Is common sense really common practice?, The "courtesy delete" Options

[TabulaRasa]

Remember Gary Weiss's autobiography was nominated for deletion recently? Well, it failed. I'd link to the AfD page, but I can't. It's gone, thanks to Slim/Bo.

Jimbo was asked about it and his response just doesn't ring true:

Deleting old discussion which contained discourteous commentary is standard practice.

That sounds fine...unusually humane, in fact, but did it require wholesale deletion? Given her maternally protective role in Gary's life, wouldn't Slim's selective deletions of 11/4 have been sufficient, without erasing record of the AfD altogether?

I googled "courtesy delete" and could only find it once in the WP context, referring to Maisonsurlagamme (translated to French by request), which, given how he's been treated by SV and Jayjg, was as likely to have been to protect them as Maisoney.

In either case, can anybody point to any other instance of a full page "courtesy delete" occasioned by "discourteous commentary"?

I'd assumed that Gary's continued activity on WP meant Jimbo was ignorant of his abuses. Now I know that's not the case, thereby moving Jimbo into the "complicit" category.

[Herschelkrustofsky]

In either case, can anybody point to any other instance of a full page "courtesy delete" occasioned by "discourteous commentary"?

Yes. The article history, which is to say all early versions, of Gatekeeper (politics) was deleted to protect Cberlet/Chip Berlet and friends. There was no discourteous discussion to speak of, just some embarrassing (and well sourced) facts.

[Deskana]

What I find really funny about that is that there is nothing particularly interesting in the deleted page. So it's a big fuss over nothing, really.

This post has been edited by Deskana: Sat 11th November 2006, 10:57pm

[JohnA]

You'll find it called the "Connelley Red Button" - after William Connelley who likes reverting without reason especially to revert facts he doesn't like. I showed how he deleted all record of my edits (and the discussions) by deleting the edit histories of both (to avoid the 3RR rule). He was later told to put them back.

By the way, he's since suggest I put his article up for AFD and has not bothered fighting the obvious any more.

[TabulaRasa]

What I find really funny about that is that there is nothing particularly interesting in the deleted page. So it's a big fuss over nothing, really.

With respect, I can't imagine anything mattering less. In fact, that's the best possible argument against deletion that anybody's come up with. Good work, Deskana.