Wikipedia policy describing when pages may be deleted speedily
| This page documents an English Wikipedia
policy
.
It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should
normally
follow. Changes made to it should reflect
consensus
.
|
|
| This page in a nutshell:
Under certain limited conditions, a page may be deleted by an
administrator
without waiting for any discussion.
|
The
criteria for speedy deletion
(
CSD
) specify the only cases in which
administrators
have broad
consensus
to bypass
deletion discussion
, at their discretion, and immediately delete Wikipedia pages or media. Because deletion is reversible only by administrators, other deletions occur only after discussion, unless they are
proposed deletions
. Speedy deletion is intended to reduce the time spent on deletion discussions for pages or media with
no practical chance
of surviving discussion.
[1]
Anyone can request speedy deletion by adding one of the
speedy deletion templates
, but only administrators may actually delete.
Before nominating a page for speedy deletion, consider whether it could be improved, reduced to a
stub
, merged or redirected elsewhere, reverted to a better previous revision, or handled in some other way (see
Wikipedia:Deletion policy §?Alternatives to deletion
). A page is eligible for speedy deletion only if all of its
history
is also eligible. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criterion/criteria the page meets, and should notify the page creator and any major contributors. If a page needs to be removed from Wikipedia for privacy reasons (e.g. non-public personal information, a child disclosing their age, possible libel),
request oversight
instead.
For most speedy deletion criteria,
the creator of a page may not remove the deletion tag from it
; only an editor who is not the creator of a page may do so. A creator who disagrees with the speedy deletion should instead click on the
Contest this speedy deletion
button that appears inside of the speedy deletion tag. This button links to the
discussion page
with a pre-formatted area for the creator to explain why the page should not be deleted. If an editor other than the creator removes a speedy deletion tag in
good faith
, it should be taken as a sign that the deletion is controversial and another deletion process should be used. The creator of a page may remove a speedy deletion tag only if the criterion in question is
G6
,
G7
,
G8
,
G13
,
G14
,
C1
or
U1
.
[2]
Administrators should take care not to speedily delete pages or media except in the most obvious cases. If a page has survived its most recent deletion discussion, it should not be speedily deleted except for newly discovered copyright violations and pages that meet specific uncontroversial criteria; these criteria are noted below. Contributors sometimes create pages over several edits, so administrators should avoid deleting a page that appears incomplete too soon after its creation.
Besides speedy deletion, there are the following methods of deletion:
Nomenclature
Letter-number abbreviations (G12, A3...) are often used to refer to these criteria, and are given in each section. For example, "CSD G12" refers to
criterion 12
under
general
(copyright infringement) and "CSD U1" refers to
criterion 1
under
user
(user request). Some in-between numbers are skipped, as abbreviations denoting
obsolete criteria
remain unused.
These abbreviations can be confusing
to new editors or anyone else unfamiliar with this page; in many situations a
plain-English explanation
of why a specific page was or should be deleted is preferable.
Requesting speedy deletion
Immediately following each criterion below is a list of templates used to mark pages or media files for speedy deletion under the criterion being used. In order to alert administrators to the nomination, place the relevant speedy deletion template at the top of the page or media file you are nominating (but see
§?Pages that need to be tagged in a special manner
below). Please be sure to supply an
edit summary
that mentions that the page is being nominated for speedy deletion. All of the speedy deletion templates are named as
Db-X
with
Db
standing for 'delete because'. A list of the
Db-X
templates can be found at
Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion/Deletion templates
.
If a page falls under more than one of the criteria, instead of adding multiple tags it is possible to add a single
{{
Db-multiple
}}
tag to cover them all. For example, if an article seems both to be blatantly promotional (
G11
) and also to fail to indicate significance of its subject (A7) then the tag
{{
Db-multiple
|G11|A7}}
can be used to indicate both of these concerns. The article can then be speedily deleted if an administrator assesses it and decides that either or both of the criteria apply.
