Wikipedia:Articles for deletion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Before listing an article for deletion here, consider whether a more efficient alternative is appropriate:

For problems that do not require deletion, including duplicate articles, articles needing improvement, pages needing redirects, or POV problems, be bold and fix the problem or tag the article appropriately.
If an article is a copyright violation, please list it at Wikipedia:Copyright problems.
Some articles may qualify for speedy deletion; please refer to the Speedy Deletion criteria and process.
For non-controversial deletions, please refer to the Proposed Deletion process.
For a potentially-controversial merger, consider listing it at Proposed mergers.

Shortcut: WP:AFD

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Articles for deletion (AfD) is where Wikipedians discuss whether an article should be deleted. Articles listed here are debated for up to five days, after which the deletion process proceeds based on Wikipedia community consensus. The page is then either kept, merged and/or redirected, transwikied (copied to another Wikimedia project, such as Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wiktionary, or another language's Wikipedia, and then redirected or deleted—please note that it cannot be transwikied to Wikitravel or Wikinews), renamed/moved to another title, userfied to the creator's user page or user subpage, or deleted per the deletion policy.

This article explains what you should consider before nominating, the steps for nominating single or multiple pages, and how to discuss an AfD. It also links to the list of articles currently under consideration, and to faster alternatives to AfD: two simpler companion processes, Wikipedia:Speedy deletions and Wikipedia:Proposed deletion, exist for the deletion of articles that are generally uncontroversial deletion candidates, such as vandalism, patent nonsense, and erroneously-created User pages.

The Wikipedia deletion policy explains the criteria for deletion and the guide to deletion may help you understand why an article has been nominated.

1 Current discussions
2 Old discussions
3 Categorized discussions
4 Before nominating an AfD
5 How to list pages for deletion
6 How to list multiple related pages for deletion
7 AfD etiquette
8 How to discuss an AfD/Wikietiquette
9 What to do after an AfD discussion has passed with a confirmation?
10 Related pages

[edit] Current discussions

Discussions
Centralized discussion

edit • talk • log • watch
Wikipedia:WikiProject reform User-warning templates strawpoll Wikipedia:Main page featured article stability Wikipedia:Article inclusion Wikipedia:Credentials Wikipedia:Notability Wikipedia:Overlapping policies and guidelines Draft unified account policy Broad community discussion on the status of Wikipedia:Attribution
Conclusions

Articles being considered for possible deletion are indexed by the day on which they were first listed.

Add a new entry

Alternatively, if you are confident it is not a controversial issue, consider using {{subst:prod|reason for deletion}} instead (see Wikipedia:Proposed deletion). See the proposed deletion current nominations.

This page has a backlog that requires the attention of one or more administrators.
Please remove this notice when the backlog is cleared.

[edit] Old discussions

(Archived discussions)

22 March (Thursday) (3 open / 93 closed / 96 total discussions; open: 1 2 3)
23 March (Friday) (36 open / 97 closed / 133 total discussions)
24 March (Saturday) (36 open / 63 closed / 99 total discussions)
25 March (Sunday) (34 open / 85 closed / 119 total discussions)

[edit] Categorized discussions

[edit] Before nominating an AfD

Notability and inclusion guidelines
Notability guidelines
Academics Books 'Cool' ideas Fiction Music Numbers Organizations and companies People Pornographic actors Web content Other Gender/race/sexuality categories Neologisms
Active proposals
Science
See also
Common deletion outcomes

Read and understand the Wikipedia deletion policy, which explains valid grounds for deletion.
Consider adding a tag such as {{cleanup}}, {{disputed}} or {{expert-subject}} instead; this may be preferable if the article has some useful content.
Consider making the page a useful redirect or proposing it be merged rather than deleted. Neither of these actions requires an AfD.
Click "what links here" in the article's sidebar, to see how the page is used and referenced within Wikipedia.
Check interwiki links to pages "in other languages" which may provide additional material for translation.
Read the article's talk page, which may provide reasons why the article should or should not be deleted.
Familiarize yourself with the frequently cited guidelines WP:BIO, WP:COI, WP:CORP, WP:MUSIC, WP:FICT, WP:RS, WP:WEB, and WP:NOT.
Before nominating a recently created article, please consider that many good articles started their Wikilife in pretty bad shape. Unless it is obviously a hopeless case, consider sharing your reservations with the article creator, mentioning your concerns on the article's discussion page, and/or adding a "cleanup" template, instead of bringing the article to AfD.
Confirm that the article does not meet the criteria for Wikipedia:speedy deletions or Wikipedia:Proposed deletion.
If you expect that the AfD page will be edited by newcomers to Wikipedia (possibly because the article itself is linked from some visible place outside Wikipedia), or if you notice this happening after the AfD page is created, you might want to insert the {{Afdanons}} template into it.
Note that if you are editing under an IP address because you have not yet created a user account, you will not be able to complete the AfD process, as anonymous contributors are currently unable to create new pages (as required by step 2 of "How to list pages for deletion," below). If this is the case, consider creating a user account before listing an article on AfD.

