Wikipedia talk:Deceased Wikipedians

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Archives: 1, 2, 3: 92 days

This page was nominated for deletion on 27 October 2007. The result of the discussion was Nomination withdrawn.

This page was nominated for deletion on 2 February 2009. The result of the discussion was Keep.

Note this page was also once erroneously nominated at AFD and speedily kept on procedural grounds.

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This page has archives. Sections older than 92 days may be automatically archived by when more than 4 sections are present.

Hanif Al Husaini

Hanif Al Husaini passed away on May 27th, 2024 (announcement). His account has been globally locked. dwadieff ✉ 03:38, 28 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Confronting user pages of deceased Wikipedians

This is not really a question or a request per se. It is rather just me sharing something that hit me some melancholy kind of way. I was checking for double redirects after moving Mîna Urgan, and one of the links that came up was User:Nedim Ardoğa/Articles, who was responsible for the creation of this article, and I wanted to leave a message on their talk page, only to discover that their account was locked with a note saying (Deceased user). I will be honest, that hit me like a brick for no reason whatsoever.

And so, I shall be raising a glass to all past and passed individuals who have helped further and preserve human knowledge, whether on the WMF projects, or elsewhere. I hope you will join me in your own ways, and I am grateful that some type of memorialisation of each and every Wikipedian is being done. –Konanen (talk) 22:01, 30 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, happens to me as well

Jay 💬 02:08, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Abd

It has been reported that Abd has died. They were part of the community but later banned so I don't know whether they should be listed here or not. Thryduulf (talk) 20:05, 6 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Regardless of the ban history, in terms of breakup, of the 14,000 edits (years 2007-2010), half of them were in the talk and user talk namespace, and 2,000 were in the article namespace. Jay 💬 10:11, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not just site banned, Thryduulf, but the full English: topic bans, blocks, community ban, San Fran Ban, up to and including barred from the WMF's own floorspace! And he was in the middle of suing them when he died, IIRC. All pretty specialist; the guy clearly had resilience. More seriously, since his user page still wears those banned templates, would it be possible—as a matter of taste and goodwill—to remove and replace them with {{deceased Wikipedian}}? ——Serial Number 54129 12:16, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Taste and goodwill are almost never a bad idea. We, as a community, spend too much time not making amends. Jclemens (talk) 17:09, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not certain this is the right thing to do. It may be appropriate to add the usual template (it's full-protected, so it will require an admin), but it might also be appropriate to do exactly what the template says: "Their user page is preserved", rather than "We hid stuff that shows how many problems we had with him, and which someone might need to know to understand how this relationship worked out".

On further thought, maybe the quietest thing is also the most tasteful: Manually add Category:Deceased Wikipedians to the user page and leave the rest alone. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:11, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've added that category as it is factual and relevant. This is explicitly without prejudice to anything else. Separately, I'm going to ask ca@ whether they would have any objection to removing the global ban template if we decide to restore their userpage or something like that (I don't have a strong opinion whether we should or not). Thryduulf (talk) 09:52, 8 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've just heard back from T&S who say We have no objection to whatever decision the community takes. Which means there is no barrier to us restoring their userpage and/or placing the deceased Wikipedian template if we wish to. Thryduulf (talk) 09:16, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

ThNks Thryduulf, good work. I've undone the talk page redirect and left the template, but the user page noties are the more important so I've left them for further discussion (if you think any is necessary now). Cheers, ——Serial Number 54129 09:49, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

“Category:Deceased Wikipedians” is not visible in mobile view (~60% of readers?) ...

P.S. Abd, I don’t know much about you, but yes, this world, especially this Wikipedia, is full of bullying and unfairness. I hope you can R.I.P. --Dustfreeworld (talk) 08:13, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We'd need documentation, but Abd was certainly a Wikipedian. I don't think we have any guidelines in place about bans/blocks/kitchen sinks precluding admission to this list, and I'd argue we should include even some of the most notorious Wikipedians on the list. This isn't our Hall of Fame, and Abd is part of wikihistory. If nothing else it could provide some people a bit of closure. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 13:28, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like someone updated Abd's RationalWiki entry with this. (for the avoidance of doubt, Abd disclosed his real name on his user page). — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 13:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Rhododendrites: that obituary link is 404ing for me. – dudhhr^talk_contribs^she_her 17:31, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm. Here's another. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 17:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

User:Iryna Harpy

was sick when last heard from, four years ago. I miss her. Jim.henderson (talk) 19:29, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have any specific news? If not, then Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians would be more appropriate. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:59, 6 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I had no idea it exists. Jim.henderson (talk) 20:43, 8 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Jaknouse

User:Jaknouse passed away in 2021. There is an obituary here. gnu 57 06:24, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the note. I've tagged the account and requested a global lock from the Stewards at Meta-Wiki. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:21, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics

In April 2020, at the start of COVID, I wrote a script to recorded on a weekly basis the count of {{deceased}} - based on the theory there would be a noticeable blip due to the pandemic. I never did anything with the data but it continues to run. It looks like:

2020-04-03 309
2020-04-10 310
2020-04-17 311
2020-04-24 312
...
2024-07-12 627
2024-07-19 629
2024-07-26 631

My initial theory was complicated by the fact the template could be added years after death. If anyone would like this data for whatever reason, let me know and I'll send you a copy. -- GreenC 03:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]