There is strong consensus that the creators and major contributors of pages and media files should be warned of a speedy deletion nomination (or of the deletion if not informed before). All speedy deletion templates (using criteria other than U1, G5, G6, G7, and G8) thus contain in their body a pre-formatted, suggested warning template to notify the relevant party or parties of the nomination for speedy deletion under the criterion used. You can copy and paste such warnings to the talk pages of the creators and major contributors, choose from others listed at
Category:CSD warning templates
, or place the unified warning template,
{{
subst:CSD-warn
|
csd
|
Page name
}}
, which allows you to tailor your warning under any particular criterion by replacing
csd
with the associated criterion abbreviation (e.g. g4, a7).
Use common sense when applying a speedy deletion request to a page: review the page history to make sure that all earlier revisions of the page meet the speedy deletion criterion, because a single editor can replace an article with material that appears to cause the page to meet one or more of the criteria.
Pages that need to be tagged in a special manner
Some pages either cannot or should not be tagged for speedy deletion in the normal manner:
- Pages that you cannot edit (e.g., due to protection), or
JSON
pages: place the template on the corresponding Talk page instead, along with an explanation of which page to delete.
- Template:
pages: place the template within a noinclude tag, like this:
<noinclude>
{{Db-x}}
</noinclude>
- Module:
pages (except for /doc pages): place the template with
Module:Module wikitext
, like this:
require
(
'Module:Module wikitext'
).
_addText
(
'{{Db-x}}'
)
- CSS
(including
sanitized CSS
) or
JavaScript
pages: place the template in a comment, like this:
/*
{{Db-x}}
*/
Pages that have survived deletion discussions
As an exception to the norm that a page surviving its most recent deletion discussion means that it should not be speedily deleted, the following criteria apply also to those pages, with or without any specified limitations:
These criteria may only be used in such cases when no controversy exists; in the event of a dispute, start a new deletion discussion. However, newly discovered copyright violations should be tagged for G12 if the violation existed in all previous revisions of the article. G5 may be also used at discretion, subject to meeting the criterion outlined above.
General
These apply to
every type of page
with exclusions listed for specific criteria, and so apply to articles, drafts, redirects, user pages, talk pages, files, etc. Read the specifics for each criterion to see where and how they apply.
G1. Patent nonsense
This applies to pages consisting entirely of incoherent text or
gibberish
with no meaningful content or history. It does
not
cover poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, implausible theories,
vandalism
,
hoaxes
, fictional material, coherent
non-English
material, or
poorly translated material
. In short, if it is understandable, G1 does not apply. It also does not apply to pages in the
user namespace
.
G2. Test pages
This applies to pages created to test editing or other Wikipedia functions. It applies to subpages of the
Wikipedia Sandbox
created as tests, but does
not
apply to the Sandbox itself, pages in the
user namespace
, or valid but unused or duplicate templates.
G3. Pure vandalism and blatant hoaxes
This applies to pages that are blatant and obvious misinformation, blatant
hoaxes
(including files intended to misinform), and redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism.
Articles
about
notable hoaxes
are acceptable if it is clear that they are describing a hoax.
G4. Recreation of a page that was deleted per a deletion discussion
This applies to sufficiently identical copies, having any title, of a page deleted via its most recent
deletion discussion
.
[3]
It excludes pages that are
not
substantially identical to the deleted version, and pages to which the reason for the deletion no longer applies.
[4]
It excludes pages in userspace and draftspace where the content was converted
[5]
to a
draft
for explicit improvement (but not simply to circumvent Wikipedia's
deletion policy
). This criterion also does not cover content undeleted via a
deletion review
, or that was only deleted via
proposed deletion
(including deletion discussions closed as
"soft delete"
) or speedy deletion.
G5. Creations by banned or blocked users
This applies to pages created by
banned
or
blocked
users
in violation of their ban or block
, and that have no substantial edits by others.
- To qualify, the edit or page must have been made while the user was actually banned or blocked. A page created before the ban or block was imposed or after it was lifted will not qualify under this criterion.
