Q: There are many "rules" associated with this page. Why?
A: Recent deaths is one of the most-viewed articles in Wikipedia. The article Deaths in 2014 received more than 21 million views [1]. It is important that such a high-profile article has factual information presented in a consistent format.
Q: Why are there redlinks (deceased subject with no Wikipedia article) listed in the article?
A: Many notable people die before a Wikipedia article is written about them. The regular editors of this page have agreed that a death notice without an article may remain for one month after the death, so that an article may develop. If there is no article after one month, then the death notice is removed from the list.
Q: Why are dead animals sometimes listed in the article?
A: Many animals (like Lonesome George) achieve notability similar to humans during their life. This article reports the death of any notable biological life, not just humans.
Q: I read on Twitter that a notable person has just died. Can I add their death to the list?
A: Material about living persons (or recently deceased) that is unsourced or poorly sourced is removed immediately and without waiting for discussion (WP:BLP). Blogs and social media sites are generally considered to be unreliable. Every death listed must be supported by a reference from a reliable, independent source.
Q: A new month started five days ago. Why are deaths in the old month still appearing here?
A: It takes some time for deaths to be reported in the media and published here. Editors have agreed to keep the old month listed in the article for seven days after the new month begins. After that time, the "old" deaths are transferred to the article Deaths in <old month name>.
Q: Why is there sometimes a date without entries at the top of the page?
A: A new date is added when a new day starts in the Eastern Hemisphere. A relevant time clock can be found here.
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This article has been viewed enough times in a single year to make it into the Top 50 Report annual list. This happened in 2015, when it received 27,885,484 views.
This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report49 times. The weeks in which this happened:
The following discussion is an archived record of a request for comment. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
Should "Deaths in 20xx" pages list manners of death (suicide, homicide, accident and natural), if known, in place of an unknown cause? This is not asking whether we should complement known causes ("suicide by hanging"). Just regarding standalone manners. InedibleHulk(talk)21:32, 28 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
"Suicides": yes, regardless of method. "Homicides": no, method required. "Natural causes": no, too broad. Generic "illness": see "Natural causes". Death by vehicle: traffic collision, unless by train/plane crash. Any listed "accidental" death causes are too Final Destination for me. Cars veering off roads, guns killing people, houses falling on witches are not "accidents". How many times does this discussion need broaching? It's all (if known) or nothing, in my opinion. Coming here to read people getting twisted on improper listings every day or so is aggravating. — Wyliepedia05:56, 29 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
By "Deaths in 20xx", I literally mean till 2099. Whatever most resembles consensus when this is done shall become law, and we can all settle into this theoretically perfect compromise for 84 years. Nice and simple. InedibleHulk(talk)06:13, 29 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm in favour of listing whatever the source says of the manner or cause. There is a big difference between dying a natural death, committing suicide and being murdered, and if all we have to go with is the manner, then I'd prefer it. At least when it comes to suicides, executions and murders. Nukualofa (talk) 16:42, 29 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No standalone manners The cause is the distinctive, important bit. When a reader reads "hanging", "kidney failure" or "gunshot to head", they get a (fairly) clear picture of what went down. Adding a manner can help make those clearer, but a manner alone is too vague, and likely to make more readers guess the wrong cause than the right, just for the abundance of possibilities. Suicide is no better than the others, in that regard. I'm OK with exceptions for euthanized horses, because sources seem to never say how that's done. InedibleHulk(talk)21:15, 30 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
List manner of hastened death such as suicide, execution or euthanasia, whether the exact cause is known or not. Such deaths are generally more noteworthy than deaths by illness or misadventure. We could add "homicide" to that list, but that is bound to bring on further argument about homicide v. murder (the latter being a legal decision and not just an act). In summary, I'm supporting what we do at the moment. WWGB (talk) 05:31, 1 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We get enough conflicting MODs here from several outlets, some of which cite Twits and FB, one of which is now an acceptable cite template. I say, as per all the hundreds of other past discussions, if there's vagueness of C/MOD to bring individual ones here for purview. The only ones I see that get removed/altered with regularity are "illness" and "accident". Seems stable to me. — Wyliepedia07:18, 1 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's broken insofar as the top of the page tells us to list causes, but some regulars regularly add some manners and remove some others. Steeped in tradition or something, I'm just looking to discern which (if any) are OK and which aren't, so we can accurately tell newer visitors what a typical entry includes. InedibleHulk(talk)20:13, 4 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Poorly formed RFC - No specific opinion - However, causes of death should be listed when known in enough detail to be informative, which is currently what we do. That is, "natural causes" is not a cause. Suicide or homicide is a cause, but the means of homicide should be listed. "Accident" is not a useful cause, but "car crash" is. What we do is all right. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:37, 6 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
