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.

Shortcuts WP:CSD WP:SPEEDY

This policy is currently undergoing discussion on the talk page and an active request for comments.

The criteria for speedy deletion specify the limited cases in which administrators may, at their discretion, bypass deletion discussion and immediately delete Misplaced Pages pages or media. These criteria describe the only cases where there is broad consensus supporting summary deletion of articles and other content. Deletion is reversible, but only by administrators, so other deletions occur only after discussion. Speedy deletion is intended to reduce the time spent on deletion discussions for articles with no practical chance of surviving discussion.

Administrators should take care not to speedy delete articles except in the most obvious cases. If a page has survived a prior deletion discussion, it should not be speedy deleted except for newly discovered copyright violations. Contributors sometimes create articles over several edits, so administrators should avoid deleting a page that appears incomplete too soon after its creation.

Anyone can request speedy deletion by adding one of the templates listed below. Before nominating an article for speedy deletion, consider whether it could be improved, reduced to a stub, merged or redirected elsewhere, reverted to a better previous revision, or handled in some other way. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criteria the page meets, and should consider notifying the article creator and any major contributors.

The creator of a page may not remove a Speedy Delete tag from it. Only an editor who is not the creator of a page may do so. A creator who disagrees with the speedy deletion should instead add {{hangon}} to the page, and explain the rationale on the page's discussion page. To avoid speedy deletion, make sure that articles provide both content and context.

Criteria

Abbreviations are sometimes used to refer to these criteria. For example, "G12" refers to criterion 12 under general (copyright infringement) and "U1" refers to criterion 1 under user (user request). These abbreviations can be confusing to new editors, or anyone else unfamiliar with this page; in many situations a plain-English explanation of why a specific article was deleted is preferable.

A table listing the template(s) for each of these criteria is provided below.

General

These criteria apply to all namespaces, and are in addition to namespace-specific criteria in following sections.

1. Patent nonsense. Pages consisting entirely of incoherent text or gibberish with no meaningful content or history. This does not include poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, poorly translated material, implausible theories, or hoaxes; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases.
2. Test pages. This criterion does not apply to the sandbox or to users' own user space.
3. Pure vandalism. This includes blatant and obvious misinformation, redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism, and blatant hoaxes.
4. Recreation of deleted material. A copy, by any title, of a page deleted via a deletion discussion, provided the copy is substantially identical to the deleted version and that any changes in the recreated page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted. This does not apply to content that has been undeleted via deletion review, deleted via proposed deletion, or to speedy deletions (although in that case, the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply). Also, content moved to user space for explicit improvement is excluded, although material moved or copied to circumvent Misplaced Pages's deletion policy is not.
5. Banned user. Pages created by banned users in violation of their ban, with no substantial edits by others.
6. Technical deletions. Non-controversial maintenance, such as temporarily deleting a page to merge page histories, deleting dated maintenance categories, or performing uncontroversial page moves. If no special tag like {{db-move}} can be used and the reason for deletion is not self-evident, a reason for deletion should be supplied, for example on the talk page or in the edit summary.
7. Author requests deletion, if requested in good faith, and provided the page's only substantial content was added by its author. (For redirects created as a result of a pagemove, the mover must also have been the only substantive contributor to the page prior to the move.) If the author blanks the page (outside user space), this can be taken as a deletion request.
8. Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page, such as talk pages with no corresponding subject page; subpages with no parent page; image pages without a corresponding image; redirects to invalid targets, such as nonexistent targets, redirect loops, and bad titles; or categories populated by deleted or retargeted templates. This excludes any page that is useful to the project, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere, user and user talk pages, talk page archives, plausible redirects that can be changed to valid targets, and image pages or talk pages for images that exist on Wikimedia Commons.
9. Office actions. The Wikimedia Foundation office reserves the right to speedily delete a page temporarily in cases of exceptional circumstances. Deletions of this type should not be reversed without permission from the Foundation.
10. Pages that serve no purpose but to disparage or threaten their subject or some other entity. These are sometimes called "attack pages". This includes legal threats, and biographical material about a living person that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced, where there is no neutral version in the page history to revert to. Both the page title and page content may be taken into account in assessing an attack. Articles about living people deleted under this criterion should not be restored or recreated by any editor until the biographical article standards are met.
11. Unambiguous advertising or promotion. Pages that exclusively promote some entity and that would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note that simply having a company or product as its subject does not qualify an article for this criterion.
12. Unambiguous copyright infringement. Text pages that contain copyrighted material with no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or a free license, where there is no non-infringing content on the page worth saving. Only if the history is unsalvageably corrupted should it be deleted in its entirety; earlier versions without infringement should be retained. For equivocal cases (such as where there is a dubious assertion of permission, or where free-content edits overlie the infringement), please consult Misplaced Pages:Copyright violations.

    Remember to check that the suspected source of the copyright violation is not itself a Misplaced Pages mirror, and to notify the page's creator when tagging a page for deletion under this criterion; the template {{nothanks-sd}} is available for this. For images and media, see the equivalent criterion in the "Files" section below, which has more specific instructions.

Articles

For any articles that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion or Misplaced Pages:Proposed deletion. Note that all these criteria apply to Portals as well.

1. No context. Articles lacking sufficient context to identify the subject of the article. Example: "He is a funny man with a red car. He makes people laugh." This applies only to very short articles. Context is different from content, treated in A3, below.
2. Foreign language articles that exist on another Wikimedia project. If the article does not exist on another project, use the template {{notenglish}} instead, and list the page at Misplaced Pages:Pages needing translation into English for review and possible translation.
3. No content. Any article (other than disambiguation pages, redirects, or soft redirects) consisting only of external links, category tags and "see also" sections, a rephrasing of the title, attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title, chat-like comments, template tags and/or images. However, a very short article may be a valid stub if it has context, in which case it is not eligible for deletion under this criterion. Similarly, this criterion doesn't cover a page with an infobox with non-trivial information.
5. Deprecated – merged with "No content" above.
6. Transwikied articles. Any article that consists only of a dictionary definition that has already been transwikied (e.g., to Wiktionary), a primary source that has already been transwikied (e.g., to Wikisource), or an article on any subject that has been discussed at articles for deletion with an outcome to move it to another wiki, after it has been properly moved and the author information recorded.
8. Deprecated – superseded by "Attack pages" above.
9. An article about a real person, an organization (e.g. band, club, company, etc., except schools), or web content that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant. This is distinct from verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability. This criterion applies only to articles about web content and to articles about people and organizations themselves, not to articles about their books, albums, software and so on. The criterion does not apply to any article that makes any credible claim of significance or importance even if the claim is not supported by a reliable source. If the claim's credibility is unclear, you can improve the article yourself, propose deletion, or list the article at articles for deletion.
11. Deprecated – superseded by "Unambiguous copyright infringement" above.
12. An article about a musical recording that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant and where the artist's article does not exist. This is distinct from questions of verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability. This criterion does not apply to other forms of creative media, products, or any other types of articles.

Redirects

For any redirects, including soft redirects, that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Redirects for discussion. Redirect pages that have useful page history should never be speedy deleted. In some cases it may be possible to make a useful redirect by changing the target instead of deleting it. Redirects that do not work due to software limitations, such as redirects to special pages or to pages on other wikis, may be converted to soft redirects if they have a non-trivial history or other valid uses.

2. Deprecated – superseded by "Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page" above.
3. Redirects from the article namespace to any other namespace except the Category:, Template:, Misplaced Pages:, Help: and Portal: namespaces. If the redirect was the result of a page move, consider waiting a day or two before deleting the redirect. See also Misplaced Pages:Cross-namespace redirects.
4. Recently created redirects from implausible typos or misnomers. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful, as are redirects in other languages.

For reversal of redirects, use {{db-move}}, a special case of {{db-g6}}

Files

For any images and other media that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Files for deletion.

1. Redundant. Any unused media file that is a copy, in the same file format and same or lower quality/resolution, of another file on Misplaced Pages. This does not apply to images duplicated on Wikimedia Commons, because of license issues; instead see "Images available as identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons" below.
2. Corrupt or empty image. Before deleting this type of image, verify that the MediaWiki engine cannot read it by previewing a resized thumbnail of it. Even if it renders, if it contains superfluous information that cannot be accounted for as metadata directly relating to the image data, it may be deleted. It is always possible for the uploader to correct the problem by uploading an image that contains only a good image plus acceptable metadata.
3. Improper license. Media licensed as "for non-commercial use only" (including non-commercial Creative Commons licenses), "no derivative use" or "used with permission" may be deleted, unless they comply with the limited standards for the use of non-free content. Files licensed under versions of the GFDL prior to 1.3, without allowing for later versions, may be deleted.
4. Lack of licensing information. Media files which lack the necessary licensing information, may be deleted after being identified as such for seven days if the information is not added. Be aware that editors sometimes specify their source in the upload summary.
5. Unused unfree images. Images and other media that are not under a free license or in the public domain, that are not used in any article, may be deleted after being identified as such for more than seven days. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article.
6. Missing non-free use rationale. Non-free files claiming fair use but without a use rationale may be deleted after being identified as such for seven days. The boilerplate copyright tags setting out fair use criteria do not constitute a rationale. This criterion does not apply to situations where a use rationale is provided but is disputed.
7. Invalid fair-use claim.
   • Non-free images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a {{Non-free logo}} tag on a photograph of a mascot) may be deleted immediately.
   • Non-free images or media that have been identified as being replaceable by a free image and tagged with {{subst:rfu}} may be deleted after two days, if no justification is given for the claim of irreplaceability.
   • Invalid fair-use claims tagged with {{subst:dfu}} may be deleted seven days after they are tagged, if a full and valid fair-use use rationale is not added.
8. Images available as identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons, provided the following conditions are met:
   • The Commons version is in the same file format and is of the same or higher quality/resolution.
   • The image's license and source status is beyond reasonable doubt, and the license is undoubtedly accepted at Commons.
     • All image revisions that meet the first condition have been transferred to Commons as revisions of the Commons copy and properly marked as such.
     • The image is not marked as {{do not move to Commons}}.
   • All information on the image description page is present on the Commons image description page, including the complete upload history with links to the uploader's local user pages (the upload history is not necessary if the image is in the public domain, although it is still recommended).
     • If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the image description page (like {{FeaturedPicture}}), the image description page must be undeleted after the file deletion.
   • If the image is available on Commons under a different name than locally, all local references to the image must be updated to point to the title used at Commons.
   • The image is not protected. DO NOT DELETE PROTECTED IMAGES, even if there is an identical copy on Commons. They are usually locally uploaded and protected here since they are used in the interface or in some widely used high-risk template.
   • {{c-uploaded}} images may be speedily deleted as soon as they are off the Main Page.
9. Unambiguous copyright infringement. Images that are claimed by the uploader to be images with free licenses when this is obviously not the case. A URL or other indication of where the image originated should be mentioned. This does not include images used under a claim of fair use, nor does it include images with a credible claim that the owner has released them under a Misplaced Pages-compatible free license. This includes most images from stock photo libraries such as Getty Images or Corbis. Blatant infringements should be tagged with the {{db-imgcopyvio}} template. Non-blatant copyright infringements should be discussed at Misplaced Pages:Possibly unfree images.
10. Useless media files. Files uploaded that are neither image, sound, nor video files (e.g. .doc, .pdf, or .xls files) that are not used in any article and have no foreseeable encyclopedic use.
11. No evidence of permission: If an uploader has specified a license and has named a third party as the source/copyright holder without providing evidence that this third party has in fact agreed, the item may be deleted seven days after notification of the uploader. Acceptable evidence of licensing normally consists of either a link to the source website where the license is stated, or a statement by the copyright holder e-mailed or forwarded to permissions-en@wikimedia.org. Such a confirmation is also required if the source is an organization that the uploader claims to represent, or a web publication that the uploader claims to be their own. Instances of obvious copyright violations where the uploader would have no reasonable expectation of obtaining permission (e.g. major studio movie posters, TV screenshots) should be speedily deleted per "Unambiguous copyright infringement" above.

Categories

Also listed at Misplaced Pages:Category deletion policy#Speedy delete policy. For any categories that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Categories for discussion or Misplaced Pages:User categories for discussion. Due to technical restrictions, renaming or merging a category effectively deletes the original category.

1. Unpopulated categories that have been unpopulated for at least four days. This does not apply to disambiguation categories, category redirects, featured topics categories, categories under discussion at Misplaced Pages:Categories for Discussion (or other such discussions), or project categories that by their nature may become empty on occasion (e.g. Category:Wikipedians looking for help).
2. Speedy renaming.
   1. Typographic fixes (e.g., Brdiges → Bridges), but not changes between British and American spelling.
   2. Capitalization fixes (e.g., Heads Of State → Heads of state).
   3. Conversions from singular to plural, or vice versa (e.g., Steamship → Steamships).
   4. Non-conformance with "x by y", "x of y", or "x in y" categorization conventions specified at Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (categories).
   5. Expanding abbreviated country names (e.g., U.S. → United States).
   6. Disambiguation fixes from an unqualified name (e.g., Category:Georgia → Category:Georgia (country) or Category:Georgia (U.S. state)).
4. Deprecated – superseded by "Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page" above.

User pages

For any user pages that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Miscellany for deletion.

1. User request. Personal user pages and subpages (but not user talk pages) upon request by their user. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page.
2. Nonexistent user. User pages of users that do not exist (check Special:Listusers), not including IP addresses.
3. Non-free galleries. Galleries in the userspace that consist mostly or entirely of "fair use" or non-free images. Misplaced Pages's non-free content policy prohibits the use of non-free content in userspace, even content that the user has uploaded; use of content in the public domain or under a free license is acceptable.

Templates

For any templates that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Templates for deletion.

