Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by The wub (talk | contribs) at 10:04, 30 June 2006 (→Problem articles that may require deletion: Misplaced Pages:Categories for deletion moved to Misplaced Pages:Categories for discussion). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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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All text created in the Misplaced Pages main namespace is subject to several important rules, including three cardinal content policies: Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view, Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, and Misplaced Pages:No original research, and the copyright policy (Misplaced Pages:Copyrights). Text that does not conform to all four policies is not allowed in the main namespace. Failure to conform to NPOV is usually remedied by editing, but text that violates any of the remaining content policies is subject to the Misplaced Pages: Deletion policy.

Deletion of a Misplaced Pages article removes the current version and all previous versions from view. Unlike page blanking, which can be performed by any user and which preserves the original content in the page history, deletion can be performed only by administrators. In the normal operations of Misplaced Pages, over one thousand articles are deleted each day, in accordance with a Deletion process that is open to all users. Participants in the deletion process are expected to be familiar with the core Misplaced Pages policies of Verifiability, No Original Research and Neutral Point of View. They should bear in mind what Misplaced Pages is not.

This page describes how to list articles for deletion in one of three complementary processes (Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion, speedy deletion, and proposed deletion), and lists a number of common problems with Misplaced Pages articles and some alternatives to deletion. Note that violations of the Copyright Policy are dealt with at Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems.

Background

Deletion categories

Currently, there are three main processes for deleting articles:

• The simplest, Misplaced Pages:speedy deletions is for pages that are patent nonsense or pure vandalism. Pages meeting the criteria for speedy deletion can be listed here.
• Misplaced Pages:Proposed deletion is for uncontroversial articles that do not meet the speedy criteria. Flagging such an article with {{prod}} will place it into Category:Proposed deletion; if it remains uncontested there for five days it can be deleted at an administrator's discretion.
• The five-day debate process of Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion is for articles that do not qualify for speedy deletion, that have been contested at Misplaced Pages:Proposed deletion, or that may be controversial.
  There are analogous pages for images and media files, categories, templates, redirects, and miscellany. Collectively, these are sometimes referred to as the XfD processes.

Lag times and procedures

Each deletion category has a slightly different procedure. After an appropriate lag time, an administrator will delete the page if a rough consensus for deletion is reached, with the actual deletion procedure as described in Misplaced Pages:Deletion process.

The current lag times are:

• Misplaced Pages:Copyright problems - about a week (in practice, more like two)
• Misplaced Pages:Categories for discussion - about a week
• Misplaced Pages:Images for deletion - about a week
• Misplaced Pages:Redirects for deletion - about a week
• Misplaced Pages:Templates for deletion - seven days
• Misplaced Pages:Stub types for deletion - seven days
• Misplaced Pages:Speedy deletions - no lag
• Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion - five days
• Misplaced Pages:Miscellany for deletion - five days

Problem articles with alternatives to deletion

See also: Misplaced Pages:Template messages#Deletion

Problem articles that may require deletion

Nominating an article for deletion

See the instructions at speedy deletions, proposed deletions, or articles for deletion accordingly. When you follow the proper procedure you place a warning at the top of the article to notify readers the article is being considered for deletion using {{afd}}.

{{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:

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

-->

Please note that copyright problems have a different suggested notice, and notices may not be required for pages that have no content (blank pages or redirects), and have no significant history, where "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

In general, articles that have survived a nomination for deletion should not be immediately renominated, unless a discussion had no consensus and a marked lack of contributors. There is no strict policy or consensus for a specific time between nominations.

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

This template must be substituted. Replace {{afdx{{subst:#ifeq:a|b|{{subst:!}}help={{{help}}}}} with {{subst:afdx{{subst:#ifeq:a|b|{{subst:!}}help={{{help}}}}}.

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.

Recurring candidates

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.

Repeated re-creation of an article by previously unassociated editors may be evidence of a need for an article.

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" 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.

Please do 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.

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.

Join us!

The Articles for deletion page gets very busy. Please join the Misplaced Pages:Cleaning department to help in maintaining it on a regular basis!

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Deletion process
• Misplaced Pages:Guide to deletion
• 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

• Misplaced Pages policies
• Articles for deletion using wrong syntax
• Misplaced Pages deletion
• Misplaced Pages official policy