Greatcoat restored on Wikipedia

By John Freeman on February 28, 2007

I’m delighted to report that The Really Heavy Greatcoat entry on Wikipedia has been restored. While there was apparently no consensus on the debate about its inclusion (now closed), Wikipedia’s editors ruled in favour of restoration on the grounds that, as I pointed out, it had wrongly been labeled “non notable”, stating the noticability tag had been applied incorrectly.

“Noticability should be a tool to keep self promotion and the like out of Wikipedia, not to delete things just because editors have not heard of it or can’t find information about it on the internet,” ruled Martin Wisse, who has a great blog at www.cloggie.org/wissewords.

” A comic strip which has been around for twenty years is noticable enough to be included. In general, if editors are unfamiliar with certain areas, it behooves them to err on the side of caution rather than to decide from a short google search something should be removed. “

My thanks to Martin and everyone who pitched in to support the RHG. Artist Nick Miller tells me our special two-page 20th anniversary strip is almost finished, and that should be posted next week.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.