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List of Geordies

List of Geordies (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

This article has 153 sources, yet I believe it would be a good idea if it were deleted. The reason is quite simple - it is a List article, yet the contents of the list cannot in the main be correctly defined, because the term "Geordie" is extremely disputed, as can be seen from its article. "Geordies" are either people from Newcastle, or from Newcastle and the surrounding area (but which surrounding area?), or people from elsewhere who have lived in Newcastle at some time or another, or people who have lived in this undefined area of the North East for an undefined amount of time, or recently, and somewhat surreally, people who support Newcastle Football Club. Of course, very few editors agree about the exact definition. Therefore, on this sub-article, this has led to a long period of edit-warring, sockpuppetry and vandalism, as can be seen from the article history. This is further confused by the amazingly lazy tendency of the British press to call anyone from anywhere in the North East of England a "Geordie", thus creating completely spurious "reliable sources", such as the ones supporting the inclusion of Heather Mills or Tony Blair. Whilst there are undoubtedly people who do belong on this list, the inclusion of others is incredibly tenuous and in some cases may actually be insulting to those people. I can only see two ways of fixing the problems here - either tightly define the definition of Geordie, or delete the article. Since the former would appear to be impossible, I can see no other option but the latter. Black Kite 22:52, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

• Delete- per the nomination, a seemingly interesting but disputed, impossible to decide topic, only causing problems on wikipedia. AndreNatas (talk) 22:55, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
• Delete and salt. I normally don't think it would be appropriate to delete an article based on content dispute, but this is an exception - this is only a gigantic target for sockpuppetry and edit warring between anons/puppets/well-meaning editors. No prejudice against a compromise or re-creation once the definition of Geordie has been established. Hobbeslover 23:31, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
• Delete per nomination. Interestingly enough, Mackem (referring to the folks across the other side of the Tyne) has a "List of Mackems"... -- ChrisO (talk) 23:52, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
• Keep If Geordie is used in the English language, it can be defined. Disagreements of definition can be sorted out with nuances in the text, etc, etc. If lack of agreement is the justification to delete, shall we nominate Copernicus? Of course not. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 00:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
• Strongest Keep - There is no official definition, but this is not a reason to delete the list. Nowadays, it is as much a matter of self-identification than of geography. This applies to all UK regionalisms. The disputes are easily solved by looking at the reverse case, those who wish to remove people from the list should provide a source or direct quote that that person by name is not a Geordie, which will exist if it is being applied offensively. Dubious cases are easily debated in the normal way, case by case, and can even be marked as such, because in the absence of an official definition, it is not for WP to make one up to make life easier and deny there are no notable Geordies at all. On a final note, I strongly believe that most of the disruption is coming from the actions of one user, User:Molag Bal and socks, and cases are pending. Finally, for the per nom voters, I have no clue about Heather Mills, but there are numerous sources for Tony Blair (claiming) to have been a life long Newcastle United fan, and a billion reliable sources assigning the term Geordie to Newcastle Fans. MickMacNee (talk) 00:27, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Mick, are you seriously suggesting that people should only be removed from the list if there are reliable sources showing that this person is NOT a Geordie? That's not how Misplaced Pages works - you don't have to prove a negative! Many of these entries are sourced from appallingly bad sources - the Heather Mills one is laughable, for instance. (Incidentally, Mills is also in the Mackem article, because she claims to be a Sunderland FC fan - a bit unusual for a Geordie, no? Paul Collingwood is also in both lists - his Mackem entry is sourced from the BBC as well!) Do you see the problem now? Deleting this list is not saying "there are no notable Geordies", it's about removing disruption from the encyclopedia, because the definition is never going to be agreed upon, and therefore nor is the list. Incidentally, claiming someone who supports Newcastle FC is automatically a Geordie is not only plain wrong, but also insulting. Black Kite 00:39, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Just cutting back in here, I draw your attention to which is a BBC column written by Durham born Collingwood himself where he says he has a Geordie accent. The Mackem source is an interview with a Sunderland born cricketer, where the journalist writes, "and fellow mackem Collingwood....". Now are you seriously going to continue this farce that there isn't a clear obvious choice as the preferred source in that case? As an aside, you will see here that Tony Blair in an interview admits to being a long time Newcastle fan, which equates to Geordie in many sources. Seriously unverifiable and disputed? I realy don't think so, merely a requirement to explain the different uses of the word that as another editor says is a widely used term in the language, so nothing new to Misplaced Pages, it's standard practice. MickMacNee (talk) 03:38, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• So basically, you want it all deleted to remove disruption? That is absolutely ridiculous and against all precedence. And please show me any source where any Newcastle United fan has taken offence at being called a Geordie, this is frankly nonsense. One or two debated entries is not a reason to delete. This Afd is what is offensive. At the end of the day, you are not the spokesperson of any of these people, and you are not in a position to state what they believe. Sir Bobby Robson was born in Durham, are you going to go and add an entry to his article to state he is not a Geordie? Do you not see how all you have done is just plant yourself firmly on one side of two ridiculous POV's and lost all sense of what wikipedia is, NPOV and verifiable. MickMacNee (talk) 00:47, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• You've missed the point totally. I am not saying that all these entries are not valid or verifiable. Some are - a lot aren't, and there can therefore never be a stable article. Incidentally, the "insulting" part of the "Newcastle fans are Geordies" claim is, of course, not Newcastle fans being insulted, but "real" Geordies being insulted that someone can somehow become a Geordie by buying a replica shirt and a scarf. Oh, and you need to read WP:CIVIL. Black Kite 00:58, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• I find that derivation of offence to be extremely contrived. I have never heard of any fan being upset by this, and I would again ask for you to provide a source for this. They presumably must be equally offended by their own current chariman, as he wears the shirt and is from the south. Back on point, stability or not, this is never a reason for deletion, and if it has been, I would ask you to provide an example of such a case where it was. I realy do fail to see how you cannot accept there will be disputed entries and these will be treated the same as