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Covfefe (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
Covfefe incident (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)
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Wow. Seriously? This is an obvious case of WP:NOTNEWS. feminist 09:40, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Internet-related deletion discussions. feminist 09:41, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Clearly the UK's Independent, Daily Mail and Guardian, among many others, disagree. All have it on the splash screen/home page. Mashable and most other popular web magazines have also given it prominence. Against deletion. Alexandermcnabb (talk) 09:52, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wait (then probably Merge to wherever it is we merge the meme-generating minor Trump incidents). Splash pages on newspaper websites is not an indication that something is not news, but as it's still only about 6 hours (all of them night in the US) since this happened it's far too early to know whether long-term this will merit a sentence or an article. The article creation was premature, but given that it was created this deletion nomination is also premature. Thryduulf (talk) 10:16, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep important, groundbreaking article. Will be useful to historians that want to trace the emergence of the second dark ages and Trump's reign of terror. Crucial historical document. This is not the place to pay partisan politics and cover up for Daddy, Trumpkins. 2600:1017:B412:5FA5:A58C:E7D4:A132:5E0B (talk) 17:33, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
      • I've redirected Covfefe to Covfefe incident (presumably this hadn't happened as those deleting the former were unaware of the latter). That page being repeatedly recreated though still doesn't make this nomination any less premature. It is by definition impossible to tell whether

WP:NOTNEWS applies to something until there is either sufficient information about the subject to make it clear that there is more to it than a flash-in-the-pan news event or that there is no enduring coverage. How long that takes varies, but for something like this it's going to be about 36-48 hours at absolute minimum. Nominations before that time (on NOTNEWS or similar grounds) are just a waste of everybody's time (and sometimes WP:POINT violations, but I don't think that's true here). Thryduulf (talk) 10:42, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This is a new account with no other contributions Anarcho-authoritarian (talk) 12:13, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. Everymorning (talk) 12:41, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Wikimandia: The last point of WP:GNG reads: "Presumed means that significant coverage in reliable sources creates an assumption, not a guarantee, that a subject should be included. A more in-depth discussion might conclude that the topic actually should not have a stand-alone article—perhaps because it violates what Wikipedia is not,..." in this case there seems to be a consensus that it violates WP:NOTNEWS. Regards. --Crystallizedcarbon (talk) 14:35, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I understand GNG. Many memes and gaffes have notable, lasting affects beyond initial incident, and thus have their own articles that have held up. I agree with the analysis in the link I included from CNN. МандичкаYO 😜 14:39, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wait/Keep for now: it's a developing phenomenon which may yet acquire greater notability than it has already. —ajf (talk) 14:17, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep Internet phenomena, when covered by reputable sources such as the NY Times, CNN, and even the BBC the BBC, have established sufficient notability to get a project article. People are too quick to delete around here. At the very least it should be a redirect to something appropriate, as it will be a word people search for. ValarianB (talk) 14:39, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hi ValarianB, I believe you meant to link this article? The "BBC" in your comment is linking to this discussion page we're at. Saturnalia0 (talk) 15:29, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Fixed, thanks, too many tabs open! :) ValarianB (talk) 16:11, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Article easily meets the WP:GNG -- easily, no question. I've seen the GNG as cited as a policy more or less along the lines of "Does not meet GNG and so must deleted regardless of vote or other considerations". The GNG is not a policy, but you do see that. Well but what's sauce for the goose sauce for the gander. If the GNG is to be treated that strongly, then an article like that clearly meets it must be kept (if it doesn't violate other policy like WP:V or WP:BLP etc.) whether we want to or not. It's not a vote -- policy trumps. I don't treat the GNG as policy, but some people do. And if the closer does, he doesn't really have a choice here.
As a general good practice, I wish people would wait a couple months at least before nominating current events articles. Make a not and come back to it. For a couple reasons:
  • It's a lot harder to judge long term importance when you're right on top of the event; we have to guess. Give it a little time to see how it shakes out so we can make educated votes/comments.
  • To the extent the article is useful at all, it is most useful near to the event. That's not to say it won't be useful a year from now or ten years from now or thirty -- maybe it will, maybe not -- but even if it is, it is most useful now, to the general public. But (I think that) sending an article to AfD puts a __NOINDEX__ tag on, so it won't come up high in Google results, so the general public can't easily access the article. Could we have a little patience maybe? I wish people would not do this.
Because of all this, even if I didn't think the article was OK on the merits, I would be inclined to vote "Keep, don't do this now, renominate in a few months". Herostratus (talk) 15:09, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
What you just listed is all the reasons that this should have never existed, not reasons why it should exist. — Smuckola(talk) 15:15, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
"Easily meets WP:GNG" is a good reason for an article not existing? Herostratus (talk) 16:03, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Copying over some stuff I wrote elsewhere... to to some degree this is an "other stuff exists" argument, so how you take it depends on whether you think these other articles should exist, or not. But here goes. Here's some more similar-type articles with pageviews (all are pageviews per day over the last 90 days):
These are reasonably good numbers. Whether this article will settle at numbers like this we can't know, but why not? None of our rules or practices mention pageviews, but IMO it's reasonable to look at those numbers and figure that the existence of the articles is a service to the public, and that that might matter. Whether it matters or not is matter of opinion.
But that's one article for George W. Bush, one for Clinton. etc. There may be a couple more, but not many. And unlike ever before, the current president generates something like this about every two weeks (see Trump orb etc.); it's quite a different situation (no judgement, just fact. Whether it's the media being silly or its something else doesn't matter. Cause of notability is not our concern.)
Let's see, every two weeks for four years -- that's 100 articles. Eight years, 200 articles. But lots of categories have 100-200 articles or more. But on the other hand, we have separate articles on all the moon landings, but if they were occurring every two weeks, would we still? Well actually we probably would if they were big news and got lots of coverage. It's just a fact that the current president generates "rabbit incident" type news at an extremely elevated rate, and this gets massive coverage.
If there was a major train wreck (or whatever) in the US every two weeks, probably significant coverage would drop off -- paragraph on page five, "Another train wreck". It's not happening here. We might think it's silly for this stuff to keep getting major coverage, but our job is to document what is notable, not what we think or wish should be notable. This is notable by our own standards as laid out at WP:GNG. Herostratus (talk) 16:03, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
How you can compare the notability of the VP shooting someone else in a hunting accident vs a typo on a twitter post? The media has an obsession with reporting every single thing that Trump does - we should be better than that (see WP:FART). Mr Ernie (talk) 16:25, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Here's the shooter warning the media Trump's Twitter account will one day rise up and destroy them all. They thought he was half-kidding, of course. InedibleHulk (talk) 17:40, May 31, 2017 (UTC)
"The media has an obsession with reporting every single thing that Trump does" -- that is true. My personal opinion is that's it's silly, destructive, and I wish they wouldn't. So? We do not delete articles on the basis of "Highly notable, good article, but I think the subject is silly"... "Highly notable, good article, but the fact that this is notable is destructive to the American and world political system, so delete"... "Highly notable, good article, but I wish it wasn't notable, so delete". We're supposed to report what is notable, not what we wish was notable. See the difference?
President Trump's tweets are notable because they are widely reported. Why they are widely reported is not our concern. But FWIW there's certainly good reason -- they are widely reported (Unlike Obama's; he tweeted too, did you even know that?) because they contain new material. Obama's tweets were carefully considered and part of an overall communication strategy, so they were boring and unimportant (they didn't say anything that wasn't also said through normal channels). Trump's tweets are just objectively different, and so they are treated differently. Ignoring this fact doesn't help anyone. Herostratus (talk) 19:33, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I haven't ever heard of the other examples, but the Miliband bacon sandwich is still being talked about - here, for example. But I seriously don't think covfefe will be being talked about in three years time.  Seagull123  Φ  21:16, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete. This is Wikipedia for Pete's sake, not Know Your Meme. Can we have the slightest element of class and not focus on every single little tabloid thing? Someone tweeted something dumb/misspelled. It's not worthy of a wiki article. 15:48, 31 May 2017 (UTC) MagicatthemovieS (talk) 15:19, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Category:Internet memes has about 1,000 articles. Herostratus (talk) 16:05, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Don't delete this article, I mean. Nothing against the word living somewhere else on Wikipedia. InedibleHulk (talk) 18:14, May 31, 2017 (UTC)
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Politicians-related deletion discussions.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  21:25, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think anybody expected it to not last the day. The first day is when everything gets hotter. Third day's when it fizzles. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:04, May 31, 2017 (UTC)
It got much bigger because Sean Spicer, instead of just saying it was a typo, said with a straight face that "certain people" knew what it meant. So it blew up again now that he's actually indicating the president is sending out cryptic messages via Twitter, and that insanity (that they are not even allowed to admit Trump made a typo) represents massive dysfunction in the White House. МандичкаYO 😜 22:35, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
He didn't say anyone knew what it meant, he said he thinks Trump and some other small group knew what he meant. Sometimes people know what they mean to say and mean to say it, but something stops them midthought. Sometimes people tell other people what they intend to tweet about later. It in no way indicates secret codes, midnight madness, Russian conspiracies, trolljobs or anything of the sort. The press are simply rabid today and grasping at everything from every angle for sweet, sweet clicks. All ends Friday. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:38, June 1, 2017 (UTC)
