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:Deletion policy - Misplaced Pages

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One of Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines

In the normal operations of Misplaced Pages, about 100 articles are deleted each day. While it is possible for any user to blank a page, the original content will still be available in the page history for others to view and put back if they wish. When pages are deleted, this removes not only the current version but also all previous versions.

Only administrators have the ability to delete and undelete pages within the system. With our current deletion system (cf meta:deletion management redesign), administrators necessarily must use their best judgment in making this decision. You can expect administrators (or sysops) to follow the process detailed below to aid them in their judgement.

Deleted pages can be restored, by administrators, if and only if there is support on votes for undeletion. If deletions are made too casually, it is easy to lose track. Hence, the decision to permanently delete an article is not taken lightly, and the deletion process is followed. See Misplaced Pages:Undeletion policy for the guidance on undeletion.

If an article is constantly being deleted and re-created, this should be seen as evidence for the need for an article. Administrators should always be responsible with the power that they have. If in doubt... don't delete!

Procedure for deletion

Requesting deletion

To request that a page or image be deleted, place it on the appropriate list:

Misplaced Pages:Cleanup if you're not sure, or if deletion is not the likely best approach. Add {{cleanup}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems for possible copyright infringements, both images and pages. Add {{copyvio}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Pages needing translation for pages written in a foreign language. Add {{translation}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Images for deletion for images and image description pages, not including possible copyright infringements. Add {{ifd}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Redirects for deletion any pages which redirect elsewhere. Add {{rfd}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Speedy deletions any "candidates for speedy deletion" - for use in particular by non-admins. Add {{delete}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Categories for deletion for category schemes gone awry. Add {{cfd}} tag.
Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion for all other pages. Add {{subst:vfd}} tag.

See also: Misplaced Pages:Template messages#Deletion

Some of these pages have slightly different procedures - if so, these will be detailed on the page itself.

Give the reason why you think it should be deleted. It will remain there for a time, giving other users the chance to comment on whether they think deletion is in fact appropriate. After an appropriate lag time, an administrator will delete the page if a rough consensus is reached - see Misplaced Pages:Deletion guidelines for administrators#Rough_consensus.

For candidates for speedy deletion, Administrators do not have to request deletion - they may delete them on sight, though some choose to use Misplaced Pages:Speedy deletions in some cases.

Commenting on a deletion request

When someone has made a deletion request on one of the lists, anyone else may comment on the request. When expressing an opinion, please include your opinion, your reasoning, and sign with ~~~~ (four consecutive tilde characters). Here are some suggested wordings:

  • delete
  • keep
  • other (some other action)
  • comment (not a vote)

The following wordings may be used if you want the page to be kept but turned into a redirect:

  • redirect to ]
  • merge into ] and redirect

The following wordings may be used if you want the page to be deleted but believe that the contents would be useful on another site that uses the GFDL:

Note that merge into ] and delete is not a valid option (except for public domain text) unless the information on authorship of the content is somehow preserved.

Lag times

These different pages have different "lag times" -- how long a page should normally be listed before it can be deleted (an article can be removed at any time). This gives other users the chance to comment on whether they think deletion is in fact appropriate. The lag times are discussed at Misplaced Pages talk:Votes for deletion/lag time and are currently set at:

Decision Policy

To request that a page (or image) be permanently deleted, the request made on VfD, and any votes or comments relating to a listed page must be made in good faith. At the end of five days, if a "rough consensus" has been reached (some would call this a 2/3 majority) to delete the page, the page will be removed. Otherwise the page remains. The page will also remain if it has been improved enough since the initial listing that the reason for listing no longer applies. This requires a reason to be given initially when requesting that a page be deleted.

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

"Listed for deletion" notice

See also: Misplaced Pages:Boilerplate_text#Listed_for_deletion

When you list a page on Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion that you think will be listed for the entire 5 days (i.e., a page that won't be deleted immediately), it is courteous to let people know it might be deleted. The suggested way is to place {{subst:vfd}} (not {{vfd}}) above the page's content, which expands to:

{{subst:#ifeq:a|b||{{subst:#ifexist:Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/{{subst:PAGENAME}}|{{subst:lessthan}}!-- The nomination page for this article already existed when this tag was added. If this was because the article had been nominated for deletion before, and you wish to renominate it, please replace "page={{subst:PAGENAME}}" with "page={{subst:PAGENAME}} (2nd nomination)" below before proceeding with the nomination. -->}}}}This template must be substituted. Replace {{afd with {{subst:afd.

