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 no consensus. Opinion is split between keep and merge to specimens of Tyrannosaurus. What's clear is that there's no interest in deletion, so any follow-up discussion should be a merger proposal on the article talk page. Sandstein 08:51, 14 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Titus (dinosaur)[edit]

Titus (dinosaur) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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16th most complete T rex fossil found. Not notable. YorkshireExpat (talk) 16:49, 28 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

  1. https://wollatonhall.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/TITUS-T.rex-Scientific-Report-Dec-2021.pdf
  2. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2021/05/titus-the-t-rex-is-coming-to-the-uk-this-summer-heres-why-its-a-big-deal CT55555 (talk) 18:43, 28 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Addition: The article is very poorly written, and when I went over it had far too many irrelevant asides. The sourcing is largely local news items, with a few cringe-worthy sources such as blogs and a Google search. It also reads as promotional in nature. IMHO, if/when merged (or even if kept), it will require significant rewriting to be neutral and encyclopedic in tone. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 22:05, 28 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Note: An editor has expressed a concern that editors have been canvassed to this discussion. An editor who !voted "keep" has posted it to ARS. MrsSnoozyTurtle 22:32, 28 June 2022 (UTC) CT55555, I withdraw this comment and am sorry if any hurt was caused. Regards, MrsSnoozyTurtle 07:56, 12 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

I'm surprised to see this. I have been transparent about posting it to ARS, and I hope you saw that above. If you have any concern, I welcome discussion. CT55555 (talk) 00:20, 29 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I don't blame you for feeling bad about this unfair accusation of canvassing. You have done nothing wrong. There is no policy, rule, guideline concerning participation in an AfD and posting at ARS. Your post at ARS is not canvassing for a Keep vote, in fact it says what the article's weak points are. MrsSnoozy does not understand what canvassing is. -- GreenC 02:37, 29 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Comment. Many above have argued to merge with Specimens of Tyrannosaurus. It's a very good article and could house this content well. I was almost persuaded actually. Until I saw how long it was. I would draw you attention to WP:SIZERULE which tells us when an article has reach a size that is too big and should be split. I quote the table in the guideline

Some useful rules of thumb for splitting articles, and combining small pages:

Readable prose size What to do
> 100 kB Almost certainly should be divided
> 60 kB Probably should be divided (although the scope of a topic can sometimes justify the added reading material)
> 50 kB May need to be divided (likelihood goes up with size)
< 40 kB Length alone does not justify division
< 1 kB If an article or list has remained this size for over a couple of months, consider combining it with a related page. Alternatively, the article could be expanded; see Wikipedia:Stub.

I note that Specimens of Tyrannosaurus is already 118k, 18% longer than upper limit. Twice the size at which is should probably be divided.

So the content should be split between articles. And the question that should follow is: which topics sufficiently meet WP:GNG to warrant an individual article. Which leads me back to my original vote. Also, I think merging at the expense of redirecting is unnecessary. Redirecting should always be preferred over deleting, notwithstanding my keep preference is based on policy. WP:ATD-R Best, CT55555 (talk) 19:36, 29 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

