Misplaced Pages

: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

If a page does not fall into one of the categories listed under Misplaced Pages:Candidates for speedy deletion, then you cannot delete it without it spending five days on Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion first.

What to do with a problem page

Does the page really belong on VfD? Follow this table to find out what to do with a problem page.

Problem with page Solution Add this tag
Article is a candidate for speedy deletion Misplaced Pages:Speedy deletions {{delete}}
Possible copyright infringement Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems {{copyvio}}
Article written in a foreign language Misplaced Pages:Pages needing translation {{translation}}
Image or other media needs deleting (but not because of copyright violation) Misplaced Pages:Images for deletion {{ifd}}
A useless redirect Don't worry, redirects are cheap. If you must, add it to Misplaced Pages:Redirects for deletion but only after reading our recommendations on deleting redirects {{rfd}}
A category scheme gone awry Misplaced Pages:Categories for deletion {{cfd}}
A stub (but with potential) Expand it!  
Such a minor branch of a subject that it doesn't deserve an article Redirect and merge  
Article needs improvement Misplaced Pages:Cleanup {{cleanup}}
Article needs a lot of improvement Misplaced Pages:Pages needing attention  
Article is biased or has lots of POV Misplaced Pages:Pages needing attention {{npov}}
Dispute over article content Misplaced Pages:Requests for comments {{disputed}}
Article duplicates information in some other article redirect and merge. If you can't figure out how to do the merge, add it to Misplaced Pages:Duplicate articles  
Two subjects have the same name Make a disambiguation page {{disambiguation}}
Article is a source text Move text to Wikisource and replace it with a stub and a link.  
Can't verify information in article Follow the procedure on Misplaced Pages:Verifiability; if that doesn't work, come back here  
Inappropriate user page Talk to the user; if that doesn't work, come back here  
Vandalism Revert it and mention it on Misplaced Pages:Vandalism in progress  
Annoying user Add user to Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment. But stay cool.  
Patent nonsense
No potential to become encyclopedic
Completely idiosyncratic non-topic
Can never be more than a dictionary definition
Vanity page
Advert or other spam
Inappropriate user pages in excessive or stubborn cases. 		Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion {{vfd}}

See also: Misplaced Pages:Template messages#Deletion

Each deletion category has a slightly different procedure. See the page for that category for details.

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.

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: