Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Birthday Committee

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellany page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was keep per WP:SNOW. >Radiant< 10:31, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Birthday Committee

I used to think this was a great program and I was a member. Now, I have realized how wrong I was. The Birthday Committee is a group whose main purpose is to give out make a formal committee to wish people a happy birthday with robotic templates and eCards. So, I encourage you all to kill off this project. JorcogaYell! 02:37, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

• Keep-In my opinion, this project is not harmless to the encyclopedia. It can actually be helpful, since a Happy Birthday wish can brighten up an editor's day. Wouldn't you be depressed if no one said a word to you on your birthday???--Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?}Reviews? 02:42, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep; wishing an editor a happy birthday makes them happy, and a happy editor is an editor who will keep contributing. The amount that the one edit that it takes someone to wish another editor "happy birthday" or "congratulations on having been at Wikipedia for two years" will take away from the encyclopedia is miniscule in comparison to the positive effect that it has upon the editors. -- Natalya 02:51, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
  • A clarification, though I think the whole project is valid, the most important part is the calendar, which should be kept regardless of what happens to the organization itself. -- Natalya 03:29, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Um... why? -Amarkov ^blah_edits 03:31, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
      • It carries the birthdays, first-edit days, admin anniversaries of a massive number of users, which has certainly taken years to compile. If it is decided that an organization dedicated to wishing people congratulations is not to stay (which I hope does not happen), at least saving the calendar will allow people to do so on their own accord. -- Natalya 03:46, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep. Project does not harm encyclopedia at all. The reasons given to delete this article (meaningless edits in the Wikipedia namespace) have historically been rejected as long as the page is harmless (BJAODN, etc). --- RockMFR 02:56, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

  BJAODN is for funny stuff... (including "so bad that it's funny", etc). I fail to see the funny here. -- Ned Scott 03:00, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

• Strong delete We shouldn't formalize birthday greetings.. Talk about taking the spirit out and making it a robotic process. Those templates look like eCards too. This.. is not a good direction to be in. This idea makes me cringe. -- Ned Scott 02:58, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Comment You can still wish people a happy birthday. You do not need a formal committee with templates to wish people a happy birthday. Would you rather have a robotic template like this:

Happy Birthday, Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Birthday Committee, from the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day!

or a nice, informal, personal greeting? JorcogaYell! 03:22, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

• Keep. Vague comments about formalization and roboticness aren't all that persuasive. -Amarkov ^blah_edits 03:26, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I didn't write my comments to be persuasive.. it's what I honestly think. -- Ned Scott 03:31, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
    • That's fine, it's just that I disagree with you. If you don't care very much, fine by me, I don't have to use brainpower processing arguments. -Amarkov ^blah_edits 03:32, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep I personally don't care what kind of birthday greeting I get. If you do get rid of this, please keep the calendar.--CJ King 04:09, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Srong Keep By getting rid of this noone or hardly anyone will get any greeting because we will hardly know anyone's birthday date. If noone greets these people a happy birthday that makes an upset user, an upset user makes bad (or not top quality) edits, bad edits make a bad encyclopedia.--¿Why1991 ^{ESP. | Sign Here} 04:14, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
  • The above is a prime example of why we should delete this. -- Ned Scott 04:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Yeah, you couldn't really ask for much more than that as a prime example of why. I still am not convinced, but I'm closer. -Amarkov ^blah_edits 04:40, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Strong keep, perfectly valid (and quite harmless, before anyone starts on that tack) tool for keeping up editor morale; I'm frankly disturbed by the recent trend of deletion nominations which seem to assume that Wikipedia is being written by a brigade of automatons. The use of form-letter greetings is a valid topic for discussion; but MFD is hardly the best place to have that debate, as it wouldn't entail deletion of the page. (In any case, the important part of this effort is the calendar, not the various templates that people have put together.) Kirill Lokshin 05:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I have no problems with the Calendar. The templates and concept of forced birthday greetings is what I wish to be deleted. And like so many things, we have no evidence whatsoever to show that this helps anything other than helping us look like myspace. I like community, I even get off topic every now and then, and sometimes I joke around. I've supported keep for many fun things on Wikipedia, so please do not group us all into the "fun police". -- Ned Scott 05:49, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
    • As I said: the templates are a valid topic for discussion, but MFD'ing the entire project is not a good way to go about dealing with them, as it necessarily turns to a debate about deleting the entire project. Kirill Lokshin 05:56, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
      • Normally I'd agree with you, but this is such a silly concept that it's almost not worth the effort. (which might be why many of these pages don't get removed) I think it's better to just nip a bad idea without the needless Wiki-drama. Maybe if the page we were discussing was... something more important.. (I know, it's subjective) but this really is such a simple situation. In general, MfD is not the best place to address these things, but we're volunteers here, and we have more productive uses of our time than to drag out a debate like this. -- Ned Scott 06:02, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep. Something that helps editor morale is not a distraction from the encyclopedia, nor necessarily undesirable. Just ask Jimbo. The "robotic" templates can be used by whomever feels compelled to use them, but having a list of who has a birthday and who hasn't allows users to go write personalized "happy birthday" comments if they desire to do so as well. Titoxd^(?!?) 07:43, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Comment- my main quarrel is NOT with the calendar. Keep it. It deserves its own page. That's fine. My problem is that we have a committee to give out birthday templates, not that we have a calendar with people's birthdays on them. JorcogaYell! 07:51, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep', nothing wrong with a group of people wishing others a happy b-day, calendar makes for great historical record whatever it's used for. If you have a problem with the templates, nominate them instead. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:47, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - Is it considered spamming for someone to wish someone a happy birthday? What if a few people decide to organize birthday greetings on a larger scale? There's no law saying you have to use a template, and anyone who wants to can sign up with them. Quack 688 11:46, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - robotic greeting or not, id still want someone to remember my b-day †Bloodpack† 12:21, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep The nom hasn't convinced me that this is bad for the project in anyway, and my gut feeling is that it actually does some good. No reason to kill it off. Thε Halo ^Θ 12:48, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep, it's harmless fun that brought a smile to my face when one of the banners appeared on my talk page. — Hex (❝?!❞) 14:25, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

