Battlestar Wiki:Candidates for deletion

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This page is an official policy of Battlestar Wiki. This policy is considered by the community and its leadership to be the status quo of Battlestar Wiki and is not to be countermanded or ignored, though changes to it can be discussed on the appropriate talk page. This policy was implemented on 27 February 2007.

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This page is a derived work from Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion page, which is authorized under the GNU FDL.

Main article: Category:Candidates for deletion

There are a cases where admins can delete pages. Non-admins can ask for an admin to delete such a page, by going through the procedure listed below.

This policy deals with how to nominate an article or other namespace item for deletion, in addition to how such deletions should be handled.

How to Ask

Before you ask to have a page deleted, make sure to read the qualifiers for deletion.

The user does not need to e-mail or send a message via an admin's talk page. It is as simple as tagging it, akin to "hide and go seek" where you tag people by saying "your it".

In non-juvenile terminology, the user would tag the page by adding one of the following tags:

Simple Delete Tag

A delete tag is simple as clicking "edit" on the page in question and typing the following on the first line:

• {{delete}}

Should you wish, you can also add your reasoning on the discussion / talk page in question.

Reason Delete Tag

An alternate tag available on this wiki is:

• {{deletebecause|Reason}}

Speedy Delete Tag

To request a speedy delete enter:

• {{speedydelete|Reason}}

This tag not only states that the article needs to be reviewed and, if necessary, deleted but also the reason for the deletion.

Image Delete Tag

To request that all previous versions of a image be deleted, but keeping the current version enter:

• {{image delete}}

The cases

Sysops may immediately delete a page, so long as it satisfies one of the following criteria; it is however worthwhile to discuss and evaluate the reasons for the deletion before executing it. Always check the page history first to see if any previous version can be restored, such that deletion is not necessary.

Note that some Galactipedians create articles in multiple saves. Try to avoid deleting a page too soon after its initial creation, as the author may be working on it.

Of course, the Sandbox is exempt from these rules and should not be deleted even though it may satisfy some of the criteria. Removing the test content is preferred.

Criteria for Deletion

These apply to contributions made in any namespace; in most cases other criteria, in an another sub-section within the present section, also apply to the namespace in question.

1. No meaningful content or history (e.g. random characters). See patent nonsense.
2. Test pages (e.g., "Can I really create a page here?").
3. Pure vandalism. (see also dealing with vandalism).
4. Reposted content that was deleted according to Battlestar Wiki's deletion policy.
   • This does not apply to content that was undeleted according to undeletion policy.
5. Contributions made by a banned user after they were banned, unless the user has been unbanned. This is slightly controversial!
6. Temporarily deleting a page in order to move a page manually.
7. Any page which is requested for deletion by the original author, provided the author reasonably explains that it was created by mistake, and the page was edited only by its author.
8. Very short articles with little or no context (e.g., "He is a funny man that has created Factory and the Hacienda. And, by the way, his wife is great.")
   • Turning such pages into relevant redirects may sometimes be appropriate if any potential context can be found.
   • Be aware that some articles are contributed from other Wikipedias, or by non-fluent English speakers, which may lead to misunderstanding of the content.
9. Any article whose contents consist only of an external link, "See also" section, book reference, category tag, template tag, or interwiki link.
10. Any article which consists only of attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title.

Redirects

Redirects can be deleted if they have no useful history and:

1. They refer to non-existent pages. Before deleting a redirect, check to see if the redirect can be made useful by changing its target.
2. Were created by moving user pages out of the article space. (Sometimes new Galactipedians accidentally create user pages in the main article space. Move them into the user space using the "Move this page" tool to preserve their history, and consider waiting a day or two before deleting the resultant redirect.)
3. There is a consensus that it should be removed to make way for a non-controversial page move.
4. Were created very recently as a result of a typo (during a page move or as a proactive measure). This does not include common mis-spellings, as redirects from those are considered useful.
5. Are the result of vandalism (e.g. renaming a page to a nonsense title; when the page is moved back to its correct name, a redirect will be left behind).

Images/Media

1. An image which is a redundant (all pixels the same or scaled-down) copy of something else on Battlestar Wiki and as long as all inward links have been changed to the image being retained.
2. A corrupt or empty image.

Categories

1. Empty categories (no articles or subcategories) whose only content has consisted of links to parent categories.
2. Empty categories (no articles or subcategories), 24 hours after the last page was removed from it.

User pages

1. Personal subpages, upon request by their owner.
2. User and talk pages on request of the user, where there is no significant abuse, and no administrative need to retain the page.
3. User talk pages of non-logged in users where the message is no longer relevant (This is to avoid confusing new users who happen to edit with that same IP address).

Dealing with candidates

All candidates for deletion should be evaluated prior to making a decision. Such evaluations are typically carried out by the community via discussion on the corresponding candidate's talk page, where multiple people can share their viewpoints.

For instance, not all CFDs should be deleted on sight, even if they satisfy the aforementioned criteria. For instance, content in CFD-tagged articles may be merged into other articles; other times, a CFD-tagged article may just need to be expanded upon. Even in other instances, content from a growing page may need to be segmented for easier reading, and thus find a home in a CFD-tagged article.

The timeline for these discussion is typically established by an administrator, as there is no default time period for discussions to take place in. Administrators strive to let everyone know the timeline for discussions, so that everyone is clear on the expectation.

While the expectation is that CFD articles should have a definitive resolution within the shortest time possible, the Wiki strives for accuracy and completeness, and not necessarily how quickly something is thrown up -- or thrown out.

With that said, many times a CFD-tagged article is very much an "open and shut" case, with little discussion needed. Thus common sense comes into play.

Instructions

Upon determining whether an article should be deleted, the deleting administrator must:

1. Using the Special:Whatlinkshere feature, ensure that no other articles link to the article you are about to delete.
2. Delete the article, explaining the reason briefly in the reason box.
3. Tag the talk page of the deleted article with {{deletion discussion}}.

If the article was chosen to not be deleted, then the CFD tag can be removed. Additionally, any additional ideas to come out of the discussion (such as merges or rewrites) should be implemented, unless consensus states otherwise.

Notes

Please note that copyright problems are not candidates for deletion unless they meet one of the above criteria.

Ideally, when a sysop deletes a test page or other page with no useful content, it is a good idea to put a note on the author's talk page explaining things, and preserving the deleted content, pointing them to the sandbox in cases of tests. Be friendly! Everyone was new once.