Talk:Luis Riba

On notability

I object to the deletion. To a certain extent, in my opinion we here deal with a matter of perception. I ignore the national background of fellow editor Fyunck(click), who proposed the deletion, but I dare to presume that he or she is not from a southern European country or from the Maghreb. I am saying this because games like the Mediterranean Games may seem a quite exotic, incidental, unimportant thing from the perspectives of, let’s say, the Brazilian common man or the South Korean common woman. However, these games are no bagatelle –at least, not in the eyes of a huge amount of people living in the corresponding participating countries. And I am having in mind the Mediterranean Games, but I think this perfectly applies to other similar games, such as the Pan American Games.

With all due respect (and I mean it), a medal of any sort at these competitions should be considered notable. By my understanding, attributing notability to gold medalist exclusively seems a little bit arbitrary. Mr Riba did not make it to the ATP Tour –that’s a fact. However, is it reasonable to link with such rigidity notability, on one hand, and reaching the ATP or the WTA tours, on the other? I honestly do not think so. With your permission, I will now bring up Greg Ouellette. I am quite a hard-core tennis fan (and probably so are you, he or she who is reading these words), but this name sounded familar to me only very vaguely until some minutes ago. Well, I suppose he is not presumed to be notable according to the standards set in this: he did not play a single ATP match (singles and doubles included), he didn’t even win an ATP Challenger title (again, singles and doubles included). But he is a bronze medalist of the 2011 Pan American Games. Isn’t such an achievement, just by itself, not enough of a feat to bestow notability on Mr Ouellette? Needless to say, all of the above applies, mutatis mutandis, to Mr Riba.

In any case, the notability is crystal-clear if we consider Mr Riba as a tennis coach. As stated in the article, Mr Riba is a former coach of Nicolás Massú, who is not only an Olympic champion, but also –and, apparently, more importantly in terms of notability, according to this– a former top-10 player.

---WTC7812 (talk) 00:28, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

I can't speak about general notability (GNG). When I look at Wikipedia:Notability (sports) I see nothing about individual players at the Pan Am games or Mediterranean games. That you'll have to take up there. I assumed that gold medal winners might make the automatic podium of being notable but other medals not so much. I never side the Mediterranean Games weren't notable, but not so sure about the athletes. And I would say no to Mr Ouellette being automatically notable for winning a bronze medal at the Pan Am games. As for his coaching, it is true the per Tennis Project guidelines if you coach someone who enters the top 10 you are a notable coach. Two things... that fact is not mentioned in the article, and was he coaching Massu when Massu was in the top 10? Riba is a player that per the ATP won a total of $938 in singles and doubles over a two-year period in the minor leagues of tennis. So he might squeak in by being a coach of a top 10 player... that will need to be proved. Otherwise he is not notable for anything tennis related, but might be notable for WP:GNG. One of the reasons I prod'd the article rather than take it to a deletion discussion. Something might always turn up. Fyunck(click) (talk) 06:03, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Fellow editor Fyunck(click):

With all due respect, I really think you give a way too excessive importance to guidelines. A notability guideline is "a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply". And, as stated in WP:Notability (sports), paragraph 3: "the failure to meet these criteria does not mean an article must be deleted". I am sorry but from both of your interventions regarding this article I infer you follow guidelines as if they were criminal codes, which obviously isn’t the case.

You keep questioning the notability of Mr Riba. However, I assume you wouldn’t question the notability of a certain Jesús Pardo. Mr Pardo, from Cuba, played a Davis Cup dead rubber in 1949 (https://www.daviscup.com/en/players/player.aspx?id=800100734). In that match, he managed to take five games from his Mexican opponent. I couldn’t find any other trace of Mr Pardo’s activity as a tennis player. ¿Is he notable? Let me presume that, to you, he is. On the contrary, Mr Riba –or Mr Ouellette– who had to defeat several opponents (an some of them, of a certain calibre) to get a medal, lack notability, from your perspective. Where is the common sense? Mr Ouellette, for instance, partnering with Nicholas Monroe, had a very tight match in the semis of the 2011 Pan American Games. They lost in two close tie-breaks to the Colombian pair. Well: those guys (J. S. Cabal and Robert Farah) are now the defending champions of Wimbledon and the US Open. The latter is currently the ATP No. 1 doubles player.

With respect to Mr Riba’s activity as a coach:

(1) “That fact is not mentioned in the article”. All men’s singles gold medalists at the Olympics (tennis was an Olympic sport from 1896 to 1924, but official rankings didn't exist at the time, so I am leaving the likes of Charles Winslow and Louis Raymond aside) have reached the top 10. To me, pointing out that Massú is an Olympic champion and omitting any mention of him once reaching the top 10 is perfectly sensible.

(2) “Was he coaching Massu when Massu was in the top 10?” This is an utterly irrelevant datum, if we stick to Tennis Project guidelines.

(3) “That will need to be proved”. That has been proved since the page was created, by means of a link to an in-depth article on Massú written by Rodrigo Sánchez Aravena and published on El Faro Deportivo, which is one of the most renowned sports online newspaper in Chile.

---WTC7812 (talk) 16:19, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

What we use the guideline for is pretty much automatic notability inclusion. If they don't fit the Nsports or Tennis Guidelines of wikipedia, then they don't warrant automatic notability inclusion. Now, there is also general notabililty (GNG) that a person could have. I did not say he didn't meet GNG. He is not notable for anything tennis project related unless he coached someone into the top 10. And yes it is relevant. Someone may have coached Federer when Federer was 9 years old and that person isn't automatically notable. For notability we need that in-depth article on Riba as a coach, not a mention in someone elses article. Fyunck(click) (talk) 18:26, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Remember also, you can remove the prod notice I put on the article at any time if you feel he is notable. That is your option per wikipedia rules. I would then need to start a formal deletion request where all fellow Wikipedians can join in to form consensus. Maybe they'll side with your view and maybe mine. No hard feelings either way. Fyunck(click) (talk) 18:45, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Hard feelings? None taken. However, my bewilderment is huge.

I do not think the word “automatic” is good friends with the common sense. At first my approach to your proposal was completely benevolent. Really. Then, after your first comment in this page, I started questioning your bona fides in the subject. I now have no doubts: your attitude is whimsical. I would like to think it is unintentionally so, but, frankly, everything suggests you are behaving in a spiteful manner. The last sentence of your second message is the icing on the cake. First Mr Riba had to have coached Mr Massú during the specific time when the latter reached the top-10. Now “we need [sic] that in-depth article on Riba as a coach, not a mention in someone elses article”. If I randomly ran into such an article, all odds say you would point out that it should at least contain a sworn declaration of Mr Massú stating something like “I swear Mr Riba was once my coach.” And if it did contain such a statement, unsurprisingly you would still note that the article should include a proper statement, like “I, Nicolás Alejandro Massú Fried, solemnly swear Luis Riba Farrés not only was my coach, but was the best coach I ever had, coached me during a crucial point of my career, and is certainly very, very notable.” This could go on ad æternum, forever and ever. Come on.

You would “start a formal deletion request” in case I erased the message at the top of the article. Really? I’m sorry, but I wonder: why this crusade against Luis Riba? It is hard for me to buy that you’re facing this as an argumentative issue. Did it become a matter of pride to you? When did that happen? Why? And why this obstinacy? I sincerely do not get it, especially coming from someone who: (i) out of this particular debate, apparently tends to act in a perfectly comprehensible fashion, and (ii) has created articles of players of in abstracto dubious notability. Let's take Róbert Varga, for instance: his biggest achievement was beating a seventeen-year-old Grigor Dimitrov in doubles. Or Juan Sebastián Vivanco, who is almost an alter ego of Jesús Pardo (see above).

"In abstracto" –I wrote those words very wittingly. Mr Varga and Mr Vivanco played Davis Cup. Therefore, they are notable. Mr Riba won a medal (a bronze medal! "wait, does that even count as a medal?") in some sixpenny games. He must be expelled from Wikipedia. I just read you once (09:34, 4 October 2019) said: ‘I’m not really partial except in following whatever our Guidelines tell us.’ Enough said.

I regret the brusqueness, but that was too much of a snow job.

---WTC7812 (talk) 22:40, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Ok you are taking this far differently than I intended. For that I am sorry. As for whimsical or spiteful, nothing could be further from the truth. It is your right as a wikipedian to pretty much remove the prod template, I instituted, at your own whim. There is no repercussion at all if you do that. If you don't remove the template, the article will be removed within 7 days of my posting it. That is your call and I have no issue with that at all. However, unless you have proof of when Luis Ripa coached Massu I will bring up a formal request to delete. Everyone can comment and for all I know most will side with his having general notability and the article will stay. I will have no problem with that either, but right now I would disagree with it. I asked around for notability guidance about the Mediterranean Games and Pan American Games and was told that not even a gold medal automatically qualifies one as notable. I was a little surprised at that but that's what fellow Wikipedian editors who handle these things told me. So I feel I'm on firm ground in that respect. And if you don't think the time period is important as to when he coached a top 10 player, you are very mistaken. As for Davis Cup being more important to tennis than the Mediterranean Games, well, you'll have to change Wikipedia Nsports and Tennis Project Guidelines... I didn't write them. As for notability in being mentioned in another person's newspaper article... my goodness you need to read Wikipedia:Notability. I didn't write that either. I won't be dragged into the gutter of your disparaging remarks towards me. If this doesn't help you understand then I can't help you and you'll have to search elsewhere for answers. Fyunck(click) (talk) 05:43, 19 April 2020 (UTC)

Please do not talk down to me. Please quit those patronising remarks. You do not need to help me understand anything, as for the moment I fortunately have no cognitive impairment. Of course: I never aspired to dragging you into any gutter. How could I? You are so above all my trifling explanations. And most importantly, you are the guardian of the Tablets of Stone. You sent me to Wikipedia:Notability; I am fine with that. Now, you certainly could, in turn, print, bind and embrace Wikipedia:The rules are principles. I reckon you keep “asserting that the technical interpretation of the policies and guidelines should override the underlying principles they express”. This practice is paradigmatic of wikilawyering. In fact, from your comments I keep deducing you completely disregard the concept of “principle”. “You'll have to change Wikipedia Nsports and Tennis Project Guidelines”. No, I do not think so. You fail to accept that, by simple analogy, the notability of a Mr Vivanco is in no way higher than that of a Mr Riba. “Davis Cup being more important to tennis than the Mediterranean Games” may be the most monumental truism I have heard in weeks. But to you, the players who competed in this Davis Cup tie (https://www.daviscup.com/en/draws-results/tie.aspx?id=M-DC-2013-G3-EUR-D-M-MKD-AZE-01) are all "automatically" “notable”, while Mr Riba is not. And this is worrisome, because you seem to be incapable of discerning the letter of the rules from their spirit.

Chances are I will indeed remove the template.

---WTC7812 (talk) 12:22, 19 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for all your warm and fuzzy sentiments, and good luck to you in all your endeavors here. Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:09, 19 April 2020 (UTC)