green-eyed girl (Talk · Contribs) 02:21, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Redirect --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 04:09, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
comment see also Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2010-2011 Worldwide protests and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jasmine Revolution Active Banana (^bananaphone 20:29, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Comment if this is kept, there's certainly no need for three articles. Jasmine Revolution, 2010-2011 Worldwide protests, 2010–2011 anti-government protests should merge together (whatever articles survive deletion). 65.93.15.125 (talk) 23:26, 22 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Merge into 2010-2011 Worldwide protests. CarolMooreDC (talk) 19:35, 25 February 2011 (UTC) See directly below:[reply]
- Keep. Even though 2010-2011 Worldwide protests better and this should be merged into it. CarolMooreDC (talk) 00:11, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Merge and redirect into 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests#Concurrent related protests Alinor (talk) 11:34, 26 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- Redirect Just because we don't have a catchy name for what's been going on in the Middle East/Africa doesn't mean we should dismiss the significant impact that the various movements have had on perpetuating others. Long after the dust has settled, there will be some aspiring anthropologist or sociologist that will better get at the source of these conflicts and hopefully assign a name. Necessary for deletion would be the argument & proof that these conflicts are not interconnected at all, and I just don't see that argument having legitimacy. If we were able to group these under a title, like has been tried with the Jasmine Revolution. Then there would be considerable merit. cdsaylor (talk) 00:11, 3 March 2011 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.147.28.1 (talk) [reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.
This is because the removal of contents from this discussion, together with blanking of the article and replacing it with a redirect, may have prevented participation by some editors. Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, JamesBWatson (talk) 10:38, 28 February 2011 (UTC) (UTC)[reply]

Delete per nom. & others, clearly WP:SYNTH. Merge proposed by Alinor is worthy of consideration, however.--JayJasper (talk) 21:04, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy Keep They all happened in 2010-2011; this is cited. They were all anti-government protests; this is cited. The assertions of SYNTH are groundless, and further connections between the protests are neither required of nor asserted by the article. I have never seen SYNTH used correctly in an AfD. It seems to be a devil's playground for overreaching of almost paranoiac proportions.

"...except for taking place within the same year?" As I have shown, the argument that there must be further connections other than the year they happened is unfounded, there are no further connections asserted in the article, nor should we add any.

Although the core argument is already refuted, I contradict the notion that it is common sense that there are no other connections also: "...Do the protests...really have anything in common with each other...I doubt it" I would agree with an assertion that these protests are not necessarily related, but to assert that they are necessarily not related? Rubbish. The protestors read the news, they know of the other protests, and it seems likely to the point of certainty that they were, in some part, inspired by the others. Anarchangel (talk) 21:17, 4 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Merge and redirect to Tunisia Effect outside Middle East and North Africa, which was created by consensus as a WP:SPLIT from 2010–2011_Middle_East_and_North_Africa_protests on 4 March mainly on the split criterion of excessive length. The present article is aimed to cover essentially the same topic as Tunisia Effect outside Middle East and North Africa, but the latter has the advantage in that editors are obliged to find sources describing the strength of the links, so that the article should end up being a coherent topic and not just a category written in prose. Boud (talk) 01:10, 6 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Merge to Impact of 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests if there is something new to add. Brandmeister t 12:41, 6 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Suggestion What about renaming it to List of 2010–2011 anti-government protests and reducing it to list form, since all of the significant protest actions have their own articles? --MelanieN (talk) 20:23, 6 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Keep, but clean up I think it's worth keeping due to the sistuation of revolution worldwide due to Tunisia and the economic sistuation worldwide (and who knows how many countries are going to have a rebellion before the year is done). Yet the article needs a major fix, cuz atm it reads like it was written by an primary school student. Still, think it should be allowed to stand for the time being.--184.77.10.72 (talk) 19:43, 7 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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.