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 as per consensus. Non-admin closure. Warrah (talk) 01:14, 11 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ian Bell (programmer) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log • AfD statistics)

(Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)

I was at school with Ian and can vouch for the accuracy of the limited information here, but I can't find any reliable independent sources about him. Even his website is sufficiently out of date that I would not like to say what he currently does for a living. As an unsourced and likely unsourceable biography we have to delete it per WP:BLP. Guy (Help!) 18:13, 4 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• Note: This debate has been included in the list of video game related deletion discussions. MrKIA11 (talk) 00:31, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep - meets WP:CREATIVE notability guideline through the success of Elite, which is verifiable (Edge, for example.) As for what he's doing now, he spoke at the 2009 Nottingham GameCity festival. (Source: Guardian.) I'll add these to the article. Marasmusine (talk) 11:26, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• Those are guidelines (and probably incorrect ones as notability is not inherited), WP:BLP is policy. Have you added non-trivial reliable independent sources as references? That's what it needs. Being namechecked in the Grauniad is not enough - otherwise I would have an article (having also been interviewed on BBC Radio and featured in the Times Educational Supplement). The Guardian article says: "My Life with Elite (Weds 3pm) Is going to be pretty special. David Braben, Ian Bell, Robert Holdstock - I'm really interested to see how this is going to work out. A lot of the folks at this event haven't seen each other for years - it really is a 'this is your life' of the game." So, it namechecks Ian and that's the lot. Remember, I was a schoolmate, I have looked for good sources. We need sources about Ian. Guy (Help!) 12:20, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• I'm not sure what you mean when you say the guideline is probably incorrect. It's the currently accepted standard for articles about creative professionals. One criteria is "The person's work ... has won significant critical attention", and Bob's your uncle. BLP only recommends that a page be deleted if there are no quality sources about a person. Otherwise you are free to remove the material you wish to contest, which I suppose would be his date and place of birth, and the sentence on his education. Please note the Edge Online citation next to the Guardian's: it provides good coverage (five paragraphs) of his talk at Game City. That's if you want to go the WP:GNG route rather than WP:CREATIVE. Marasmusine (talk) 14:23, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• Couple of sources here, an old interview for Games Domain and a feature in 80s mag Micro Adventurer. I'm sure I remember something in Retro Gamer a couple of years ago too, though I could be wrong... Miremare 14:36, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep per Marasmusine. Looks like he meets WP:CREATIVE as well as the WP:GNG. –MuZemike 18:00, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep. The game is certainly important in gaming history. There are just enough sources to make him notable. Given the start he had it makes me wonder why he didn't do more. Or perhaps he did and its not come to light. Szzuk (talk) 20:27, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep as per Marasmusine DRosin (talk) 22:08, 6 January 2010 (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.