This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record.
The result of the debate was ambiguous.
I count 15 "delete" votes, 8 "keep" votes (9 anonymous or very new user's votes were discounted) and 3 comments that were too ambiguous to call.
Reviewing the content and the comments below, I find 1) an argument that the article is lexical rather than encyclopedic and 2) an argument that if verified, the contents of the article might form the basis for a new article at the title ROFL Attack. (An article by that title does now exist but was apparently created by cut-and-paste during the discussion period.) The facts supporting the first argument were never disputed. The "keep" voters instead expressed their dissent with the policy that Wikipedia is not a dictionary and argued to keep despite the policy. (Wikipedia has an admittedly inconsistent precedent on that question.)
I find the content related to the word and it's derivation to be both unverified and more appropriate to Wiktionary than to Wikipedia and hence deletable. However, because content from this article was used to create a separate article, I am going to exercise my discretion to call this decision as a "keep as redirect" in order to preserve the attribution history. Rossami (talk) 00:06, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Non-notable forumcruft. — Phil Welch 01:49, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Funny but not-notable. Delete--EatAlbertaBeef 02:08, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete I'm pretty sure this has been deleted before, maybe under a slightly different name. --Xcali 02:27, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete - Maybe the other one was something more along the lines of "mayo" as in roflMAO...I have the same suspicion. --Barfooz (talk) 02:49, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete. I believe it was lollerskates, which was unfortunately merged with LOL. These are just silly... you can append or prepend just about anything to LOL or ROFL to get "humor." AиDя01DTALKEMAIL 04:26, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)
- Delete non notable. JamesBurns 05:24, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep Notable subculture topic. LouieS 5:26 11 Jun 2005
- Keep, I challenge Android79 to find a more popular non-acronym affix for ROFL. Kappa 06:32, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep. This article carries the same level of notability as many of the Internet memes that have separate pages listed on that topic's category page. --Dachannien 12:18, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Comment. I'd so love to delete all this trivial crap, but the is a precedent for keeping it. — Chameleon 12:55, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- See also: Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Lollersk8s, Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Lollerskates, Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/"Lolz Sauce", Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/WJOWSA. Uncle G 13:36, 2005 Jun 11 (UTC)
- An encyclopaedia article should not be lexicographic. The disputed etymologies of the word "roflcopter" and links to related words belong in Wiktionary:roflcopter. Encyclopaedia articles should be about people/concepts/places/events/things. The only actual things that I can find that are roflcopters are the animated GIF (linked to from the article) and the element of the ROFL Attack game. But note that there are quite a lot of these GIFs. Do we want individual perpetual-stub (1 sentence + GIF) lollercoaster, lollerbate, roflcraft, fuboat, lolls-royce, steamloller, lollerbate, lmaonade, maplol syrup, and wftcar articles on each individual animated GIF? Or do we want a general article that covers all animated GIFs that mimic animated ASCII art and that parody Internet slang (which, presuming that this one web site is not the sum-total of the genre, could, in contrast, be expanded from a stub)? If this one web site is not the sum-total of the genre (At the moment roflcopter.com. has no actual content, and thecrunge.net. has DNS problems and cannot be reached.), this article should be renamed to some more appropriate title (Animated GIF of Internet slang?), and refactored so that it can expand to cover the genre instead of just one individual picture from the genre. Furthermore: Most of this article appears to be about a game called ROFL Attack, and not about roflcopters at all. A random sampling of the Google Web search results indicates that it's actually the game that is the Internet phenomenon, not the word. If this one web site is the sum-total of the animation genre, then this article should be renamed to ROFL Attack. Uncle G 13:36, 2005 Jun 11 (UTC)
- I did the same thing with Notable lines in the Star Wars series (saving "I have a bad feeling about this" from otherwise certain doom). The difference is that I've tried to show with each line listed in that article why it's notable. Animated GIFs of Internet slang aren't notable together or separately--they are forumcruft. — Phil Welch 00:29, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- They are together if they have become an animation genre. As I said, this is predicated on whether this one web site is the sum-total of the animation genre. There's also the point that I made that there is a game here, ROFL Attack, that is distinct from the animated GIFs. Uncle G 01:22, 2005 Jun 12 (UTC)
- I did the same thing with Notable lines in the Star Wars series (saving "I have a bad feeling about this" from otherwise certain doom). The difference is that I've tried to show with each line listed in that article why it's notable. Animated GIFs of Internet slang aren't notable together or separately--they are forumcruft. — Phil Welch 00:29, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete - NN --JiFish(Talk/Contrib) 15:13, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete Not notable... --Phroziac 17:35, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep Notable in subculture. --Eszett 18:17, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- What subculture? — Phil Welch 00:29, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- The internet subculture. I have seen this on many sites, and I have also seen a fair number of derivative works based of this meme in particular. --Eszett 04:49, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- What internet subculture? I was unaware that the billion-some internet users were all members of the same subculture. Or it is some obscure webforum subculture that you arrogantly presume to be the entire internet? — Phil Welch 05:03, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- It certainly isn't 'obscure webforum subculture', I have heard the term used in everyday speech by everyday Internet users. Just because a certain class of Internet users find nothing notable about it on Google does not mean that it isn't well-known. --Eszett 01:01, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- "I have heard the term used in everyday speech" is a lexicographic argument (and an unverifiable one, at that) for keeping an article about a word in a dictionary. Now please address this article, which, being an encyclopaedia article, has to deal with people/places/concepts/events/things — namely roflcopters, animated GIFs, and a game. Please explain which of those three you assert to be notable, and why. Uncle G 01:59, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)
- I assert that the roflcopter is notable enough to have its own article. It has evolved beyond mere forumcruft; right now it occupies a precarious position between widespread acknowledgement and the most known of obscurity. Like any fad on the internet, it is impressioned onto more people every day and thus should become a growing trend. I don't know of any restrictions on Wikipedia for growing trends or internet memes. --Eszett 04:17, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- "I have heard the term used in everyday speech" is a lexicographic argument (and an unverifiable one, at that) for keeping an article about a word in a dictionary. Now please address this article, which, being an encyclopaedia article, has to deal with people/places/concepts/events/things — namely roflcopters, animated GIFs, and a game. Please explain which of those three you assert to be notable, and why. Uncle G 01:59, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)
- It certainly isn't 'obscure webforum subculture', I have heard the term used in everyday speech by everyday Internet users. Just because a certain class of Internet users find nothing notable about it on Google does not mean that it isn't well-known. --Eszett 01:01, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- What internet subculture? I was unaware that the billion-some internet users were all members of the same subculture. Or it is some obscure webforum subculture that you arrogantly presume to be the entire internet? — Phil Welch 05:03, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- The internet subculture. I have seen this on many sites, and I have also seen a fair number of derivative works based of this meme in particular. --Eszett 04:49, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- What subculture? — Phil Welch 00:29, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- keep Notable. 16,100 responses in google. The fact that all of you feel that it is childish does not mean it should be removed. I know many people use wikipedia specifically to find out information about internet fads and occurences such as roflcopter. To remove it would be stupid. — (Unsigned comment by 70.104.69.243; user's 1st edit.)
