Help Stop Deletion of LaserTank Wikipedia Article!

[Horst Ledpeddle]

Hi, it's me, Horst Ledpeddle aka Rhyneheimer aka Steve Ryan. I drafted the LaserTank Wikipedia article in 2008. I was just informed via email/Wikipedia Talk that a deletion has been proposed -

"Proposed deletion of LaserTank
Notice
The article LaserTank has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:
Dubious notability. Lacking extensive third-party sources outside of the journal article.
While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.
You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.
Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Anarchyte (talk) 09:36, 25 April 2023 (UTC)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Rhyneheimer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:LaserTank

The LaserTank article now reads -

"It is proposed that this article be deleted because of the following concern:
Dubious notability. Lacking extensive third-party sources outside of the journal article. (proposed by Anarchyte)
If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming, or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. You may remove this message if you improve the article or otherwise object to deletion for any reason. Although not required, you are encouraged to explain why you object to the deletion, either in your edit summary or on the talk page. If this template is removed, do not replace it.
The article may be deleted if this message remains in place for seven days, i.e., after 09:36, 2 May 2023 (UTC).
If you created the article, please don't be offended. Instead, consider improving the article so that it is acceptable according to the deletion policy.
Find sources: "LaserTank" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserTank

I see numerous other authors have contributed over the years. I truly don't know if I have the time to be able to "save" the article, but obviously I disagree with the proposal for deletion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... on=history

[Horst Ledpeddle]

Update - I objected to the proposed deletion by adding a comment on the article's Talk page, as follows,
"Proposed removed of article
Removal with a week's notice of this free, open source, educational game's article seems sudden and drastic as drafts of the article have been in place for about 15 years. LaserTank participants are still active, the game is still popular, and a number of people have contributed to the article. I will try to find time to improve the article.
The reasons for proposing removal seem rather subjective. "Dubious notability" is arguable.
"Non-notable" is highly arguable, especially compared to the large number of other similar games with articles.
"the Metacritic page has no critic reviews, which is a bad sign." - I am not personally familiar with Metacritic, but that page refers only to the iOS version, not the popular, original PC version.
The game is widely available, including from the LaserTank website, and at the Cnet page, currently with 372,049 Total Downloads, and has 76 User Votes with over 60 reviews, mostly positive, and received an Editors' Review on Feb 26, 2009. https://download.cnet.com/Laser-Tank/30 ... 15874.html Rhyneheimer (talk) 22:03, 1 May 2023 (UTC)"

An administrator took note of the objection, declined the proposed deletion, removed the warning from the article, and commented on the Revision history page "Declined PROD - seemingly contested on talk page."

HOWEVER, the following disclaimer remains on the article, and could lead once again to an eventual proposal for deletion:
"This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "LaserTank" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)"

[Secret Squïrrel]

Steve, that's great. Thanks for taking the time and the trouble with this. I'll try to find the time to have a look at it this weekend although I'm not sure that there are that many third-party sources to find.

[LaserDucky]

Hi, I was involved with the English Wikipedia for many years, and I can tell you this: LaserTank is not notable enough to deserve a page on the English Wikipedia. In order for things to stay on the English Wikipedia, it needs to follow these rules of thumb:


1. The subject of the article needs to be notable (which LaserTank is not)
2. Anything that needs citing needs to be cited with verifiable and trustworthy cites.
3. The page needs to contain enough information to make a decent length article. It cannot be a short article about the topic as those are stubs and the English Wikipedia are sticklers for not liking stubs.


Furthermore, if you've already tried creating the page multiple times and it's been deleted multiple times, make sure you read the deletion reason carefully as the administrators of the English Wikipedia usually leave a reason for why they deleted a page in the history of the page. They may have also tried to reach you on several occasions through your talk page, which is located off of your user page. Make sure you skim through your user talk page and make sure that no administrators have left you a note explaining why they are not allowing the article on the project.


Hope this helps,
Mike (Razorflame)


On Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 09:55:11 AM CDT, Lasertank <[email protected]> wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO WHOM CAN HELP
=====================================
Lasertank on Wikipedia

Hi Steeve
I know nothing about Wikipedia politics...
I’ll send your message to Mailchimp members may be someone may help.
Regards
Donald

From: stephen ryan
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2023 5:56 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Lasertank on Wikipedia

Hi Donald -
Hope you're doing well. Perhaps you saw my post on the forum. Not sure what to do to prevent deletion. Seems severe.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1742

Steve

[Razorflame]

Hi all, I caught wind of this because of the Mailchimp advertising messages that have been sent out. I'm glad to hear that the PROD template was deleted, but it still seems as though you are lacking the appropriate sources and citable materials that an article on the English Wikipedia needs to have in order for an article to remain on the site.

What I would suggest you do is the following: Look for anything that is trustworthy and easily citable (e.g. other encyclopedias, newspaper articles, and the such) and each assertion of facts in the article need to be cited, like a research paper.

I wish you luck!