Misplaced Pages

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This page documents an English Misplaced Pages policy.It describes a widely accepted standard that editors should normally follow, though exceptions may apply. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.

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This page in a nutshell: Deletion is performed by administrators based on policy, not personal likes and dislikes There are three main processes for deleting articles —- other types of deletion have similar processes Articles that can be improved should be edited or tagged, not nominated for deletion

Template:Policylist Deletion

The Misplaced Pages deletion policy describes how material which does not meet the relevant content criteria is identified and removed from Misplaced Pages.

All text created in the Misplaced Pages main namespace is subject to several important rules covering criteria for articles (what Misplaced Pages is not), encyclopedic quality (verifiability and original research), editorial approach (neutral point of view), as well as the Misplaced Pages copyright policy. Articles and text which are capable of meeting these should usually be remedied by editing, but content which fails inclusion criteria for Misplaced Pages, is incapable of verification with reputable sources, or is in breach of copyright policy, is usually deleted.

Deletion of a Misplaced Pages article removes the current version and all previous versions from view. Unlike page blanking, which can be performed (or reverted) by any user, deletion can be performed only by administrators. In the normal operations of Misplaced Pages, more than one thousand articles are deleted each day, either summarily or after discussion, in accordance with a deletion process that is open to all users.

This page describes how articles which are believed to be suitable for deletion should be handled, explains the various deletion options and processes, and summarizes a number of common problems with Misplaced Pages articles that may call for deletion as well as alternatives to deletion.

• For deletion due to copyright issues, when and how this should be done, and alternatives, see: Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems.

{{db|...}}
{{subst:prod|...}}
{{subst:afd}}

Three common tags typed to propose that
an entry on Misplaced Pages be deleted

• For a guide to deletion discussions, especially if your content is listed for deletion, see Misplaced Pages:Guide to deletion.

• For the administrators' deletion guide, see Misplaced Pages:Deletion guidelines for administrators.

Background

Anyone except a blocked user is welcome to participate in nominating articles for deletion or discussion of current nominations. Participants in the deletion process should read (and be familiar with) the core Misplaced Pages policies of Verifiability, No Original Research and Neutral Point of View first, since deletion is based upon policy and not personal likes and dislikes.

They should also bear in mind what Misplaced Pages is not, and not abuse the deletion processes.

Finally, it's worth noting that (as with all Misplaced Pages consensus decisions) the purpose of a discussion is to bring out a "sense of the community" and the valid points for or against each view. So deletion is not a strict "count of votes", but rather a judgement based upon experience and taking into account the policy-related points made by those contributing.

Deletion processes

There are three main processes for deleting articles, in order:

Process	Usage	How to do it
Speedy deletion (SD)	Pages that are suitable for immediate deletion and which can obviously be deleted on sight (see criteria for speedy deletion; examples include patent nonsense, advertising, pure vandalism and certain housekeeping situations).	Flag the article for speedy deletion using a deletion template, e.g. {{db|Reason}}, {{db-nonsense}}, {{db-vandalism}}, {{db-author}}.
Proposed deletion	Articles whose deletion should be uncontroversial but which don't meet the "utter rubbish" criteria for speedy deletion. This is often used for articles which appear to have genuine content but which the deleter feels are not suitable content for Misplaced Pages, such as advertising, vanity articles, and the like.	Flag with {{subst:prod|Reason}} which will also place it into Category:Proposed deletion; if the deletion is not contested by anyone for five days it can be deleted at an administrator's discretion. Contested prods may be moved to AFD for fuller discussion.
Articles for deletion (AFD)	A five-day public debate and discussion on the merits of the article and its best treatment. Applicable to all articles where deletion is unsure, seriously contested, or may need debate, and all borderline or controversial cases.	List page on Articles for deletion, following the process on that page.

Other types of deletion have their own similar processes, described on pages such as:

Collectively, these processes, together with Articles for deletion, are sometimes referred to as the XfD processes.

Problem articles where deletion may be needed

Alternatives to deletion

Merging

Articles that are short and unlikely ever to be expanded can often be merged into a larger article, or list article, that gives context. For instance, information about the family of a celebrity that is not otherwise famous is generally merged into the article on the celebrity. Information about minor characters or recurring jokes in works of fiction is generally merged into a list article.

