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 No consensus; an MFD isn't the place to determine to see if a project is still alive or not. This should take place at the CVU talk page, which it is now. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 00:40, 11 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Reason 1: it's virtually inactive; reason 2, it's completely redundant to Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol - the useful text of the 2 is 99 percent the same; reason 3, it doesn't actually do anything (certainly nothing useful that I've ever seen); reason 4, it's a piece of instruction-creepy excess bureaucracy, because reason 5; vandalism is something to be reverted and vandals are people to be blocked and ignored - we simply don't need an entire organisation to do this; reason 6, this has for far too long given rise to a paramilitary mindset amongst vandalwhackers - "Must...slay...vandal!"; reason 7, subtle vandalism problems brought to our attention can be dealt with either here or here. Option 1; delete altogether; option 2, Esperanzify (please no), option 3 (preference) turn it into a redirect (locked or otherwise) to somewhere more useful, such as here, option 4, tag as rejected. Moreschi Talk 09:05, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  1. Does it do anything? Anything concrete? No? Then it's inactive.
  2. All it does is replicate RCP. Then it's redundant.
  3. WikiProjects do do things of themselves: see the top of here. This does nothing. In addition, the vast majority of avid vandal-reverters have nothing to do with the CVU.
  4. You've completely skewed my logic. You don't need a bunch of paras to coordinate vandalwhacking. It's superflous. WikiProjects are there for coordination. This does not do that. It doesn't do anything, coordination least of all. Vandalism can simply be reverted. Yes, articles can simply be copy-edited, but something such as Wikipedia:WikiProject League of Copyeditors actually provides a good place to find a copy-editor. Here, there's no need for anything else. Copy-editing, or providing references, or writing well about opera or chemistry or whatever, requires specialist skills. Reverting vandalism requires a click of the "undo" button.
  5. Look at this comment on the talk page: "If "they" trying to disband us then obviously we are doing something right." -that's exactly the kind of broken mentality that's so wrong.
  6. Again, skewing my logic. My point is that subtle vandalism brought to our attention by "outsiders" is part of what places such as ASSIST (and the Help desk) are designed to deal with. This is not. Other WikiProjects are designed for subject-specific coordination: for stuff that cannot be done by every Tom, Dick and Harry. But vandalism can be reverted by anyone, so no need for this. Moreschi Talk 09:46, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
On the one hand you seem to be saying that newbies should not be encouraged to fight vandalism as they become overzealous and on the other you're saying that anyone can do it. If nothing else, the CVU helps to bridge that gap. You're right, vandalism should be reverted on sight - that's why it's impossible for the CVU to have a "bit of vandalism of the month" or something of that ilk, any more than the categorisation project has a category of the month. On the same note, anyone can add categories, references etc., anyone can correct spellings, anyone can do any of the things these projects do, so why are you singling out the CVU? I'm not sure how a project with this many members and an active talk page could ever be described as inactive.Waggers 09:55, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps because the talk page is filled with irrelevancies? I would hardly call that an active talk page, anyway. No, not everyone can copy-edit, not everyone can add the right references, not everyone can categorise correctly. This actually requires specialist skill. Hence the need for coordination. But anyone can fight vandalism. Newbies should do so, and they do - but what the CVU does is turn them into a bunch of paras. That's not what we need. Moreschi Talk 09:59, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm a member of the CVU and I'm not a "para". The CVU does not seek to turn anyone into a "para" - do you have any evidence that states otherwise? The name can be misleading, granted, but I've covered that above. And regarding the "not everyone" thing - it can take skill and experience to detect the more complex forms of vandalism, so not everyone can do that. And above all, the CVU is a collection of people. Cleanup is a bit of a thankless task at times and belonging to something like the CVU gives users a sense of belonging that WP:RCP couldn't do. Waggers 10:20, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
That said, I would like to say that I feel the nominator was highly mistaken in making a speedy deletion of this page. That was not a well-considered action at all. Doing things unilaterally is sometimes acceptable, but this is an example of the overbold. FrozenPurpleCube 10:31, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Comment - we could tag historical and then leave a note about Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol. Addhoc 12:19, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
We could, but if there are active editors, or editors who want to be active, it'd be removed as inappropriate. FrozenPurpleCube 12:34, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Seconded Mathiastck 20:50, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I see this whole conflict over the CVU as a left-side-of-the-brain vs right-side-of-the-brain issue. Left-brain-dominants who favor strategy and business as usual may not appreciate the need for a right-brained approach. The CVU is an application of emotional intelligence, and goes beyond mere instruction. That's why so many (younger/new) Wikipedians can identify with it. Please let the CVU do its job of guiding them to the worthy cause of fighting vandalism. Thank you. The Transhumanist    22:37, 10 August 2007 (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 page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.