UESPWiki:Deletion Policy

The deletion policy describes how articles and media that do not meet the content criteria for UESP are identified and removed.

All wiki content must meet a standard of quality. Some of the standards include encyclopedic quality, editorial approach, and content copyright. Content that partially meets these standards can usually be improved upon by editing. However, when content is incapable of meeting inclusion criteria or is in breach of site policy, it should be deleted.

When an article is deleted, the article and its revision history are removed from view. Unlike page blanking, which can be done by any user, deletion can only be done by administrators.

Deletion Process

The four main processes for deleting content are described below. Decide which process is right for the article involved, then place the appropriate template on the top of the page, including, if required, the reason you feel the page should be deleted. People may comment on the request before the content is deleted, either on the talk page of the article, or on the message board where the deletion was proposed. When placing the template, please do not remove the existing page text unless it is offensive, spam, or a copyright violation. While not strictly necessary, the admins will like you more if you also ensure that all links and transclusions in the "What Links Here" list have been updated or removed.

Process	Required Wait Time	Template Used	Shortcut	Description
Speedy Deletion	None	{{speedydeletion}}	{{speed}}	For pure vandalism, patent nonsense, or other pages that can be instantly deleted.
Proposed Deletion	Seven Days	{{proposeddeletion}}	{{prod}}	For pages that can uncontroversially be deleted, but do not fall under one of the criteria for speedy deletion
Deletion Review	Seven Days	{{deletionreview}}		For debating pages that are contested for deletion or are potentially controversial.
Administrator Noticeboard	Ten Days	None		Proposals that do not fit into one of the above processes, such as batch deletions, can be proposed on the administrator noticeboard.

Speedy Deletion

Speedy deletion is used to delete articles and media that administrators can delete on sight, without further debate. Non-admins can request a speedy deletion by adding the tag {{speedydeletion|reason for deletion}} onto the top of an article (or, for redirects, on a separate line below the redirect), which will place the page in the category for speedy deletion candidates. Current candidates for speedy deletion can be found at Category:Speedy Deletion.

Criteria for Speedy Deletion

General

A page can be speedily deleted only if it meets one or more of the criteria listed below. If there is any doubt as to whether a page meets this standard, then use one of the other deletion processes.

1. Vandalism obviously created in attempt to harm the site, including redirects created from page moves.
2. Nonsense pages that contain no meaningful content.
3. Test pages created by users experimenting with the wiki.
4. Attack pages that serve no useful purpose but to assault their subject.
5. Blatant copyright infringements should be speedily deleted only if:
   1. The article was unquestionably copied from the website of a well-known content provider,
   2. The article and its entire history, excluding tag inclusions and minor edits, contains only copyright violation material, and
   3. The editor of the content did not assert that the content was copied with permission, claim fair use, or assert a potentially valid reason that the content in question was legally and properly used.
6. Redirects should be speedily deleted if they are orphaned and the page would not otherwise be useful to keep (e.g., for easier searches).
7. Maintenance. This includes any pages which no longer serve a purpose on the wiki, and where the deletion would be uncontroversial, such as unused categories, unneeded disambiguation pages, pages created in error, or any other page where no objection to the deletion is reasonably expected.
8. Author-requested deletions can be speedily deleted if the content has been moved elsewhere or the page contains nothing of broader interest to the community. As with maintenance pages, they should only be speedily deleted if the deletion is believed to be uncontroversial.
9. Emergencies. Administrators can speedily delete pages temporarily in response to potential legal problems or exceptional controversy.

Images

1. Corrupted or empty images.
2. Redundant images, when there exists another highly similar or identical image that is of the same or better quality.
3. Talk page images, where a user has uploaded an image for the purpose of discussion, but the image is no longer required for the purpose of future discussion. The person requesting the deletion must be the original uploader or the person for whom the image was uploaded; otherwise, normal deletion procedures apply.

User Pages

1. User request. A user's sub pages can be speedily deleted upon request from that user.
2. Non-existent users, when there exists a user page or user talk page with no matching user.

Proposed Deletion

Proposed deletion is used to make uncontroversial deletion requests when content does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion. The purpose of this process is to provide a chance for other editors to look over the proposal and ensure that potential reasons for keeping the page have not been overlooked.