- Keep This is a significant part of internet subculture. — (Unsigned comment by Cashcow; user's 6th edit.)
- Delete For internet phenomena, the Google bar is much higher, because the internet is likely the sole source of evidence for significance -- 739 unique hits, 16000 total hits does not meet that burden; therefore, not notable. Xoloz 03:38, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep This is a very notable area of subculture. — (Unsigned comment by 68.46.115.63; user's 7th edit.)
- Delete per Xoloz carmeld1 23:10, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep Notable. freestylefrappe 01:10, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
- What is notable? The GIFs or the game? Uncle G 01:59, 2005 Jun 13 (UTC)
- Keep The animation is pretty notable (my math teacher even referred to it on a test once...) and i think is probably just as well known as Homestar Runner or other internet phenomenom. Sasquatch′↔Talk↔Contributions 06:30, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
- Delete. IIRC this was deleted either as roflcopter, rolfcopters, ROFLcopter or ROFLcopters some time ago, long enough that the deleted history would've been purged. -Sean Curtin 07:22, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
- Delete, nonsense. Radiant_>|< 12:52, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)
- Keep Very informative. -- (Unsigned comment by 82.69.115.21)
- Keep notable. 165.247.109.196 23:39, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC) — (165.247.109.196's 1st edit.)
- [Vote table removed. Please do not refactor the discussion into lists or tables of votes.]
Keep - It will be a sad day for history if this article is deleted. It is a shame that all of you who demonize elements of pop-culture like the ROFLCopter hold so much power. As members of the human race it is our responsibility to keep Wikipedia full of as much useful content as it can hold. What is a parent supposed to tell his/her child when the child is unable to learn about the origins of the ROFLCopter? Surely they could never tell the child of the attrocity that occured in the deletion of the article, for that would forever scar the child. If this article is deleted I hope you all feel the great shame that you should feel for taking two buckets overflowing with knowledge from the fountain of knowledge, instead of just one. - ASI (6-13-05) —(Duplicate vote by User:68.46.115.63.)- Keep notable memo. Grue 13:19, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete. Another case of a few people finding something they like on the internet and pretending that it was an important step in the development of humankind. Indrian 07:41, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)
- Exucse me Indrian, but if your going to create a world knoledge base you have to include everything, even if you don't think it has any "value" in terms of the philosophical progress of humanity. The fact of the matter is tens of thousands of people have seen it, and that means it garners mentioning. --LouieS 08:47, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep or merge w/LOL or, perhaps List of LOL Variants or something similar. We'd be lax if we didn't keep these various LOL variants here. --Badlydrawnjeff 14:05, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep Phil and Indrian are stuffy bastards. I love coming here to find out the origins of the semi-meaningless slang terms that make up 50% of my everyday speech. --K.K. 15:29, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- User's first and second edit. Also see Wikipedia:No personal attacks — Phil Welch 23:58, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- ... and of course Wikipedia is not a dictionary of slang. Uncle G 23:15, 2005 Jun 16 (UTC)
- User's first and second edit. Also see Wikipedia:No personal attacks — Phil Welch 23:58, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Delete. Most of the claims on the article are unsourced and unverified. The first link on given in references tries to hijack your browser's start page. Quale 19:15, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep, or at least merge into LOL (Internet slang). I've seen this and variants on it in several online communities. —Brent Dax 08:03, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- KEEP - Very funny and also notable. — (Unsigned comment by 24.16.152.241; user's 1st edit.)
- Merge or create another article called "list of variants of LOL" (or something less awkward). I agree with Badlydrawnjeff and others in saying that this is notable, yet not notable enough to have its own article mysekurity 21:57, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- Keep or merge with LOL. People still run around saying "roflcopter" and "lollerskates" (usually sarcastically) on EFnet.--Jack (Cuervo) 15:13, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
roflcopter was a flash game. everyone knows it. it has its origins and should be linked properly.