any other disputed content on wikipedia, through factual based debate, and not resorting to personal opinon. Frankly, I doubt anyone has even tried that hard to present evidence to debunk the Mills entry, rather all they have done is make general points, from their own POV, without a source. Frankly, the fact that most outsiders refer to north easteners as Geordies does not invalidate anything, it is a proveable fact, and merely adds another detail to the article, and you will find even that outside impression is limited to a definable area, to claim the London press is wrong and you are right when there is no official definition is again, total personal opinion. The main article actually fully points out these differences in perspective, as well as very good sources for self confessed Geordies from Durham etc, so why not do the sensible thing and let readers use their own brains to judge for themselves using good content, the way the rest of wikipedia works, rather than remove all sight of the article. MickMacNee (talk) 01:22, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Previous articles deleted because the edit-warring wasn't worth the trouble? Plenty of precedent. Daniel Brandt, Brian Peppers, Gay Nigger Association of America (18 AfDs!!), Liancourt Rocks (since re-created), etc. Your last point sums up the main problem - "self-confessed Geordies from Durham" - except that many people (and reliable sources) would claim that someone from Durham can't by definition be a Geordie. Black Kite 01:30, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Frankly, I don't think the disruption here is anywhere near (and I mean not even within 1%) of the level of that rocks article, I followed that for a while, I think you've over-reached here. Frankly, per BLP, if someone self identifies as a Geordie, you cannot deny this claim on any level whatsoever without bringing in another personal opinion and attempting to tell the world what someone else believes about themselves is wrong. Similarly, in the case of Pavel Srnicek, a Cech!, if the vast majority of 'proper' Geordies consensualy identify him as an honourary Geordie, there is not much you can do to dispute that fact. The only people telling you otherwise will again be working from a personal opinon. This is quite obviously not a situation that results in a 'draw' and a constant instability, at best it ends up with two contradictory sources, with quite an easy explanation in footnotes or text. And no, the 'southern press are mad' is not a suitable footnote, that is a personal opinion. This happens all over WP, and is a central policy enshrined as NPOV. I realy can't see how you even come close to justifying deleting the whole article on the back of some minor but controllable sock puppetry between 2 people. MickMacNee (talk) 02:12, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• You are actually justifying deleting the article now - a constant instability is exactly the problem. People can "self-identify" themselves as anything; it does not make them one. Pavel Srnicek is not, has never been and will never be a Geordie - you just nailed that one yourself by using the word "honourary". And the southern press are not "mad" - they're just regularly uninformed and inaccurate. This list is not maintainable - unless you can fix - and gain support on - the actual definition of "Geordie". Black Kite 02:31, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• This is absolutely ridiculous. Please provide a factual counter to the statement, 'Pavel is regularly termed a Geordie', that is not your personal opinon. Google the phrase 'Pavel is a Geordie', find me a contradictory source to that statement. Just as you assert he is not a Geordie, you will never prove he isn't, but you can prove beyond doubt that he is regularly termed a Geordie, and the reason why - this is the standard of entry of information to wikipedia, not your personal opinion, and not on whether joe bloggs disagrees but can't tell you why. And please provide me with a factual reason why your opinon is more accurate than the regularly "uninformed and innacurate" press. Tell me exactly what are you comparing their accuracy or level of information to, bar your opinon? There is no definition, these facts you assert are nonsense, the only truth here is that there are different interpretations according to different sources, for documentable reasons. This is absolutely 100% not a valid reason to delete this article. Just come to your senses and accept, like 99.999% of all other WP articles, it can be maintained with a NPOV and verifiable sources, and to assert anything else is personal opinion, and in this case highly dependant on where you yourself come from. Are you willing to state this by the way for a full and frank disclosure? MickMacNee (talk) 03:21, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• (unindent) I'm not entirely sure why it matters where I'm from (apart from you assuming bad faith), but if you insist I was born in Leeds but have spent most of my life in the West Midlands. The important thing here is accuracy, so can I explain *again* why you're missing the point. Just because you can find a press source that says "Pavel Srnicek is a Geordie" doesn't mean he is - it's not, and never can be, a verifiable fact because it's always someone's opinion. Obviously, if Srnicek had been born in Newcastle, it would be a reasonable assumption; and as such a number of entries on the list are quite reasonable. But the problem arises when you extend the list too far - in fact you are basically extending the list to people who have anything to do with Newcastle. You are never going to be able to say that Tony Blair, for example, is a Geordie with any accuracy. The "source" in the article is a lazy throwaway line in a newspaper column. Google "Tony Blair"+Geordie and you get that column, one other reference and a few blogs () - and that's it. If Blair was really a Geordie there'd be hundreds of references. Equally, Bruce Welch (born in Bognor Regis) exists in the list purely through the fact that he once played in a band called the "Geordie Boys". This is Geordie-ism by association, and is necessarily POV, and is the main problem with the article. Black Kite 11:17, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• This is a highly dubious reason for deleting the entire article when there are verifiable sources to support any definition of geordie you can find. The only personal opinion here is yours that people cannot understand that given this information. Basically, you are getting wikipedia to define the term, not reflect the term, ultimately an extreme violation of basic principles. MickMacNee (talk) 11:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• OK, this is my last posting on this, because you clearly don't get it - Misplaced Pages cannot "reflect" a term when the term is not accurately defined, and when people use it so loosely for it to be meaningless. To have a "List of X" article, then yes, we must define exactly what X is, or the article is, and always will be, fundamentally inaccurate. For instance, there is a list of cockneys in that article, because the term is tightly defined. You will not, however, find a List of Brummies or a List of Scousers (which would suffer from the same problem, because you could probably find an inaccurate quote about anyone who comes from anywhere near Liverpool) though you will find a list of people who speak with a scouse accent (because that's verifiable). And WP:V is policy, and that's the difference. Black Kite 11:59, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• You have of course verified that every listed cockney in that article was born within the Bow Bells (per my personal opinion)? You will note that not a single entry in that list has a single reference, as opposed to this list. This illustrates what a joke this nomination is.

• And this point is outrageous, you are claiming this article does not meet WP:VER, a complete and utter lie. Just because the verification does not meet your personal opinion DOES NOT mean they are not verifiable sources. MickMacNee (talk) 15:42, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Strong Delete: Factually inaccurate. A "Geordie" is someone born along the River Tyne, but this lists people from Northumberland and County Durham - up to 100 miles from the river! It even lists Tony Blair, who was born in Scotland (Yes, he did spend some of his childhood in Durham but, even Durham-born people are NOT Geordies)--Seahamlass (talk) 00:30, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
• Delete per nom.--Doc 00:35, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Delete. I'm trying to think of an American equivalent, a demonym with an undefined geographical scope and at least sometimes negative connotations, and I came up with hillybilly and redneck. We don't have a list of rednecks and we don't have a list of hillbillies for good reason. --Dhartung | Talk 06:23, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• There is absolutely no association between the usage of hillbilly and geordie. Think of it in terms of a talk show, you wouldn't get David Letterman introduce a guest as 'the famous Hillbilly/Redneck...'. It just doesn't compare. MickMacNee (talk) 11:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

MickMacNee, please stop this AFD disruption by causing arguments with everyone who wishes to delete the article, Black Kite is right the 1) article has ripped with opinions, 2) there are so many different opinions it is impossible to verify, 3) there is no definition of the term so it is impossible to verify, 4) Tony Blair, do you hear him speak in this "accent" on the TV?, 5) some of these people on the list are from the region of Wearside which has its own dialect and nickname Mackem which is sometimes unreconized and marked by libelous ignorant sources as "geordie" when it isn't 5) people from county durham have their own dialect too, Pitmatic, now stop this disruption. AndreNatas (talk) 11:47, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Wow. If you could actualy provide some evidence of a libel case arising from someone being called a Geordie, that would be fantastic. If you could find an example of someone sueing WP per BLP for the same reason, that would be even better. I ask you now for a full and frank disclosure, shall I sue the cricketer Paul Collingwood for having unfortunately been called a mackem by a reporter despite his own words being on record, as per Black Kite? I await your advice. MickMacNee (talk) 15:22, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Strong Delete — Lots of good reasons given above; I'll just add that this is dumb. nb: Letterman would be a Hoosier; do we have a List of Hoosiers? Cheers, Jack Merridew 11:53, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Has anyone ever created a list of Hoosiers? If so, did it last as long as this list without conflict? I am disgusted that Americans wish to frankly poke their noses in this debate and tell actual residents of the UK what a Geordie is. I would never presume to take the same liberty with their culture. A complete revision of history and fact. I won't insult these yanks by linking the source that has George Bush referring to the Geordie accent, they of course are already fully aware of this fact. MickMacNee (talk) 15:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

• Delete- too disruptive to be kept on wikipedia and this isn't anything new as there have been other pages that have been removed as a reason due to disruption and verifiablity see Brian Peppers, Daniel Brandt, libel, MickMacNee is a disruptive user. 86.154.197.75 (talk) 15:37, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

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