If two pages are duplicates or otherwise redundant, one can likewise be merged and redirected to the other. Generally the shorter or newer article is so merged.

Editing

If the problem with an article is that it is very short, badly written, biased, or unsourced, this should be solved through regular editing rather than deletion. If necessary, a variety of tags can be used to indicate the problem, including {{stub}} (for short articles), {{cleanup}} for cleanup, {{npov}} for bias, and {{verify}} for sources.

Article written in a foreign language should be listed on Misplaced Pages:Pages needing translation, or tagged with {{notenglish}}.

Pages with an incorrect name can simply be renamed by any user. If there is a dispute over the name, the requested moves process can be used.

Discussion

Disputes over article content are not dealt with by deleting the article. Likewise, disagreement over a policy or guideline is not dealt with by deleting it. The issue should instead be listed on Misplaced Pages:Requests for comments for further input. Similarly, issues with an inappropriate user page can often be resolved through discussing it with that user.

Other projects

Articles that can never be other than a dictionary article ("dicdef") can be merged as above, or moved to Wiktionary. See Misplaced Pages:Things to be moved to Wiktionary for instructions. Likewise, articles that are source text (other than copyright violations) should be moved to Wikisource.

Nominating an article for deletion

See the instructions at speedy deletions, proposed deletions, or articles for deletion accordingly. Following the procedures properly will place a warning at the top of the article to notify readers that the article is being considered for deletion. If no such notice is added please add one yourself as appropriate.

Please note warning notices may vary for copyright problems, and they may not be required for pages that have no content (blank pages or redirects) and have no significant history ("significant history" includes any history of content being added or removed, excepting candidate for speedy deletion).

See also: Misplaced Pages:Boilerplate_text#Listed_for_deletion and Misplaced Pages:Example deletion discussion.

Renominations and recurring candidates

Think carefully. Renomination costs additional volunteer time and server resources, on top of the original nomination.

Repeated re-creation of an article by previously unassociated editors may be evidence of a need for an article, but repeated nominations for deletion are not necessarily evidence that an article should be deleted, and in some cases, repeated attempts to have an article deleted may even be considered disruptive. If in doubt, don't delete.

If an article has been on AfD before but users want to start another iteration of a deletion debate, they should consider using this template, {{subst:afdx|2nd}}. This creates a link to a new debate page and prevents the old one from being overwritten or re-used.

A process that resulted in article deletion or keeping, should generally be respected and the article not immediately re-nominated for deletion (if kept) or re-created (if deleted). The most common reason for a repeat nomination is that there was marked lack of discussion or lack of consensus in the original decision and the second vote is required to clarify opinion. Otherwise:

Repeated nomination for deletion

In general, although there is no strict policy or consensus for a specific time between nominations, articles that have survived a nomination for deletion should not be immediately renominated. Please ensure that nominations to delete an article which was previously voted "keep", are carefully considered, and are based upon policy. Repeated attempts to have an article deleted for non-policy reasons may sometimes be considered abuse of process and/or disruptive, and the article may be speedy kept.

Repeated recreation of deleted article

If it is believed that a significantly better researched article would be verifiable and otherwise meet Misplaced Pages article criteria, then recreation for good cause and in good faith may well be reasonable. This underlines that research and good writing is part of creating good articles. Also repeated re-creation of an article by previously unassociated editors may at times be evidence of a need for an article. But recreation of articles which should clearly remain deleted may result in the page being permanantly protected with a {{deletedpage}} tag to prevent its recreation.

Renomination of an article previously considered on AfD should include this template, {{subst:afdx|2nd}}, which will prevent overwriting of the previous discussion:

This article is being considered for deletion for the 2nd time in accordance with Misplaced Pages's deletion policy.
Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's entry on the Articles for deletion page.
You are welcome to edit this article, but please do not blank this article or remove this notice while the discussion is in progress. For more information, particularly on merging or moving the article during the discussion, read the Guide to deletion.

Transwikied articles

Please note that if the original discussion result was to "transwiki", the page becomes a candidate for speedy deletion once the transwiki is completed, and does not need to go through AfD again.

