Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of autodidacts

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 keep. There's clear agreement to significantly prune and remove people without references supporting the claim that they are self-taught. — The Earwig ^talk 08:03, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

List of autodidacts

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A highly contentious article which doesn't conform WP:V. Wikipedia is not a repository or an indiscriminate collection of information WP:NOTCATALOG. I can see the list is simply growing without anyone questioning the correctness or verifiability of the claims. If someone is a notable autodidact that would be worth noting in the subject's article. RationalPuff (talk) 14:34, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions. RationalPuff (talk) 14:34, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. XOR'easter (talk) 15:12, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comment This looks more like a candidate for weeding than for deletion outright. Plenty of people are known for being autodidacts in fields that traditionally require a formal education (e.g., Srinivasa Ramanujan). It ought to be possible to find a criterion for who belongs on the list and who doesn't. XOR'easter (talk) 15:23, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Concur with XOR'easter that this is probably the way to go about this. I would suggest a requirement of reference to at least one-third party source that clearly states that the person is known for being self-taught. It's not going to be a quick job though (and I'm not volunteering to do it...) --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 23:32, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Lists of people-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 11:04, 17 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Education-related deletion discussions. –MJL ‐Talk‐^☖ 15:23, 19 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Keep 53 references in the article so far. Any that don't have references can be removed. Being self taught is a noteworthy thing. Dream Focus 18:08, 20 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Keep One course of action would be to restrict criteria from simply dropping out of college. Limit it to people whose education was actually self-directed, rather than allowing people who didn't receive credentials for their formal education (i.e remove people who went to college for several years but didn't get a degree). Canned Frootloops (talk) 15:12, 21 January 2021 (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.