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  21:29, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Conservatism-related deletion discussions.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  21:29, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  21:32, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
That's an entirely different sort of incident, isn't it? Follow-up is foreseeable when a company violently mistreats a customer. The customer is always right. Someone's bound to get suspended, various suits pop up, ads change, rules change, spokespeople speak clearly and effectively. There'll be none of that here, only chatter. You simply can't impeach a President for tweeting covfefe. Can't make him grovel, can't boot him out of the Hall of Fame, can't even really take your business elsewhere. It's just covfefe, period. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:43, June 1, 2017 (UTC)
A Merge might make sense for those reasons, but a full Delete doesn't. Separate Article or not, the information is notable. The Mysterious El Willstro (talk) 02:59, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
In wiki-speak, information cannot be WP:N-notable. Information has only two important properties at Wikipedia, it has a source and it has relevance. As a wiki-concept, notability only means "is suitable as the subject of a stand-alone article". This is not so suitable, but as a likely search term, and as a sentence or two in another article, it is fine. --Jayron32 03:08, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
How is that an argument for "keep"? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 06:41, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It is a gold standard as a source, that's all. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 09:11, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
WP:N makes it clear that the primary guideline for notability is whether it’s discussed in reliable sources (To quote that: “If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for a stand-alone article or list.”) “Covfefe” clearly has been: It made the front page of the New York Times. Please explain, by linking to relevant Wikipedia policy, how “Covfefe” is not notable, even though it was on the front page of the New York Times (ideally, please link to deletion discussion where something that made the front page of the NYT got deleted). Samboy (talk) 09:24, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, NYT is a great source to establish help GNG, and there are probably hundreds of sources around the world now that do that. This article passes GNG, very, very easily. That's not the issue. It is that it does not pass a number of other guidelines, and that is the reason for all those delete !votes. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 09:49, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Let me quote Herostratus from Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Trump_orb:

reading pages pointed to rather than than just relying on their titles is recommended. We just went over this with WP:TOOSOON which essentially says "wait until there are reliable sources"... OK here is what WP:NOTNEWS says: "editors are encouraged to include current and up-to-date information within its coverage, and to develop stand-alone articles on significant current events", although "not all verifiable events are suitable for inclusion", and then it drills down with four bullet points. #'s 1 (no original reporting) and 3 (we're not a Who's Who) and 4 (we're not a diary) pretty clearly don't apply, leaving #2 as the only possibly germane guidance. It says “Wikipedia considers the enduring notability of persons and events. While news coverage can be useful source material for encyclopedic topics, most newsworthy events do not qualify for inclusion. For example, routine news reporting on things like announcements, sports, or celebrities is not a sufficient basis for inclusion in the encyclopedia. While including information on recent developments is sometimes appropriate, breaking news should not be emphasized or otherwise treated differently from other information.... Wikipedia is also not written in news style.” I mean, it's fairly general... "most' newsworthy events do not qualify... including information on recent developments is sometimes appropriate", so it's not a blanket proscription against recent events. And then the example, the only example, it gives of the kind of stuff we don't want is "routine news reporting on things like announcements, sports, or celebrities", which has nothing to do with this article.

WP:FART has also been brought up, but that covers routine coverage in, say People magazine — not the front page of The New York Times. Samboy (talk) 15:41, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Obvious Covfefe Keep as the very surprising attention this has got with the top story of the day in most news organizations, and probably continue as a top story for at least another day. It is becoming a cultural artifact. It is historic.--Covfefe user (talk) 09:50, 1 June 2017 (UTC) Covfefe user (talkcontribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic. [reply]
Notable. Keep. One of the highest-numbered posts. Misty MH (talk) 10:36, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
That is not true. It has already been pointed out to you that the story is on the front page of today's New York Times.--Pawnkingthree (talk) 13:51, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, if this ends up being the first AFD in en-WP's history where the closing admin summarizes the consensus as "covfefe", I'm going to laugh my butt off. --Captain Occam (talk) 17:16, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
You've got it the wrong way around: meeting WP:GNG means that notability is "presumed". GNG goes on to say:

"Presumed" means that significant coverage in reliable sources creates an assumption, not a guarantee, that a subject should be included. A more in-depth discussion might conclude that the topic actually should not have a stand-alone article—perhaps because it violates what Wikipedia is not

In other words, WP:NOTNEWS trumps GNG, and no amount of coverage in reliable sources can make a WP:NOT topic notable. – Finnusertop (talkcontribs) 17:35, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
If the niche item called the "santorum" is considered notable, then this widely known item certainly is too. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots18:24, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Please review the arguments to avoid in deletion discussions: WP:WHATABOUTX. --Crystallizedcarbon (talk) 18:32, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Is that a rule, or merely a suggestion? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots18:38, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
There's certainly no rule against following good advice. InedibleHulk (talk) 19:16, June 1, 2017 (UTC)
And the best advice is, "Try not to make Wikipedia look stupid." If I come to Wikipedia to find out about it, and it's not there, my immediate assumption is that Wikipedia is out of touch with the world. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots20:14, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Probably better as "Don't make Wikipedia look stupid." Telling humans to try just lets them feel good about themselves when they fail the first time, knowing they tried. I don't know about you, but if I can fail and feel good about it, I'm only going to pretend to try, especially if the alternative is suffering for the sake of Wikipedia seeming hip. Besides, by the time people need to come to Wikipedia to wonder the truth of covfefe, wondering that won't even be cool anymore. We'll be that old fuddy-duddy doing the macarena at weddings, alone, forever. Collectively, I mean. Individually, we can go either way. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:12, June 1, 2017 (UTC)
OK, then it's "DON'T make Wikipedia look stupid" - and the rest of my statement still applies. We serve the readers, not ourselves. Rabid deletionists often forget tht. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots21:45, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Now you're talking! Changed my vote. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:01, June 1, 2017 (UTC)
  • Keep This sums up American politics and how social media has played a part it in.Sgerbic (talk) 17:30, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep important, groundbreaking article. Will be useful to historians that want to trace the emergence of the second dark ages and Trump's reign of terror. Crucial historical document. This is not the place to pay partisan politics and cover up for Daddy, Trumpkins. 2600:1017:B412:5FA5:A58C:E7D4:A132:5E0B (talk) 17:33, 1 June 2017 (UTC) Duplicate vote: 2600:1017:B412:5FA5:A58C:E7D4:A132:5E0B (talkcontribs) has already cast a vote above.[reply]
  • Merge with Donald Trump's use of social media. Although I believe the word has achieved ample notability in non-trivia (and Wikipedia-approved) media to justify its own article, at the same time it is simply more appropriate for it to be discussed in the greater context with Trump's social media use. We can't create new articles every time he does a typo, even if the typo ends up being a bit of a cultural phenomenon as has happened with covfefe. That said it could be revisited at a future date to see if "covfefe" has the same longevity in the public eye as Fuddle duddle did. 136.159.160.4 (talk) 17:49, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment After spending some time in Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not archives, there is a pretty sizable WP:NOTNEWS misapplication going on here. None of the 4 points under notnews have been met here, particularly the "routine news" of #2. This is not "routine news", this is a flurry of national an international discussion of the event. Yes it is an event, this isn't just about a famous person making a tweet typo but rather the President of the US, a persona with a propensity for bombastic social media presence who made a bizarre, mangled, half-sentence tweet in the early morning hours. WP:NEVENT should be the one to judge by, and IMO we're certainly in or nearing the "very likely to be notable" standard of WP:EVENTCRIT. "WP:Notnews" is a misnomer and should be retitled "NotRoutineNews" ValarianB (talk) 19:14, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • KEEP: Major cultural impact, covered by news sites world over. It's only day 2 and it's being used by thousands (at least) of people on Social Media.

If not keep, then at least merge. Walloper1980 (talk) 19:16, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Just a reminder, if by "merge some of it" you mean to actually copy and rewrite the content from here into the other article, then deletion is not acceptable as we will violate our contributor's copyright and the licence we require them to licence it under. If content from here is copied or moved, even if later rewritten, to another article then the article needs to be kept for the edit history somewhere. (Technically under the CC we probably only require the list of names but the norm is to keep the edit history whenever possible, especially since we are only supposed to be CC only when getting the content from elsewhere.) It would make most sense to keep it at the current location and simply turn it into a redirect, although this isn't required provided the edit history is kept and people are able to find it from whereever the content is copied/moved to. The only way this could be deleted is if any content elsewhere is written from scratch without reference to this article. Even just copying the references would IMO be a bad idea, especially since there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason why we should lose the edit history. Nil Einne (talk) 22:29, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Good point. !Vote adjusted accordingly.- MrX 23:57, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia is not a dictionary. WP:NOTURBANDICT. Ceosad (talk) 22:31, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Here. (Not pretty and missing responses. Will delete it in 24hrs) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:01, 2 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Now that this material appears on the German, Japanese, Dutch, and Czech Wikis, I find it even more difficult to understand why anyone would want to delete it. Whiff of greatness (talk) 13:09, 2 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Andrew Davidson: the book you mentioned was published in March 2015, so cannot prove the notability of "covfefe" or Trump's actions as President. The book doesn't even mention "Donald Trump" (according to the Google Books search function). This book can prove the notability of "The presidential use and misuse of language", but not "covfefe", or anything about Trump.  Seagull123  Φ  13:26, 2 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia:Fart --Guy Macon (talk) 17:17, 2 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]