Abuse of deletion process

The deletion processes all focus on whether an article meets the criteria for existence on Misplaced Pages; that is, they are to determine whether it is not original research, its central information is verifiable, and it is capable of achieving a neutral point of view with good editorship. XfD (deletion) processes are not a way to complain or remove material that is personally disliked, whose perspective is against ones beliefs, or which is not yet presented neutrally. Using XfD as a "protest strategy" in an editorial or Neutral Point of View (NPOV) debate is generally an abuse of process and the article will usually be speedy kept.

It should also be noted that packing the discussion with sockpuppets (multiple accounts) and meatpuppets (advertising or soliciting of desired views) does not reflect a genuine consensus, and usually doesn't raise much in the way of novel policy considerations. A deletion debate is not a popular vote, but a way of obtaining editors' views as to whether an article meets policy guidelines or not, so these kind of activities don't achieve much. Often, where sock-puppetry is suspected, only editors with a significant history of contributions to Misplaced Pages will be counted in the rough consensus.

Deletion discussions, closure, reviewing

Commenting on a listing for deletion

Please see the appropriate instructions at speedy deletions, proposed deletions, or articles for deletion accordingly. In general, when someone has listed an article for deletion, anyone else may comment on the request. Please include your opinion and your reasoning and sign with ~~~~. Typical comments include "delete," "keep," "comment:", "redirect to ]," "merge into ] and redirect," "move to Wiktionary / Meta / other GFDL site", "keep and relist in 4 weeks" et al.

Commonly used shorthands can be found at the Misplaced Pages:Guide to deletion. Note that "merge into ] and delete" cannot be performed simply by copying and pasting text from the original article into the target unless the information on authorship of the content is somehow preserved, or the text is public domain. Otherwise, only the facts may be merged by completely rewriting the relevant text, so that none of the original copyrightable expression is used.

Normally you should not remove any statements from any deletion discussion. If you suspect a user of adding multiple comments using sockpuppets, feel free to comment and provide pertinent links. The admin who reviews the discussion will investigate and decide whether or not to take that opinion into account.

This restriction does not apply to personal attacks and derogatory comments about living people:

Editors should remove any negative material about living persons that is either unsourced, relies upon sources that do not meet standards specified in Misplaced Pages:Reliable sources, or is a conjectural interpretation of a source.

Decision policy

At the end of the discussion, if a rough consensus for deletion has been reached, the page will be removed per Misplaced Pages:Deletion process; otherwise the page remains.

Misplaced Pages:Deletion guidelines for administrators expands on this and provides a little rationale.

Early closure

If a clear consensus for non-deletion is quickly reached, discussion may be closed before the end of the typical period, for example, a clear consensus for speedy deletion, a clear consensus for a speedy keep, or a consensus for a redirect. The debate should remain transcluded on the appropriate deletion page. If the proposed solution has not achieved a very clear consensus, the listing should remain for the full five-day period. Any substantial debate, regardless of how lopsided the keep/delete count may be, implies that an early closing would be a bad idea.

Deletion review and undeletion

Misplaced Pages:Deletion review discussions can lead to Undeletion, a task performed by Administrators if there is support or if a page has obviously been deleted out of process. Undeletion of pages is limited to those pages that are kept in the archive. Some older deleted pages are completely inaccessible.

Privacy

For privacy, a closed deletion debate may be hidden to avoid public embarassment via search engines.

User space

Pages in the User or User Talk namespace can be deleted at that user's request, as well as via WP:MFD or WP:PROD. However, a user's main talk page and archives thereof are, as a rule, (almost) never deleted. This is because they tend to contain many debates involving or regarding that user.

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Deletion process
• Misplaced Pages:Introduction to deletion process
• Misplaced Pages:Guide to deletion
• Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Deletion sorting
• Misplaced Pages:Archived delete debates
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Maintenance
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Precedents
• Misplaced Pages:Blankpages, Misplaced Pages:Shortpages
• Misplaced Pages:Bad jokes and other deleted nonsense
• Misplaced Pages:Pages needing attention
• Misplaced Pages:Transwiki log
• meta:History of wiki deletion process

• Misplaced Pages policies
• Misplaced Pages deletion
• Misplaced Pages official policy