[edit] How to list pages for deletion

This page describes how to list for deletion articles and their associated talk pages. See the related pages for templates, categories, redirects, stub types, pages in the Wikipedia namespace, user pages, or images and other media, or use copyright violation where applicable. As well, note that deletion may not be needed for problems such as pages written in foreign languages, duplicate pages, and other cases.

Note: Users must be logged in to complete steps II and III.

To list a single article for deletion for the first time, follow this three-step process:

Put the deletion tag on the article.

Insert the {{subst:afd1}} tag at the top of the page.

Please do not mark the edit as minor.
Please include in the edit summary the phrase
nominated for deletion: see [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName]]
replacing PageName with the name of the page you are proposing for deletion.
You can check the "Watch this page" box to follow the page in your watchlist. This allows you to notice if the AfD tag is removed by a vandal.
Save the page.

(If the article has been nominated for deletion before, use {{subst:afdx}} instead of {{subst:afd1}}. See Template Talk:afdx. This does not include articles that have only had the {{prod}} tag removed.)

II.

Create the article's deletion discussion page.

The resulting AfD box at the top of the article should contain a link to "Preloaded debate" in the AfD page.

Click that link to open the article's deletion discussion page. Some preloaded text and some instructions will appear.
Give a reason for the deletion and a category for the debate (instructions will be on the page).

Click the link saying "this article's entry" to open the deletion-debate page.
Insert this text:
{{subst:afd2 | pg=PageName | cat=Category | text=Reason the page should be deleted}} ~~~~
replacing PageName with the name of the page you are proposing for deletion, Category with a letter indicating the category of the debate, and Reason... with the reasons you think the page should be deleted.
Consider checking "Watch this page" to follow the progress of the debate.
Please use an edit summary such as
Creating deletion discussion page for [[PageName]]
replacing PageName with the name of the page you are proposing for deletion.
Save the page.

III.

Notify users who monitor AfD discussion.

Copy the tag below, and then click THIS LINK to open the deletion log page. At the bottom of the log page, insert:

{{subst:afd3 | pg=PageName}}

replacing PageName appropriately.

Include the discussion page's name in your edit summary like
Adding [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName]]
replacing PageName with the name of the page you are proposing for deletion.
Save the page. Your insertion will be automatically expanded to the same form as the preceding lines in the file: {{Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName}}.

(If you used template {{subst:afdx}} instead of {{subst:afd1}}, use "PageName (2nd nomination)" instead of "PageName" for a second nomination, etc.).

To list multiple related pages for deletion see here.

WikiProject User scripts may have some scripts to streamline these steps.

Once listed, deletion discussions can, optionally, also be transcluded into an appropriate deletion sorting category, such as the ones for actors, music, academics, or for specific countries; which helps attract people familiar with a particular topic area. Please see the list of categories.

It is generally considered civil to notify the good-faith creator and any main contributors of the articles that you are nominating for deletion. Do not notify bot accounts or people who have made only insignificant 'minor' edits. To find the main contributors, look in the page history or talk page of the article and/or use TDS' Article Contribution Counter. For your convenience, you may use {{subst:AFDWarningNew|Article title}} (for creators who are totally new users), {{subst:AFDWarning|Article title}} (for creators), or {{subst:Adw|Article title}} (for contributors or established users).
To avoid confusing newcomers, the reasons given for deletion should avoid Wikipedia-specific acronyms.
Place a notification on significant pages that link to your nomination, to enable those with related knowledge to participate in the debate.
If recommending that an article be speedily deleted, please give the criterion or criteria that it meets, such as "A7" or "biography not asserting importance".

[edit] How to list multiple related pages for deletion

Shortcut: WP:BUNDLE

Sometimes you will find a number of related articles, all of which you feel should be deleted together. To make it easier for those participating in the discussion, it may be helpful to bundle all of them together into a single nomination. However, for group nominations it is often a good idea to only list one article at afd and see how it goes, before listing an entire group.

Examples of when articles may be bundled into a single nomination:

An article about a band and three articles about its members, none of whom has done anything else notable outside of the band.
An article about a company/organization and a second article about its founder, who has done nothing else of note.
An article about a video game/book and related articles for characters within it.
An article about an album and related articles for its songs.
An article about any topic and other articles with the same content but with different titles.

If any of the articles you are considering for bundling could stand on its own merits, then it should be nominated separately. Or to put it more succinctly, if you are unsure of whether to bundle an article or not, don't.

To bundle articles for deletion, follow these steps:

Nominate the first article for deletion.

Follow the steps as outlined above.

II.

Nominate the remaining articles.

