Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Boston Gentlemen's Driving Club

:{{la|Boston Gentlemen's Driving Club}} – (View AfDView log){{•}} {{plainlink|1=http://toolserver.org/~betacommand/reports/afd/{{urlencode:Boston Gentlemen's Driving Club}}.html|2=Afd statistics}}

:({{Find sources|Boston Gentlemen's Driving Club}})

I do not believe this, at least insofar as it claims to be about a present-day organization. The club certainly used to exist: here are plenty of Ghits, but they all date from over 100 years ago, or are WP mirrors. Two versions of the article were created by SPAs; the first was deleted A7, and then this one was created. I told the author on 26 May that better references would be needed for notability; none were provided, but four days later, on [http://codeflux.com/exec/tools/?method=whois&query=bostondrivingclub.com&host= 30 May], a single-page [http://www.bostondrivingclub.com/ website] was set up for the Club on the Google Sites hosting service.

This smells to me like a hoax or prank. The website doesn't look like that of an old and prestigious club. The first, deleted, version of the article included dubious, unsourced statements like: "The membership is very exclusive, and almost secretive. Much like a Skull and Bones society, rumours exist that some of Boston and Hartford,Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Islands' underworld was run through the club."

The alternative is that the club really continued to exist after about 1906, but became so secretive that it suddenly stopped leaving any trace, until in 2011 it suddenly decided it would like to be in Wikipedia and have a website. The trouble is, you can't be that secretive and be notable.

I considered whether it would be possible to make this an article about the real, 1900-era club; but (a) there isn't enough information, (b) that would help the pranksters with whatever game they are playing. JohnCD (talk) 21:14, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

• The real, founded in 1899, driving club was called the Gentlemen's Driving Club of Boston anyway ({{ISBN|9781110329441}} pp. 137). I see that we have no article on driving clubs, a subject that extends from Boston to Bensington in sources. This article is unverifiable, and outright contradicted by the history books. And that's setting aside the blatant evidence that this is a hoax in the fact that the versions of the article created by {{user|BOSTONgentlemensClub}} and {{user|Bosgent}}, a mere three days apart, don't agree on the type of driving being performed. Delete. Uncle G (talk) 21:56, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
• There was such a driving club once. See [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00810F73A5F12738DDDAC0994D0405B828CF1D3], [http://data.genealogytoday.com/search/Boston_Gentlemen's_Driving_Club_1906_Membership.html], [http://books.google.ca/books?id=e15NAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Boston+Gentlemen's+Driving+Club%22&dq=%22Boston+Gentlemen's+Driving+Club%22&source=bl&ots=2wIPXBDvv_&sig=SK7CEEtgmHdNgfb5MtlGIDkmZyI&hl=en&ei=ienFTObgCYKingeX1_jbCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBg]. But since these are the only sources to have survived, and have nothing to do with the current article. Delete Aymatth2 (talk) 20:43, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Massachusetts-related deletion discussions. —JohnCD (talk) 20:30, 26 October 2010 (UTC)
• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Organizations-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 02:16, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

:The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.