{{subst:lessthan}}!-- Once discussion is closed, please place on talk page:

Articles for deletionThis project page was nominated for deletion on {{subst:#time:j F Y|{{subst:CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} }}. The result of the discussion was keep.

-->


Hopefully, this notice will prevent readers and new users from becoming confused as to why a page was removed. Please note: copyright problems have a different suggested notice.

The notice is not needed for pages which a) have no content (such as redirects), and b) also have no significant history. (E.g. a redirect whose entire history is that it used to redirect from "Foo" to "Foobar", and has been changed to redirect to "FooBar", because the target page was moved, does not have any significant history.) A history which shows any content being added or removed is significant history.

Unlisting a page from VfD

If another solution has been found for some of these pages than deletion, leave them listed on Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion for a short while, so the original poster can see why it wasn't deleted, and what did happen to it. This will prevent reposting of the same item. After the original poster has seen the explanation, or in any case after about a day, the page can be delisted from VfD.

What to do with old VfD discussions

At the end of the five days, the VfD discussions may be moved off the main VfD page onto a "holding page" called Votes for deletion/Old where they will stay until an admistrator has time to act on the consensus decision. When carrying out those duties, please follow the process at Misplaced Pages:Deletion process which describes where and how the discussion should be archived.

Always give a good edit summary when editing the VfD page, especially when unlisting a page, so that the page history of the VfD page can be used as backup archive for discussions that have not been regularly archived.

See also Misplaced Pages:Deletion process.

What to list on VfD

If a page does not fall into one of the categories listed under Candidates for speedy deletion, then you cannot delete it without it spending five days on Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion first. However, there are some pages that should not be listed on VfD at all, and should be kept. This section is about whether something should be listed on VfD, or just kept. Consider the following recommendations:

  • Don't list stubs for articles that have potential, but list stubs that are nonsensical. Also, redirect or list stubs that likely will never become more than a simple definition. See fix a stub.
  • Don't list articles that just need heavy editing; instead, list them on Pages needing attention, perhaps adding a warning notice such as a NPOV dispute notice to clarify the type of attention needed. However, consider listing articles that are just patent nonsense.
  • Redirect pages should be listed on Misplaced Pages:Redirects for deletion only if the problems they cause outweigh their advantages. For more info, see our recommendations on deleting redirects.
  • List pages that you believe have no potential to become encyclopedia articles. For example, articles that represent completely idiosyncratic non-topics, articles that could never be more than dictionary definitions, etc.
  • Don't list source texts, but replace them with an external link and a stub. Alternatively, add an external link to a related article and redirect the pages for source texts there.
  • Don't list biased articles, even heavily biased articles, but add a NPOV dispute header/disclaimer. However, list articles if rewriting the facts in an NPOV way and removing unattributed opinions would leave no useful information.
  • List orphan images where you can't think of an article where they might be useful.
  • If a page has useful content but too little even to be a stub, this content can often be moved to another page, and the page changed into a redirect. Even without useful content the page can often be usefully changed into a redirect. Do not list these pages for deletion. However, do list a page if turning it into a redirect would cause problems - see recommendations on deleting redirects.
  • List articles that contain no verifiable information. However, do not list such articles until you have followed the nine-step procedure on Misplaced Pages:Verifiability.
  • Don't list every single inappropriate user subpage - instead, edit them or redirect them, and talk to the user in question. However, do list pages in excessive or stubborn cases. See Misplaced Pages:User page for our guidance on what are appropriate uses of the user: namespace.

FAQ

X redirects to Y, which obscures the existence of A, B, and C - it should be deleted.

It should be turned into a disambiguation page. You don't need the VfD page for that -- do it yourself.

This user should be banned.

Take it to vandalism in progress (for pure vandalism) or requests for comment (for annoyances). Stay cool.
The votes for deletion page gets very busy. Please join the Misplaced Pages:Cleaning department to help in maintaining it on a regular basis!

See also

Categories: