Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/James Eric Davidson (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 delete. "Keep" comments in general have not provided strong policy-based rationale for that position. Jujutacular ^talk 12:47, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

James Eric Davidson

AfDs for this article:

• Articles for deletion/James Eric Davidson
• Articles for deletion/James Eric Davidson (2nd nomination)

James Eric Davidson (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

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This seems to be a biography of a non-notable person. Finding reliable sources on him is difficult due to the existence of the much better-known Jim Davidson (comedian), but filtering for something like 'Jim Davidson space' or 'Jim Davidson libertarian' doesn't bring up significant coverage in reliable sources. He was once briefly covered in connection with his 'spaceflight lottery', but if that's all there is, this is a case of WP:BLP1E (people notable for only one event) and should be deleted. Robofish (talk) 23:55, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

A couple more things: this article was previously discussed in 2008, resulting in no consensus. Secondly, I don't think 'former director of the National Space Society' provides grounds for notability. Robofish (talk) 23:56, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

• Delete (or possibly merge if a reasonable target can be found) -- clear case of WP:BLP1E (but not much coverage even for that one event). Hrafn^Talk_Stalk^(P) 05:46, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

• Delete. There doesn't seem to be any new information indicating fresh notability since I voted "delete" last time.   Will Beback  talk  05:54, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
• Keep BLP1E is being cited incorrectly because there seems to be no separate article upon the 1E. In any case, this person is known for more than just this event, being associated with numerous pioneering ventures. For example, there's a substantial entry under the name of Jim Davidson in the Encyclopedia of constitutional amendments. One also needs to search using other names such as James E Davidson, which he used professionally. Colonel Warden (talk) 08:59, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

• Unfortunately, although there is a "substantial entry under the name of Jim Davidson", it is not a substantial entry on the topic of Jim Davidson, but rather on the topic of the constitution of the hypothetical nation of Oceania. It does not even contain enough information to confirm that it is speaking of the same Jim Davidson (I had to go elsewhere for that). Should this article (or some other article) ever cover Oceania/The Atlantis Project, it might be useful to flesh out information on the constitutional proposals contained therein, but it is too tangential to establish notability of Davidson himself. And I would point out that whilst there is "no separate article upon the 1E", there is also only very thin coverage of the 1E as well. Hrafn^Talk_Stalk^(P) 10:13, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

• The source supplied is enough to make the BLP1E case collapse as it establishes another field in which this person is notable. The nominator searched using the "space" keyword but it seems clear that this person has been active in politics and other fields too. I searched more widely and immediately found this encyclopedia entry. The nomination is thus completely refuted. Colonel Warden (talk) 03:30, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

• Keep Efforts by myself and people I've heard from to edit the page about James Eric Davidson have persistently resulted in the edits being eliminated. Additional citations about noteworthy activities, such Davidson organising a rally in Leavenworth Kansas in support of Bradley Manning in June 2011, Davidson organising Individual Sovereign University in 2009-2011, Davidson's book "Being Sovereign" being published late 2009, Davidson being named chair of the libertarian anarchist Boston Tea Party in 2008 and effectively quintupling its membership and state affiliates, etc., have been removed. Efforts to comment on this or any wikipedia discussion about anything by people making effective use of virtual privacy networks in order to reasonably protect their actual privacy is prevented by archaic wikipedia policies which discriminate against privacy and individual liberty. Wikipedia acts as though there were a scarcity issue, as though one needed to delete hundreds of entries every month in order to...free up space? ....make wikipedia less useful? The people discussing this topic seem to be aware of a racist British comedian Jim Davidson but not a widely known Australian-American author and National Taxpayer Union organiser James Dale Davidson. How is there an issue with Jim Davidson the British comedian - the name Jim Davidson does not appear in the name of the article. How many James Eric Davidsons are there besides this one? About four hundred people in Inverness Scotland have the name Jim Davidson. So, is it now the case that Wikipedia has a scarcity-of-things-to-disambiguate issue? Wikipedia's user community seems to be largely nationalists and socialists of the Stalinist stripe, persons who are naturally biased against libertarians and free market anarchists. It seems odd that sites such as IndSovU.com, Bostontea.us, c4ss.org, and ncc-1776.org where there are altogether many hundreds of articles, essays, and published commentaries by Davidson are not mentioned in this biography, nor discussion of the notability of its subject. But, of course, why would such resources be familiar to the socialists and Stalinists who run Wikipedia, set its policies, and enforce its "standards." larf. Planetaryjim (talk) 10:53, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

• Third-party sources for any of this? And as far as I can make out from the article history, you haven't edited it for nearly three years -- during which time there appears to have been only one major removal, purporting to be of "all uncited references or items that were not notable or relevant". Hrafn^Talk_Stalk^(P) 11:10, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 22:24, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

• Keep I seem no reason to delete this entry on the basis of a 'non-notable person'. Davidson has made some achievments in the liberterian field as well as the space program field. The Virgin Space program has a lot to thank prior pioneers in this field. Also the fact that he is willing to stick his neck out where others are not on the subject of libertarianism is noteworthy. Not to say I agree with everything he states but I see no reason to delete him. Indeed, the entry is worth keeping as a way of distinguishing him from other Jim or James Davidsons User:Michael IFA —Preceding undated comment added 23:09, 27 April 2011 (UTC).
• Keep The closest a case could come to declaring Jim Davidson "non-notable" is to say that his notability is limited to certain communities, and even then I might disagree. Besides which, within those communities he's a very significant figure and very widely-known. 68.194.82.106 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:42, 29 April 2011 (UTC). — 68.194.82.106 (talk) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
• Keep Jim Davidson is a notable person, and I learned more about him thanks to this page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Faré (talk • contribs) 04:59, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
• KeepFor all the reasons above I agree that Jim Davidson-former director of Space Services Inc, and political activist, SHOULD be kept as a page in Wiki, and in fact the page should be expanded to further distinguish his entry from all of the other "Jim Davidsons" of notable importance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jake Archer (talk • contribs) 06:45, 29 April 2011 (UTC) — Jake Archer (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
• Delete - failing to see any arguments keep that aren't some variation of WP:ILIKEIT. BelloWello (talk) 07:05, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
• Delete — no evidence that this meets our inclusion guidelines for notability in biographies. *** Crotalus *** 16:02, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
• Delete per nom. & others. Does not appear to meet general notability guideline. Per BelloWello, all arguments for "keep" put forth so far boil down to WP:ILIKEIT.--JayJasper (talk) 17:02, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
• Keep One might also note in passing his "what links here" references on six other WP pages, as well as poorly-sourced information removed in previous edits, which is still verifiable. — Mike Gogulski ^{↗C•@•T↗} 17:19, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
• Keep all of these arguments are biased in exact contradiction of this clause for using wikipedia. Who owns this property known as wikipedia that makes this rule: Please maintain a neutral, unbiased point of view. Unless the person that has nominated this page for deletion speaks for the ownership of the article? This seems like a property rights dipute. I for one think that Mr. Davidson is notable. I have met him, and I find the information and activities he engages in to be of value. I have referenced this page on the website that I am the editor for. To illustrate my point, here is the URL on said website, announcing Mr. Davidson's book, Being Sovereign was selected as book of the month by users of http://freedombookclub.com, here is the example page: http://freedombookclub.com/code/past/2010.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by FURBjr (talk • contribs) 06:38, 30 April 2011 (UTC) — FURBjr (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
• Keep Mr. Davidson is notable to 1) Space Enthusiasts 2) Authorities 3) Political Activists as someone who advocates Mars as an attainable and sustainable free world. Why there are some in the WikiPedia community who feel this is not of interest is beyond me. Jordan.jelinek (talk) 16:33, 1 May 2011 (UTC)— Jordan.jelinek (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
• Merge and redirect to a Space Travel Services article. I believe the subject to be mildly notable, but feel this would be better focused on the company rather than the vice-president of the company. coccyx bloccyx_(toccyx) 20:55, 2 May 2011 (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.