Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Webcomics
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This is a collection of discussions on the deletion of articles related to Webcomics. It is one of many deletion lists coordinated by WikiProject Deletion sorting. Anyone can help maintain the list on this page.
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Archived discussions (starting from September 2007) may be found at:| watch |
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- Related deletion sorting
Webcomics
Town Called Dobson
- Town Called Dobson (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View AfD | edits since nomination)
- (Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL)
Doesn't meet WP:WEB. The article has been essentially unreferenced for almost 20 years, the one citation is to a website that published the webcomic for a while. No actual references with WP:SIGCOV could be found in my WP:BEFORE searches, only a false positive in Google books, nothing at all in my news archive searches. Here2rewrite (talk) 18:19, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
- Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Webcomics and North Carolina. Here2rewrite (talk) 18:19, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
- Delete - Ref doesn't even work on my windows 11. A ref, but this is almost like WP:NOTNEWS at this point.
- Jetwindy-☎️-✈️ 18:42, 11 April 2026 (UTC)
- I added Archive.org to links of where Town Called Dobson has appeared and was fundamental with the community that was opposed to the Iraq/Afghanistan war. It was also fundamental to the LBGTQ+ community as it was the featured daily editorial cartoon for the site Bilerco Project. Bilerico was the most culturally influential LGBTQ+ site on the internet at that time and important discussions arose from TCD on Bilerico. TCD was also one of the first to support soldier communities as they were being used as puppets in Bush's wars. Then there was his series on Black History. Here is a third party posting with commentary about a specific strip here did.
- Here is the commentary I found on Google...
- http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2008/07/things-you-should-read.html
- Here is a link to the article on Archive.org (with strip broken)...
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080413002139/http://www.towncalleddobson.com/?p=1109
- Here is a link from Daily Kos with the strip intact...
- https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/4/4/490032/-
- The last comment from that page says it all to me, "The diaries you are posting, and the work you are doing, are an important resource for me and my work." Apparently it was notable for someone. My personal feeling is this is just another effort to delete safe speech for Black, Queer and other marginal communities.
- It was nominated for the We Blog Awards in 2006...
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070128023840/http://2006.weblogawards.org/2006/11/nominations_best_comics_strip.php#more
- It made the top 10 finalists 2 years later...
- https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2009/01/05/comic-strip-finalists-announced-for-weblogs-award/
- Even the Native Americans noted their presence in Town Called Dobson...
- https://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/38
- Here is a quote from your oft-cited WP:WEB link, "When evaluating the notability of web content, please consider whether it has had any significant or demonstrable effects on culture, society, entertainment, athletics, economies, history, literature, science, or education. High-traffic websites are likely to have more readily available verifiable information from reliable sources that provide evidence of notability. However, smaller websites can also be notable. Arbitrary standards should not be used to create a bias favoring larger websites." Certainly TCD was a small site that was featured on many of the bigger blogs of the day. But many of those blogs have died and contents are unsearchable with a scattering of saved pages on Archive.org. It isn't just the cartoons, but the written word itself.
- If anything, I think this entry keeps coming up for notability violations is because all the sites that talked about them, mostly blogs, have died. It seems like it is happening too much, especially to marginalized communities.
- The bigger comic strips are disappearing from our history also. Kudzu, for example, barely rates 8 paragraphs here on Wiki.
- But if you want to look farther, here is a PhD thesis that used a Town Called Dobson comic strip on the effectiveness of body armor...
- https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/nk322g52d
- Here is a mention on IMDB...
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4112953/news/
- And since the article it was quoting from is dead, here is the Archive.org link...
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110924021926/http://www.afterelton.com/meme-09-20-2011
- Even Wikipedia references TCD as an example of a webcomic...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_fiction
- My greater point is, the proof of TCD's influence on culture, politics, and art has been deleted because of the temporary nature of all content on the Internet. Comicbookgrrl (talk) 01:33, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Politics-related deletion discussions. WCQuidditch ☎ ✎ 01:34, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Concerning the thesis, every TCD strip was followed by an op-ed article. You can see the specific entry here...
- https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/5/22/337219/-
- It was not scanned by Archive.org Comicbookgrrl (talk) 23:17, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Concerning the Bits of News article, it is proof that the work of TCD was culturally significant enough to be included in an anthology of liberal thought against Bush's Iraq war. As far as I know Storm Bear was not a staffer for Art Of A Liberal Frame, but one of the contributors. Comicbookgrrl (talk) 23:22, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- The inclusion in the WeBlog Awards was a huge thing back in the day. You seem to dismiss blogging influence on the culture of the day. Let me quote again from WP:WEB, "However, smaller websites can also be notable. Arbitrary standards should not be used to create a bias favoring larger websites." TCD, and blogs in general, had tremendous cultural influence during the Bush administration. I continue to put forward that TCD, has "significant or demonstrable effects on culture," especially to the Black, Queer, and Native American communities. Comicbookgrrl (talk) 23:30, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- The inclusion in the WeBlog Awards was a huge thing back in the day. You seem to dismiss blogging influence on the culture of the day. Let me quote again from WP:WEB, "However, smaller websites can also be notable. Arbitrary standards should not be used to create a bias favoring larger websites." Comicbookgrrl (talk) 23:31, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Delete – I've done a dive through the sources Comicbookgrrl have posted above, and checked my own bibliography. Sadly there's no mention in my books on webcomics, so we're limited to online sources. I appreciate the complete overview Comicbookgrrl gives above, but most of it is not usable for Wikipedia's purposes as per WP:RS. A few of them are directly primary sources (such as the "Native American Netroots" article), others are user-generated media like blog posts and comments. As for articles that might match our independent source policy:
- Bits of News is on the article itself, but it's only referring to StormBear as one of their own staff members. Not usable.
- The Daily Cartoonist announces the finalist nominees of the Weblog Awards, which is a small something.
- AfterElton (now TheBacklot.com) links to that day's specific strip as part of that day's cultural update, but doesn't provide commentary.
- Tsun-Yin Tung's thesis on body armor, bafflingly uses Town Called Dobson as a source. Regardless of whether this can be considered a "reliable source", it would not be useful for our encyclopedia-building project, and as such doesn't have much baring.
- Wikipedia is currently sadly not the place to cover this webcomic, as we could write very little about it without resorting to original research/using primary sources or user-generated content. We are not a secondary source ourselves, but I hope more secondary sources will cover the work. ~Maplestrip/Mable (chat) 07:18, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Comment Yeah the sources mentioned are passing mentions or random old blogs, user-edited sites like IMDB, a master's thesis, the only one which looks notable is an article by the webcomic's author in Daily Kos. None seem like reliable sources under WP:RS policy, and they don't actually cover this webcomic in a way we could use to write an article, most are just passing mentions. I notice the webcomic doesn't seem to be documented on archive.org or other Wikis, which don't have Wikipedia's sourcing-based policies. It would take some work but there definitely are ways to avoid losing history, and Wikipedia was never meant to be the first stop for documenting history anyway. --Here2rewrite (talk) 12:16, 12 April 2026 (UTC)
- Here is the Archive.org link. It is like you aren't even trying.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/http://www.towncalleddobson.com Comicbookgrrl (talk) 23:06, 12 April 2026 (UTC)