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Zanta Deleted from Wikipedia
12/12/06, UPDATE!: Wikipedia mods have given Zanta a proper trial, and in their wisdom have concluded that he is worthy of wiki. And so he shall remain, Zanta. YES YES YES!!!
Zanta (geez, 46 comments?!?) may be a big part of Toronto counter-culture, but it seems that the Wiki-police are doubting his significance. As of today the former (and well-written) Wikipedia entry on Zanta has been removed and is in Wikipedia's "Deletion Review Queue", citing Zanta as not notable outside of the GTA and therefore not wiki-worthy.
The Wiki-Admin that chose to delete Zanta was Alkivar, a local DJ from a small town in Maine. Among Alkivar's arguments against Zanta's published notariety (The Toronto Star has published articles on him) - "It doesnt really count if its only the local/regional paper. The local newspaper in my town of residence (circulation around 35,000 copies) has had 12 stories in the past 10 years with my name in them, and 1 of those 12 was entirely about my business as a DJ... does that make me notable? I think you'll find just about everyone would agree thats a no." First - comparing a small town newspaper with 35,000 circulation to The Toronto Star (Canada's largest national newspaper) is ludicrous, and second - - bitter much?!
The debate is raging as other users are voicing counter-opinions on the Zanta deletion review log (a fun read, promise), where it has been countered that "the scope of Wikipedia is large enough to allow, for instance, notable statues, notable landmarks, and other such features of any city their own pages. Any tourist or torontonian encountering this loud, santa-hatted downtown fixture, clad in shorts in the dead of winter, would find him puzzling enough that an explanation from an encyclopedia would be of great value. People years from now encountering photographic evidence of this man would also appreciate it".
People with Wikipedia user profiles can voice their opinions on the deletion via the site's deletion review guidelines. It's a little bit comical that the wiki-bulldogs have sunk their teeth so deeply into this "controversy", but frankly I dig Zanta and hope the poor guy gets to stay.
(Photo above by Wordfreak. Think Zanta's not famous? 267 flickr photos disagree.)
Discussion
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And really, this is less about Zanta in particular than it is about one guy thinking that, because something doesn't have significance in small town Maine, it must not be significant at all. I used to refer to Wikipedia often because of the great variety of esoteric entries it held.. so this is really dissapointing.
cheers
Toronto Star. September 12, 2006, Section: Entertainment, Page C3.
"So close to the stars, yet so far away; Tiny Penelope transfixes crowd Going with the Flow nets no result" by Jen Gerson
I was on the outside, but not without company. Street personality Zanta regaled me with tales of stalking Cruz around Yorkville while trying to get in a photo. "You a reporter?" he asked. "I'm a f -ing superstar, you know?" I was trying hard not to know.
What kind of person finds this sort of behaviour funny? Or would defend his 'right' to harrass pedestrians this way? I'm all in favour of individual liberty and free expression but this crosses the line.
Who cares if he's in Wikipedia or not?!
On a brighter note, I like the blog--just found it a few weeks ago.
P.S. to Tina - sorry to hear that one post now makes us "sux" in your eyes. We'll strive to change that going forward.
Heres what you can do, if you want to help save the article:
- Give us a picture that you've taken of Zanta. Note, you'll have to release it to a "free license" like Creative Commons or GFDL. Contact nicholasmoreau@gmail.com if you'd be able to provide an image.
- Edit the article be better written, better sourced, etc. This always helps.
Nick
And by "famous", I was not equating fame with "importance." Zanta may have more fame/notoriety than a city mayor, but their relative importance does not = fame. So while I understand the point of your examples, I think they're off the mark a bit.
Thanks for keeping us updated, it's appreciated. And I hope the attention & comments here help support our general view that Zanta is significant to Toronto.
The great thing to come of this is that all the attention has already resulted in substantial improvements and expansions to the article by several concerned and responsible editors.
Everybody wins! yes yes yes
WE SAW YOU DURING MY BANDS SHOW!
YOU WERE SMOKING A JOINT AND DOING UPSIDE DOWN PUSHUPS ON AN ELECTRIC STREET CAR!!!
YOU ARE A FUCKING LEGEND!!!
FUCK YOU ALL WHO DONT APPRECIATE THE GREATNESS OF ZANTA!!!!!!!!!!!
Any fans of women's hockey sure have, seeing that she's the commissioner of the National Women's Hockey League, the first organization not exclusively for men to have their award permanently displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
With that being said, I agree. I live downtown, and until reading this, I had no idea the guy was called Zanta! I need this sort of information from wikipedia.
On the street.
Dressed like a fairy tale King (robe, crown, almost like the Burger King commercials, but less plastic). He would stand on corners, hooting at passing cars, handing out flyers and even custom bumperstickers (!) with messages like "Help Slay the Dragon of Racism" and "Love Cures All"
He became a widely known fixture around town, "King Love."
When he died, he had a front page article and a huge funeral.
A google search brings him up as the #2 hit for "King Love"
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Bistro/8438/kinglove.html
On a more serious note, I fail to understand how the small perceived number of interested parties should affect a Wikipedia article, unless there is a bandwidth/storage issue. In that case, I could see removing images, but there is no reason to delete articles, no matter how unimportant they seem.
Regarding Steve B.'s comment, we do have to establish notability, even though bandwidth is nearly limitless. Everything on Wikipedia must be referenced to legit sources.
If no one (ie media, prominent websites, etc) of any note has discussed you, and the only way we can verify "facts" is through MySpaces and blogs, that's when we back off, as there's quite a large possibility the information is unverifiable.
In a case like Zanta, there are many sources to verify the info with, thus, he's a keeper.
people think that he is crazy but they are just mistaken by him.
he is a friendly man who just wants to make friends he helps support many causes and he has made a difference around toronto and it is a shame for him to not be recognised.
he makes us smile and we adore him for it.
Bring him back to Wiki!
YESYESYES!!!
whos with me?
He is such a nice and funny guy...he's HARMLESS!
He's special and should definitly be recognized in wikipedia....taking him out is an insult to Zanta and all of Toronto.
Toronto is not a small town in a rural area, this is the largest city in Canada, the second largest nation in the world, and Zanta might well be more recognizable to tourists from around the world and torontonians alike then the mayor of the city is.
I believe in Wikipedia's mission, to provide a free online encyclopedia by everyone available to everyone, however I find Wikipedia to be shooting itself in the foot with the removal of Zanta's part in the site.
I LOVE YOU ZANTA!!
-alyssa jones
This administrator was unaware that Zanta was well-known in Toronto, simply because the article did not state how infamous he was. If the article originally was written with how infamous he was, none of this would have happened.
Additionally, the deletion of the article on Zanta was not in any way related to David Zancai's performances as the character. Wikipedia doesn't make any judgement calls on the validity or merit of topics.
"Zanta Deleted, then Undeleted from Wikipedia"
:)
Thank you, Nick, for your efforts on Zanta's (and Toronto's!) behalf. And thanks for your patience in dealing with comments to Wikipedia generated by this discussion - I think it's evident how important Zanta is to Toronto.
We'll quiet down now ;)
all zanta wants to do is make people laugh, which he is managing to do with many people. he isnt trying to freak people out, and he isnt crazy, hes just a bodybuiler/ entertainer with a story that obviously you arent educated about
ZANTA IS LIFEE <3
WE SALUTE TO YOU ZANTAAAA!
Everyone knows that.
my father as you know zanta told me to put a comment so whats up yall???
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