LifeWiki:Deletion policy

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The deletion policy describes how articles and media that do not meet the content criteria for LifeWiki are identified and removed. All content here is governed by a standard of quality. Some of the standards include encyclopedic quality, editorial approach, and content copyright. Content that is capable of abiding by 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, is 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

There are two main processes for deletion that are described below. After you decide which process is right for the article involved, place the appropriate template on the top of the page with the reason why you feel the page should be deleted if required. People may comment on the request during the lag time before deletion on the talk page of the page being deleted.

Process Required Lag Template Used Description
Speedy deletion None {{speedydeletion}} For pure vandalism, complete nonsense, or other pages that can be instantly deleted.
Proposed deletion Fourteen days {{proposeddeletion}} For pages that are contested for deletion but whose deletion would be potentially controversial.

Speedy deletion

Speedy deletion is a deletion process that governs the deletion of articles and media that administrators can delete "on-sight" without further debate. Non-admins can request a page be speedily deleted by adding the tag {{speedydeletion|reason for deletion}} at the top of an article, which will place the page in the category for speedy deletion candidates. The candidates for speedy deletion can be found at Category:Speedy deletion.

Criteria for speedy deletion

An article can be speedily deleted only if it falls under one of the criteria listed below. If there is any possible doubt whether or not a page should be speedily deleted, then the page should be listed as described under for proposed deletion instead.

  1. Pure vandalism that was created in attempt to harm the site, including SPAM.
  2. Complete nonsense and gibberish pages that contain no meaningful content.
  3. Test pages created by new 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 does not assert that the content was copied with permission nor claims fair use.
  6. Redirects should be speedily deleted if they are orphaned and meet at least one of the following criteria:
    1. The redirect was created as a result of a typo,
    2. The redirect is broken, meaning that it links to an article that does not exist or was deleted, or
    3. The redirect now points from the main namespace to a user page as a result of a page being moved between namespaces.
  7. Emergency actions. Administrators can speedily delete pages temporarily in response to potential legal problems or exceptional controversy.
Images
  1. Corrupted or empty images.
  2. Redundant images that have another copy that is of the same or better quality and of the same image file format.
User Pages
  1. User request. User sub pages can be speedily deleted upon request from user whose user space the page lies under.
  2. Non-existent users, when there is a user page or user talk page and no user to match these pages.

Proposed deletion

Proposed deletion is a deletion process for the deletion of uncontroversial pages that do 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 reasons to keep the page have not been overlooked.

To propose an article for the proposed deletion process, add the {{proposeddeletion|reason for deletion}} tag onto the top of the article. These pages can be deleted after 14 days if the proposed deletion goes uncontested or there is a general consensus that the page should be deleted.

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

Criteria for proposed deletion

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

Problem with page Possible 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, list the page for proposed deletion.
The article is not notable. If possible, add sources as references to establish notability of the given article. If such sources can not be found, add the {{notability}} tag to the top of the page. If that tag has been on a page for over 30 days and no progress toward establishing notability has been made, add the {{proposeddeletion|This article is not notable}} template to the top of the page. Whether or not the article should be deleted will then be determined by consensus on the article's talk page.

Procedure for administrators

The deleting administrator has the final authority to determine whether or not an article should be deleted or not. Because of this, the admin also has the responsibility to verify the legitimacy of a request and the support of the request before deleting the article.

If you are the deciding administrator in determining whether or not 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 agree that the article should be deleted, delete the article giving an informative reason for deletion and noting the deletion process used.
  4. If you disagree that the article should be deleted, remove the tag and explain why you disagree with the deletion proposal.

Undeletion

When an administrator deletes an article, it does not become lost forever – it simply becomes archived so only admins can see them. Because undeletion requests are uncommon, there is no official process for requesting undeletion. For this reason, undeletion requests should be made directly to an administrator. An administrator can either undelete an entire article or partially undelete an article.