2. Deprecated – criterion repealed; "Attack pages" above may be applicable; otherwise use Misplaced Pages:Templates for deletion.
3. Templates that are unambiguous misrepresentations of established policy. This includes "speedy deletion" templates for issues that are not speedy deletion criteria and disclaimer templates intended to be used in articles.
4. Templates that are not employed in any useful fashion, and are either: substantial duplications of another template, or hardcoded instances of another template where the same functionality could be provided by that other template, may be deleted after being tagged for seven days.

Portals

For any portals that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Misplaced Pages:Miscellany for deletion.

1. Any topic that would be subject to speedy deletion as an article.
2. Underpopulated portal. Any portal based on a topic for which there is only a stub header article or fewer than three non-stub articles detailing subject matter that would be appropriate to present under the title of that portal.

Non-criteria

The following are not by themselves sufficient to justify speedy deletion.

• Reasons based on Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not. Misplaced Pages is not: "a dictionary", "an indiscriminate collection of information", "a crystal ball", etc.
• Hoaxes. If even remotely plausible, a suspected hoax article should be subjected to further scrutiny in a wider forum. Note that "blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation" are subject to speedy deletion as vandalism.
• Original research. It is not always easy to tell whether an article consists of material that violates the policy against novel theories or interpretations or is simply unsourced.
• Neologisms. If not obviously ridiculous, new specialized terms should have a wider hearing.
• Notability. Articles that seem to have obviously non-notable subjects are eligible for speedy deletion only if the article does not give a reasonable indication of why the subject might be important or significant.
• Failure to assert importance but not an A7 or A9 category. There is no consensus to speedily delete articles of types not specifically listed in A7 or A9 under those criteria.
• Author deletion requests made in bad faith. Author deletion requests made in bad faith, out of frustration, or in an attempt to revoke their GFDL contributions are not granted. However, anyone may request deletion of pages in their userspace.
• Author deletion requests after others have contributed substantially. If other editors have substantially edited an article (i.e. more than just minor corrections or maintenance tagging), the original author may not request deletion under G7 because the work of others is involved.
• Very short articles. Short articles with sufficient content and context to qualify as stubs may not be speedily deleted under criteria A1 and A3; other criteria may still apply.
• Copies that are not copyright violations. If content appears both here and somewhere else (possibly in modified form), consider the possibility that Misplaced Pages's is the original version and the other site copied from us. Alternately, the same author may have written both versions, or the original may be free content.
• PNGs/GIFs replaced by JPEGs. JPEG encoding discards information that may be important later. Do not delete the original PNG/GIF files.
• Questionable material that is not vandalism. Earnest efforts are never vandalism, so to assume good faith, do not delete as vandalism unless reasonably certain.
• User pages of IP addresses. Although users are encouraged to create Misplaced Pages accounts, unregistered users are still allowed to edit Misplaced Pages, and are identified by their IP addresses. If an unregistered user has a static IP address, it may have a user page and/or user talk page associated with it.
• Reasons based on essays. Misplaced Pages:Listcruft, Misplaced Pages:Obscure topics, Misplaced Pages:Deny recognition etc. are not valid reasons for speedy deletion.

Marking an article for speedy deletion

In order to alert administrators that a page meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion, place one of the following relevant templates at the top of the page (within <noinclude>…</noinclude> for templates). Please be sure to supply an edit summary that mentions that the article is being nominated for speedy deletion. All the following templates are named "db-X" with "db" standing for "delete because".

Procedure for administrators

Make sure to specify the reason for deletion in the deletion summary. Also, in some cases the article's creator should be notified.

Before deleting a page, check the page history to assess whether it would instead be possible to revert and salvage a previous version. Also:

• The initial edit summary may have information about the source of or reason for the article.
• The talk page may refer to previous deletion discussions, or have ongoing discussion relevant to including the article.
• The page log may have information about previous deletions that could warrant SALTing the article or keeping it on good reason.
• 'What links here' may show that the subject of the article is an oft-referred part of the encyclopedia, or may show other similar pages that warrant deletion. For articles that should not be re-created, incoming links in other articles should be removed.

See also

• Category:CSD warning templates
• Category:Speedy deletion
• Category:Candidates for speedy deletion
• Misplaced Pages:Criteria for speedy deletion/Explanations
• Misplaced Pages:Criteria for speedy deletion/Overturned speedy deletions
• Misplaced Pages:No blank pages
• Misplaced Pages:Proposed deletion
• Misplaced Pages:Template messages/User talk namespace (Grid of warning messages)
• Misplaced Pages:Deletion of pages under construction

Footnotes

1. In this context, "speedy" refers to the simple decision-making process, not the length of time since the article was created.

• Misplaced Pages policies
• Speedy deletion
• Misplaced Pages deletion policy