The size rule is rarely enforced, and the article isn't excessively over the limit to the point where it needs to be split. There are far more deserving specimens to get separate articles to cover more detail than this specimen. Hemiauchenia (talk) 22:36, 29 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
This isn't me opening a discussion about splitting that article. This is me saying: don't exacerbate the problem. This is me pointing out that cramming more into that article goes against the guidelines. Guidelines, are what should inform outcomes at AfD. The lack of enforcement of the guidelines to date, seems correct, but still our role in this forum is to suggests answers in line with guidelines. If people are tending to make a suggestion that is counter to a guideline, such paths forward should be avoided if guideline and policy compliant paths forward are possible. You get me? tl;dr We're here to propose solutions aligned with guidelines. CT55555 (talk) 23:09, 29 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
WP:IAR YorkshireExpat (talk) 05:19, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Wikipedia:Ignore all rules reads: If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it. How are you improving Wikipedia by getting rid of an article that clearly passes the general notability guidelines, and is valid encyclopedic content? Dream Focus 05:44, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I don't think it warrants an article on its own. My WP:IAR comment was more aimed at WP:SIZERULE in this instance (though it is quite fun to throw around WP:IAR :)). YorkshireExpat (talk) 15:14, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Ignore all rules is about applying common sense, about not following a rule if it causes harm. It's is not about doing what ever you feel like with no justification. If it was, it could be used to argue any stance in this argument. CT55555 (talk) 12:13, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I think common sense is merging this article into Specimens of Tyrannosaurus and don't really see how that article can be usefully split. I'm not militantly for deleting this article. I think that is the best proposed solution. YorkshireExpat (talk) 15:13, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Sue (dinosaur) was featured on the main page of Wikipedia multiple times (see talk page at the top). Trix (dinosaur) is another t-rex with its own article just like this one. Other dinosaur fossils have articles such as Big John (dinosaur) who survived AFD last November. Dippy has a nice size article and a side article at Dippy (London) for its plaster cast replica. There is nothing wrong with articles like this. Nothing gained by deleting them and just having a small token amount of information in an over ready large list article. Dream Focus 05:43, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I'd argue all those fossils are very well known, far better known than Titus, and that it's rightful place is in the list. YorkshireExpat (talk) 15:16, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Agree with Yorkshire's comment. It goes without saying that Sue has received a massive amount of scholarship. Trix has been referenced in a few papers [1][2] and is the subject of multiple abstracts [3] [4]. As much as I opposed Big John's status as a standalone article, it is now also the subject of a peer-reviewed study [5]. Finally, Dippy is the holotype of Diplodocus and there is also ample scholarship on the cultural impact of the London cast. What does Titus have? Titus has never been described in the scientific literature; the only result on Google Scholar is a report-style pamphlet that is clearly promotional in nature. Lythronaxargestes (talk | contribs) 08:33, 2 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
As to those niffnawing about content issues, WP:Verifiability not WP:Truth controls.7&6=thirteen () 14:08, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Abstaining as I'm now too involved with the text. It's true, I am very guilty of WP:IDONTLIKEIT but it was mainly in the sense that I don't like inaccurate or misleading content, and when relying a lot on newspapers it's always important to try to avoid getting swept away by the superficiality, sensationalism, now-ism, and inaccuracy that can creep in from time to time. Happily I think I've addressed my own concerns now! Page looks nice. Cielquiparle (talk) 19:27, 30 June 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I dispute the B-class assessment for WP:DINO based on my experience with articles for the project. This is a start-class article at most. Note that this is not a comment on whether to delete the article. Lythronaxargestes (talk | contribs) 08:45, 2 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Relisting comment: Clear consensus to keep the content as notable, but further discussion on keep vs merge may be useful to reach consensus on a solution.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, TigerShark (talk) 02:29, 6 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]

The marketing-like text simply has no place in Wikipedia and should be removed, which will eliminate the problem you mention. FunkMonk (talk) 02:38, 9 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Right, I think it's when you include a little too much information about specific exhibitions that it sounds like marketing (e.g., does the "Sue" section on the Specimens page really need that many words about Walt Disney World? Or at all since she has her own page as well?). The "largest ever" type claims and controversies also feel like "marketing" but seem important to note and clarify – that's where Wikipedia can provide an important service by helping to provide additional facts and context. Cielquiparle (talk) 12:44, 9 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I also find it incredibly important to point out, "Titus" isn't really the nickname of this specimen. The Nottingham Museum mount, and the fossils, are two entirely independent things, and the name "Titus" here applies to the cast of the fossils. Much the same that a cast of "Stan" is not "Stan". Half of the information in this article is already present on the Specimens of Tyrannosaurus page, and half of what's left should be removed as NPOV (details about which companies did what etc). This article is misleading in presenting a private specimen as a public commodity by citing sources that describe the public mount of plaster and 3d models. I've refrained from making any edits because of this ongoing discussion, but see the specimens page where I have just cut out ~15000 bytes of promotional, duplicated, or non-specimen-specific information; more than enough to accommodate what's worth salvaging from this page while still shortening the overall article. IJReid ((T - C - D - R)) 22:46, 8 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
@IJReid well I think it's turned out pretty well. If I'd have put a merge on the page (which I might have done had I known the other article existed) it wouldn't have got anywhere near the level of interest that it has as an AfD. The main thing is that the encylopedia is improved. As I said earlier, I now agree with the merge to 'Specimens'. YorkshireExpat (talk) 12:22, 9 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I don't think it'd be too big for the page - without things split across sections and with a bit of reformatting and rewording you can probably fit all the information on the museum and the mount into three digestible paragraphs. It's just really split up into small tidbits at the moment. LittleLazyLass (Talk | Contributions) 04:26, 10 July 2022 (UTC)Reply[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.