To propose an article for deletion by this process, add the {{proposeddeletion|reason for deletion}} tag onto the top of the article. For redirects, put the tag on a line of its own below the redirect instead.

These pages can be deleted after seven days without a full debate if no objection is raised. If anyone has an objection to the deletion that cannot be resolved through a discussion on the talk page, the page should be moved to the deletion review process instead. If the "proposed deletion" tag is removed without explanation, it should be assumed that there is an objection to the deletion.

Current candidates for proposed deletion can be found at Category:Proposed Deletion.

Deletion Review

The deletion review is where pages that are contested or potentially controversial are debated. To place a page under this process or to vote on a proposed deletion made under this process, follow the directions on the deletion review board.

Criteria for Deletion

These are some examples of when a page may be deleted.

Problem with page	Solution
The article is redundant to another established article that discusses the same topic.	If possible, merge and redirect the redundant article to the established article. Alternatively, consider redirection only if there is no useful content that can be merged and if the page would be useful as a redirect. If the content cannot be used and the article would not be useful as a redirect, submit the page for proposed deletion or for deletion review.
The page is a useless redirect.	Deleting redirects, especially old ones, can risk breaking external and internal links. Because of this, you may want to only consider the deletion of very newly created redirects or ones that cause problems. The following are examples of when it would be a good idea to list a redirect for proposed deletion or on the deletion review: The redirect is a cross namespace redirect, such as when one points from the main namespace to one of the game namespaces. The main exception to this rule is when shortcut redirects are purposely created in the main namespace (such as Daggerfall redirecting to Daggerfall:Daggerfall). The redirect is offensive or makes no sense, such as redirecting [[Oblivion:Lex is stupid]] to Oblivion:Imperial City. The redirect is broken, meaning that the page redirects to a page that no longer exists or that never existed. On the other hand, you should avoid deleting a redirect if: The redirect has a potentially useful page history. For example, if the page started out as an article and later was transformed into a redirect because the content was merged into another page. Someone finds the redirect to be useful. You may not necessarily find it useful, but others may because people search and browse in different ways. The deletion of the redirect risks breaking internal or external links. The redirect would prevent the (re)creation of duplicate and redundant articles, whether by redirecting the plural form of an article to the singular form, by redirecting a frequent misspelling of a subject to its correct spelling, by redirecting to a synonym, etc. In other words, redirects with no incoming internal links are not grounds for deletion on those terms alone, because they could be of benefit to users.
The article is a candidate for speedy deletion for reasons including: The article was created solely to vandalize. The article is total nonsense.	List the page for speedy deletion using the {{speedydeletion}} template.

Procedure for Administrators

The deleting administrator has the final authority to determine whether an article should be deleted. Because of this, the administrator also has the responsibility to verify the legitimacy of a request and evaluate support for and against the request before making a final decision.

If you are the deciding administrator, follow these steps to determine whether a page should be deleted:

1. Check the history to see if the article has been marked for the appropriate length of time.
2. Review the article's discussion page/deletion review entry and ensure that all votes are legitimate and check for contests.
3. If you decide that the article should be deleted, delete the article giving an informative reason for deletion and noting the deletion process used.
4. If you decide against deletion, remove the tag and consider proposing the article for deletion review.
5. An article should not generally be deleted by the person who submitted it for deletion. Administrators who intend to delete articles that they proposed for deletion must wait four weeks and then announce their intentions on the Deletion Policy talk page. If there are no objections voiced in seven days, they may then delete the articles.
6. Deletion of a related talk page or archives are left to the administrator's discretion. In general, a talk page should not be deleted if it contains significant content or provides an extended explanation of why a page was deleted.

Undeletion

When an administrator deletes an article, it does not become lost forever—it is simply archived and can only be seen by administrators. Undeletion requests should be made on the administrator noticeboard. An administrator can undelete an entire article or undelete part or parts of an article.

See Also

• Protection Policy – The policy governing the protection of pages
• Administrators – A description of administrators and their role on the wiki
• Category:Marked for Deletion – A list of all pages currently marked for deletion
• Category:Talk Pages for Deleted Articles – A list of pages kept on the wiki after the article they apply to has been deleted