• Keep, no valid arguement was presented in this nomination for deletion. - Mailer Diablo 15:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep Utterly harmless. Robotic templates? Um... they're recommended to be subst:'d, which is a good practice in this case. Can't see what the problem is there. And one can always elect to write a few nice words in addition to the robotic template. Think of the implications. --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 16:00, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Strong Keep- Kill it off? That's an even worse thing to do than nominating this for deletion! It brings a sense of WikiLove and fun! Can't we keep at least some fun and WikiLove on WIkipedia? The nomination wasn't very convincing to delete either. Sounds more like a personal opinion. But that's just me.--Tohru Honda13^{Sign here!} 22:03, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• Super Strong Keep - At least leave it until after January 12, after I get my birthday message do what you want :-)jk. Seriously, this is a really awesome committee. — Deon555^talk_desk^{sign here!} 05:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Neutral comment - "it doesn't hurt anything" isn't an argument to keep. TBH, I'm mystified at the roboticism of the whole thing. On one hand, I think wishing people happy birthdays is all well and good, and perhaps keeping track of them is convenient, but I'm not sure I agree with the underlying "slap template on, next user" mentality. I'm leaning toward delete here but I don't know enough about it to put a firm delete down. --Wooty Woot? contribs 08:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Strong delete. This page, while harmless, has nothing to do with writing an encyclopedia. I can not imagine how receiving a birthday card would affect the mood of an editor in such a way as to positively affect their contributions to wikipedia. What's next, porn spam? Lunokhod 10:19, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Strong Keep. This page is not harmful to Wikipedia. Furthermore, I think the committee is doing a good job of living up editors' spirit, and which in turn, helps Wikipedia! --Smcafirst or Nick • Sign • Chit-Chat • I give at 14:36, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep The birthday committee makes other wikipedians joyful on their birth date and there is nothing wrong with that. I think we should keep it,it helps wikipedia and it is a very good idea of wishing wikipedians a happy birthday. Stephy100--A person who loves music! 19:10, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Happy birthday. erm... I mean keep. I'd not use the templates anyway. ~Cta~patent nonsense! 20:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep This birthday committee promotes organized WikiLove, which is almost abolished in recent deletions of other wikiprojects. We all need some cheerfulness in our day. -- 20:58, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Comment to keep voters - WP:ILIKEIT#It doesn't do any harm --Wooty Woot? contribs 21:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
  • That's an essay, not policy or guideline.--Ed ^{¿Cómo estás?}Reviews? 22:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
    • I never said it was policy or guideline. I'm just saying "well it doesn't harm anyone" is a stupid argument, seeing as how we're an encyclopedia, not a consumer safety site. --Wooty Woot? contribs 01:07, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
      • Um... No, projectspace isn't an encyclopedia. -Amarkov ^blah_edits 04:11, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
• Strong Strong Keep Why delete the Birthday Committee? It isn't harming anyone! --Extranet ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 21:45, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep - Is there anything that says the Birthday Comittee is wrong in delivering robotic cards to people wishing them a glorious birthday? Those greetings successfully give people a good cheer on their birthday, and who knows? That robotic e-card might just keep that person editing Wikipedia. --Nomader^Talk 23:38, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
• Weak delete - I'm all for promoting civility, but this is somewhat like Esperanza; it's like MySpace on Wikipedia. -- Selmo ^(talk) 05:21, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep. Yeah, esperanza's gone, but there's nothing wrong with this, there are in fact fun parts of wikipedia. --Wizardman 05:24, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
• Keep, there's nothing wrong with this, this committee enlightens an editor's day. Having such stuff is good, and they are doing a good job. It really makes my day better with them around. Anyway, its harmless and it actually makes editors happier. More good points than bad points actually. Terence Ong 07:03, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
• Ugh, and I thought stock warnings were a bad idea. How would folks feel about gutting this of the bureaucracy and stock messages, and leaving a list of birthdays? Morwen - Talk 08:02, 4 January 2007 (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 page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.