On each of the remaining articles, at the top insert the following:

{{subst:afd1|PageName}}

Replace PageName with the name of the first page to be deleted, not the current page name. In other words, if Some article was the first article you nominated, replace PageName with Some article. As before, please include the word "AfD" in the edit summary and please do not mark the edit as minor. Save the page. Repeat for all articles to be bundled.

(If the article has been nominated before, use {{subst:afdx}} instead of {{subst:afd1}}, and replace "PageName" with the name of the page plus a note like "(second nomination)" for a second nomination, etc. See Template talk:Afdx for details.)

III.

Add the remaining articles to the nomination.

Go the first article's deletion discussion page,
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName, and add a note
under your original nomination listing all related pages, for example:

I am also nominating the following related pages because [insert reason here]:
:{{la|related article 1}}
:{{la|related article 2}}

In the edit summary, note that you are bundling related articles for deletion.

[edit] AfD etiquette

Users participating in AfD discussions are expected to be familiar with the policies of Civility and Wikiquette and the guideline Don't bite the newbies.
- This also applies to the other deletion pages.
AfDs are public, and are sometimes quoted in the popular press. Please keep to public-facing levels of civility, just as you should for any edit you make to Wikipedia.
Don't make personal attacks against people who disagree with you; avoid the use of sarcastic language and stay cool.
Do not make unsourced negative comments about living people. These may be removed by any editor.
Remember that while AfD may look like a voting process, it does not operate like one. Justification and evidence for a response carries far more weight than the response itself. Thus, you should not attempt to structure the AfD process like a vote:
- Don't add tally boxes to the deletion page.
- Don't reorder comments on the deletion page to group them by keep/delete/other. Such reordering can disrupt the flow of discussion, polarize an issue, and emphasize vote count or word count.
- Do not message editors about AfD nominations because they support your view on the topic. This can be seen as votestacking. See Wikipedia:Canvassing for guidelines.

[edit] How to discuss an AfD/Wikietiquette

The debate is not a vote; please make recommendations on the course of action to be taken, sustained by arguments.
Please have a look at the article before making a recommendation. Do not base your recommendation solely on the information supplied by the nominator. For understanding the situation it may also help to look at the history of the article.
Also, please read the earlier comments and recommendations. They may contain relevant arguments and further useful information.
Start your comments or recommendations on a new bulleted line (that is, starting with *), and sign them by adding ~~~~ to the end. If you are responding to another editor, put your comment directly below theirs, making sure it is indented (using multiple bullets).
Please disclose whether you are an article's primary author or if you otherwise have a vested interest in the article.
Unregistered or new users are welcome to contribute to the discussion, but their recommendations may be discounted, especially if they seem to be made in bad faith (for example, if they misrepresent their reasons). Conversely, the opinions of logged in users whose accounts predate the article's AfD nomination are given more weight.
Multiple recommendations by users shown to be using "sock puppets" (multiple accounts belonging to the same person) will be discounted.
Usually editors recommend a course of action in bold text, e.g., "Keep" or "Delete".
Please make only one recommendation; if you change your mind, modify your original recommendation rather than adding a new one. The recommended way of doing this is to use strike-through by enclosing a retracted statement between <s> and </s>, as in "~~Delete~~ Speedy keep".
Arguments commonly used to recommend deletion are: "unverifiable" (violates WP:V), "original research" (violates WP:NOR), and "non-notable" in cases where the subject does not meet their respective notability criteria. (In the cases of non-notable biographical articles, it is better to say "does not meet WP:BIO" to avoid insulting the subject.) The accusation "VANITY" should be avoided [1], and is not in itself a reason for deletion. The argument "non-neutral point of view" (violates WP:NPOV) is often used, but often such articles can be salvaged, so this is not a very strong reason for deletion either.
If you wish for an article to be kept, you can improve the article to address the reasons for deletion given in the nomination. You can search out references, and diffuse the deletion arguments given using policy, guidelines, and examples from our good and featured articles. If the reasons given in the nomination are addressed by editing, the nomination should be withdrawn by the nominator, and the deletion discussion will be closed by an admin.

You don't have to make a recommendation on every nomination; consider not participating if:

A nomination involves a topic with which you are unfamiliar.
You agree with the consensus that has already been formed.

Please see Wikipedia:Notability. Also, Wikipedia:Non-notability and this discussion on the talk page of Wikipedia:Deletion Policy regarding notability may be useful.

Deletion Debates
Articles (by category) Templates Images & media Categories User categories Stub types Redirects Miscellaneous Deletion review
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[edit] What to do after an AfD discussion has passed with a confirmation?

Nothing. If the discussion has been listed according to the rules above, at the end of the discussion period (about five days), it will always be closed within a few more days at most. Asking for someone to close the discussion is not necessary.

[edit] Related pages

Please DO NOT try to update these pages or start a new day yourself. (Note: These pages are not the deletion log pages referred to in step III of the instructions, above).

Purge server cache for today's AFD page