- For
topic-banned
editors, the page must be a violation of the user's specific ban, and must not include contributions legitimately about some other topic.
- When a blocked or banned person uses an alternate account (
sockpuppet
) to avoid a restriction, any pages created via the sock account after the earliest block or ban of any of that person's accounts qualify for G5 (if not substantially edited by others); this is the most common case for applying G5.
- G5 should not be applied to
transcluded
templates or
populated categories
unless they have been transcluded or populated entirely by the banned or blocked user; these edits
need to be reverted
before deletion.
- {{
Db-g5
|
name of banned user
}}
,
{{
Db-banned
|
name of banned user
}}
- Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as having been created by blocked or banned users
G6. Technical deletions
For disambiguation pages that disambiguate one or zero pages, see criterion
G14
.
This is for
uncontroversial
maintenance, including:
- Deleting empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past.
- Deleting redirects or other pages which prevent
page moves
. Administrators should be aware of the
proper procedures
where a redirect or page holding up a page move has a non-trivial page history. An administrator who deletes a page that is blocking a move should ensure that the move is completed after deleting it.
- Deleting pages unambiguously created in error or in the incorrect namespace, or redirects created by moving away from a title that was obviously unintended.
- Deleting templates orphaned as the result of a consensus at
Wikipedia:Templates for discussion
.
- {{
Db-g6
|rationale=
reason
}}
? If none of the special tags below applies, this tag should be used with a reason specified in the
|rationale=
parameter.
- {{
Db-copypaste
|
page to be moved
}}
? for
cut-and-paste page moves
that need to be temporarily deleted to make room for a clean page move.
- {{
Db-move
|
page to be moved
|
reason
}}
? for pages that are currently holding up a non-controversial or consensual page move.
- {{
Db-moved
}}
? for pages that were holding up a page move, until they were moved out of the way by a
page mover
.
- {{
Db-afc-move
|Draft:
page to be moved
}}
? for pages that are currently holding up a non-controversial or consensual page move as a result of an
Articles for creation
(AFC) review, typically for articles in draft space.
- {{
Db-xfd
|fullvotepage=
link to closed
deletion discussion
}}
? for pages where a consensus to delete has been previously reached via deletion discussion, but which were not deleted.
- {{
Db-error
}}
? for pages obviously created in error.
- Category:Candidates for technical speedy deletion
G7. Author requests deletion
If requested in good faith and provided that the only substantial content of the page was added by its author. For redirects created as a result of a
page move
, the mover must also have been the only substantive contributor to the pages before the move.
[6]
If the sole author
blanks
a page other than a userspace page, a category page, or any type of talk page, this can be taken as a deletion request. If an author requests deletion of a page currently undergoing a deletion discussion, the closing admin may interpret that request as agreement with the deletion rationale.
G8. Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page
Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Talk pages
with no corresponding subject page
- Subpages
with no parent page
- File pages
without a corresponding file
- TimedText pages
without a corresponding file (or when the file has been moved to Commons)
- Redirects
to targets that never existed or were deleted
- Editnotices
of non-existent or
unsalted
deleted pages
- Categories populated by deleted or retargeted templates
This criterion excludes any page that is useful to Wikipedia, and in particular:
- Deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere
- User talk pages
- Talk page archives (except article talk page archives where the corresponding article and main talk page have been deleted and the page is not otherwise useful to Wikipedia ? check for page-moves and merges before using G8 on article-talk-page-archives; the parent article might still exist under a different name)
- Redirects that were broken as a result of a page move or retargeting (these should instead be retargeted to their target's new name), except where
R2
speedy deletion would then immediately apply if they were fixed (e.g., redirects to articles that have been
draftified
)
- Plausible redirects that can be changed to valid targets
- User
subpages
- Talk pages for files that exist on
Wikimedia Commons
- Pages that should be moved to a different location
[7]
Exceptions may be sign-posted with the template
{{
G8-exempt
}}
.
G9. Office actions
In exceptional circumstances, the Wikimedia Foundation office reserves the right to speedy-delete a page. Deletions of this type must not be reversed without permission from the Foundation.
G10. Pages that disparage, threaten, intimidate, or harass their subject or some other entity, and serve no other purpose
Examples of "
attack pages
" may include:
libel
,
legal threats
, material intended purely to
harass or intimidate
a person, or
biographical material about a living person
that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced. These pages should be speedily deleted when there is no
neutral
version in the page history to revert to. Both the page title and page content may be taken into account in assessing an attack. Articles about living people deleted under this criterion should
not
be restored or recreated by any editor until the
biographical article standards
are met. Other pages violating the Biographies of living persons policy might be eligible for deletion under the conditions stipulated at
Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons §?Summary deletion, creation prevention, and courtesy blanking
, although in most cases a deletion discussion should be initiated instead.
Redirects from plausible search terms are not eligible under this criterion. For example, a term used on the target page to refer to its subject is often a plausible redirect ? see
Wikipedia:RNEUTRAL
.
G11. Unambiguous advertising or promotion
This applies to pages that are
exclusively
promotional and would need to be
fundamentally
rewritten to serve as encyclopedia articles,
rather than advertisements
. If a subject is
notable
and the content could plausibly be replaced with text written from a
neutral point of view
, this is preferable to deletion.
Note:
Any article that describes its subject from a neutral point of view does not qualify for this criterion. However, "promotion" does not necessarily mean commercial promotion: anything can be promoted, including a person, a non-commercial organization, a point of view, etc.
G12. Unambiguous copyright infringement
This applies to text pages that contain copyrighted material with no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or a
compatible free license
, where there is no non-infringing content on the page worth saving. Only if the history is unsalvageably corrupted should it be deleted in its entirety; earlier versions without infringement should be retained. For equivocal cases that do not meet speedy deletion criteria (such as where there is a dubious assertion of permission, where free-content edits overlie the infringement, or where there is only partial infringement or close paraphrasing), the article or the appropriate section should be blanked with {{
subst:Copyvio
|url=
insert URL here
}}, and the page should be listed at
Wikipedia:Copyright problems
. Please consult
Wikipedia:Copyright violations
for other instructions. Public-domain and other free content, such as a
Wikipedia mirror
, do not fall under this criterion, nor is mere lack of attribution of such works a reason for speedy deletion. For images and media, see the
equivalent criterion
in the
"Files" section
here, which has more specific instructions.
- Note:
If other criteria apply in addition to G12, the template
{{
Db-multiple
}}
should be used instead, so we do not waste time seeking
copyright permission
after deleting the page.
G13. Abandoned drafts and
Articles for creation
submissions
This applies to any pages that have not been edited by a human in six months found in:
- Draft namespace
,
- Userspace
with an
{{
AFC submission
}}
template
- Userspace with no content except the
article wizard
placeholder text.
Redirects are exempt from G13 deletion.
[8]
Adding a CSD template to a page does not reset the six-month clock, but removing a CSD template does.
[9]
Pages deleted under G13 may be restored upon request by following the procedure at
Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/G13
.
G14. Unnecessary disambiguation pages
This applies to the following
disambiguation
pages and redirects:
- Disambiguation pages that have titles ending in
"(disambiguation)"
but disambiguate only one extant Wikipedia page.
- Regardless of title, disambiguation pages that disambiguate zero extant Wikipedia pages.
- A redirect that ends in
"(disambiguation)"
but does not redirect to a disambiguation page or a page that performs a disambiguation-like function (such as
set index articles
or lists).
If a disambiguation page links to only one article and does not end in
(disambiguation)
, it should be changed to a redirect, unless it is more appropriate to move the linked page to the title currently used for the disambiguation page.
Articles
These criteria apply only to pages in the article (main) namespace. They do not apply to redirects. For any articles that are not speedy deletion candidates, use
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion
or
Wikipedia:Proposed deletion
.
A1. No context
This applies to articles lacking sufficient context to identify the subject of the article.
[10]
Example: "He is a funny man with a red car. He makes people laugh."
It applies only to very short articles. Note that
context
is different from
content
, treated in
A3
. This
excludes
coherent
non-English
material, and
poorly translated material
. If any information in the title or on the page, including links, allows an editor, possibly with the aid of a web search, to find further information on the subject in an attempt to expand or edit it, A1 is not appropriate. Do not tag under this criterion in the first few minutes after a new article is created.
[11]
A2. Foreign-language articles that exist on another Wikimedia project
This applies to articles not written in English that have essentially the same content as an article on another Wikimedia project. If the article is not the same as an article on another project, use the template
{{
Not English
}}
instead, and list the page at
Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English
for review and possible translation.
A3. No content
This applies to articles consisting only of external links, category tags or "See also" sections, a rephrasing of the title, attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title, questions that should have been asked at a
noticeboard
, chat-like comments, template tags, or images. This may also apply to articles consisting entirely of the framework of the
Article wizard
with no additional content, or no content at all. However, a very short article may be a valid
stub
if it has context, in which case it is not eligible for deletion under this criterion. Similarly, this criterion does not cover a page having only an infobox, unless its contents also meet another speedy deletion criterion. This criterion
excludes
poor writing, coherent
non-English
material, and
poorly translated material
. Do not tag under this criterion in the first few minutes after a new article is created.
[11]
A7. No indication of importance (people, animals, organizations, web content, events)
This applies to any article about a
real person, individual animal, commercial or non-commercial organization,
web content
, or organized event
[12]
that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant,
with the exception of
educational institutions
.
[13]
This is distinct from
verifiability
and
reliability of sources
, and is a lower standard than
notability
. This criterion applies
only
to articles about the listed subjects; in particular, it does
not
apply to articles about albums (these may be covered by
CSD A9
), products, books, films, TV programs, software, or other creative works, nor to entire
species
of animals. The criterion
does
apply if the claim of significance or importance given is not credible, and any article with a blatantly false claim may be
submitted for speedy deletion as a hoax
instead. If the claim's credibility is unclear, you can improve the article yourself,
propose deletion
, or list the article at
articles for deletion
.
The criterion does
not
apply to any article that makes
any
credible claim of significance
or importance
even if the claim is not supported by a reliable source or does not qualify on Wikipedia's
notability guidelines
.
A9. No indication of importance (musical recordings)
This applies to any article about a
musical recording
or
list of musical recordings
where
none of the contributing recording artists has an article
and that
does not indicate why its subject is important or significant
(
both
conditions must be met). This is distinct from questions of
verifiability
and
reliability of sources
, and is a lower standard than
notability
. This criterion does
not
apply to other forms of creative media, products, or any other types of articles.
The criterion does
not
apply to any article that makes
any
credible claim of significance
or importance
even if the claim is not supported by a reliable source or does not qualify on Wikipedia's
notability guidelines
.
A10. Recently created article that duplicates an existing topic
This applies to any
recently created
[14]
article with no relevant page history that duplicates an existing English Wikipedia article, and that
does not expand upon, detail or improve information
within any existing article(s) on the subject, and where the title is
not a plausible
redirect
. This does
not
include
split pages
or any article that expands or reorganizes an existing one or that contains referenced,
mergeable
material. It also does
not
include disambiguation pages.
- {{
Db-a10
|article=
Existing article title
}}
,
{{
Db-same
|article=
Existing article title
}}
The title chosen for the vast majority of duplicate articles will be a plausible misspelling of, or alternative name for, the existing article, and a
redirect
should be created instead of deletion. This criterion should, accordingly, only be used rarely, and only for pages whose titles are not plausible redirects.
A11. Obviously invented
This applies to any article that plainly indicates that the subject was
invented/coined/discovered by the article's creator or someone the creator personally knows
, and does not credibly indicate why its subject is important or significant. The criterion does
not
apply to any article that makes
any
credible
claim of significance or importance
even if the claim is not supported by a reliable source or does not qualify under Wikipedia's notability guidelines.
Note
:
This is not intended for hoaxes
(see
CSD G3
).
[15]
Redirects
These criteria apply to
redirects
, including
soft redirects
, in any namespace, with exclusions listed for specific criteria. For any redirects that are not speedy deletion candidates, use
Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion
.
R2. Cross-namespace redirects
This applies to redirects (apart from
shortcuts
) from the
main namespace
to any other namespace
except
the
Category:
,
Template:
,
Wikipedia:
,
Help:
and
Portal:
namespaces.
- See also
Wikipedia:Cross-namespace redirects
,
Category:Cross-namespace redirects
, and
MOS:LINKSTYLE
.
R3. Recently created, implausible typos
This applies to
recently created
[14]
redirects from
implausible
typos
or
misnomers
. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful, as are some redirects in
other languages
. This criterion does
not
apply to redirects created as a result of a
page move
,
[6]
unless nothing was at the title until recently. It also does not apply to articles and stubs that have been converted into redirects, including
redirects created by merges
,
[16]
or to redirects ending with
"(disambiguation)"
that point to a disambiguation page.
R4. File namespace redirects with names that match Wikimedia Commons pages
This applies to redirects in the "File:" namespace with the same name as a file or redirect at
Wikimedia Commons
, provided the redirect on Wikipedia has no
file links
(unless the links are obviously intended for the file or redirect at Wikimedia Commons).
Other issues with redirects
For redirects that end in
"(disambiguation)"
, see
G14
.
For redirects that are not speedy deletion candidates, use
Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion
.
Redirect pages that have useful page history should never be speedily deleted. In some cases it may be possible to make a useful redirect by changing the target instead of deleting it. Redirects that do not work because of software limitations, such as redirects to special pages or to pages on other wikis, may be converted to soft redirects if they have a non-trivial history or other valid uses.
For reversal of redirects, use
{{
Db-move
}}
, a special case of
{{
Db-g6
}}
.
Files
These apply to files, images, and other media.
Note: These criteria formerly began with
I
(e.g. I1, I6, I9) but have since been replaced with
F
, without the actual criteria being changed. This was because the
file namespace
was formerly known as the image namespace.
For any images and other media that are not speedy deletion candidates, use
Wikipedia:Proposed deletion
or
Wikipedia:Files for discussion
.
F1. Redundant
This applies to unused duplicates or lower-quality/resolution copies of another Wikipedia file having the same
file format
. This excludes images in the Wikimedia Commons; for these, see criterion
F8
.
[17]
F2. Corrupt, missing or empty file
This applies to files that are corrupt, missing, empty, or that contain superfluous and blatant non-metadata information.
[18]
This also includes file description pages for Commons files that do not include information that is specific to English Wikipedia (like
{{
FeaturedPicture
}}
).
[19]
F3. Improper license
This criterion is used to flag media licensed as "
for non-commercial use only
" (including non-commercial
Creative Commons licenses
), "no derivative use", "for Wikipedia use only" or "used with permission". These may be deleted, unless they comply with the limited standards for the use of
non-free content
. Files uploaded after 1 August 2021 licensed under versions of the GFDL earlier than 1.3, without allowing for later versions or other licenses, may be deleted.
F4. Lack of licensing information
This applies to media files lacking the necessary licensing information to verify copyright status after being
identified
as
such
for
seven days
. Administrators should check the upload summary, file information page, and the image itself for a source before deleting under this criterion.
F5. Orphaned non-free use files
This applies to images and other media that are not under a
free license
or in the
public domain
and that are not used in any
article
. These may be deleted after being
identified
as such for more than
seven days
or immediately if the image's
only
use was on a deleted article and it is
very unlikely
to have any use on any other valid article. This includes previous revisions of the image or files overwritten by copyright violations. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article.
F6. Missing non-free use rationale
This applies to
non-free
files claiming fair use but without a
use rationale
. These may be deleted after being
identified
as such for
seven days
. The boilerplate
copyright tags setting out fair use criteria
do not constitute a rationale. This criterion does not apply to situations where a use rationale is provided but is disputed.
F7. Invalid fair-use claim
- Non-free
images or media from a commercial source (e.g.
Associated Press
,
Getty Images
), where the file itself is
not
the
subject of sourced commentary
, are considered an invalid claim of fair use and fail the strict requirements of
Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria
, and may be deleted
immediately
.
- Non-free
images or media that have been
identified
as being replaceable by a free image and tagged with
{{
subst:Rnfu
}}
may be deleted after
two days
, if no justification is given for the claim of irreplaceability. If the replaceability is disputed, the nominator should not be the one deleting the image.
- Invalid fair-use claims tagged with
{{
subst:Dnfu
}}
may be deleted
seven days
after they are tagged, if a full and valid fair-use use rationale is not added.
F8. Files available as identical copies on
Wikimedia Commons
Provided the following conditions are met:
- The Commons version is in the same
file format
and is of the same or higher quality/resolution.
- The file's license and source status is beyond reasonable doubt, and the license is undoubtedly accepted at Commons.
To avoid deletion at Commons, please ensure the Commons page description has all of the following:
- Name and date of death of the creator of the artistic work represented by the file, or else clear evidence that a free license was given. If anonymous, ensure the page description provides evidence that establishes the anonymous status.
- Country where the artistic work represented by the file was situated, or where it was first published.
- Date when the artistic work represented by the file was created or first published, depending on the copyright law of the origin country.
- All file revisions that meet the first condition have been transferred to Commons as revisions of the Commons copy and properly marked as such.
- The file is not marked as
{{
Do not move to Commons
}}
or as
{{
Keep local
}}
.
- All information on the image description page is present on the Commons image description page, including the complete upload history with links to the uploader's local user pages (the upload history is
not
necessary if the file's license does not require it, although it is still recommended).
- If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the file description page (like
{{
FeaturedPicture
}}
), the image description page must be undeleted after the file deletion.
- If the file is available on Commons under a different name than locally, all local references to the image must be updated to point to the title used at Commons.
- The file is not protected.
Do not delete protected images
, even if there is an identical copy on Commons, unless the image is no longer in use (check
what links here
). They are usually locally uploaded and protected here since they are used in the interface or in some widely used high-risk template. Deleting the local copy of an image used in the interface
does break things
.
More about high-risk images
.
{{
C-uploaded
}}
images and other files may be speedily deleted as soon as they are off the
Main Page
.
- {{
Db-f8
}}
,
{{
Now Commons
}}
,
{{
Now Commons
|File:
name of file on Commons.ext
}}
- Category:Wikipedia files with the same name on Wikimedia Commons
,
Category:Wikipedia files with a different name on Wikimedia Commons
F9. Unambiguous copyright infringement
This applies to obviously non-free images (or other media files) that are not claimed by the uploader to be fair use. A URL or other indication of where the image originated should be mentioned. This does not include images with a credible claim that the owner has released them under a Wikipedia-compatible free license. Most images from stock photo libraries such as Getty Images will not be released under such a license. Blatant infringements should be tagged with the
{{
Db-filecopyvio
}}
template. Non-blatant copyright infringements should be discussed at
Wikipedia:Files for discussion
.
F11. No evidence of permission
If an
uploader
has specified a license and has named a third party as the source/copyright holder without providing evidence that this third party has in fact agreed, the item may be deleted
seven days after notification
of the uploader. Acceptable evidence of licensing normally consists of either a link to the source website where the license is stated, or a statement by the copyright holder e-mailed or forwarded to
permissions-en@wikimedia.org
. Such a confirmation is also required if the source is an organization that the uploader claims to represent, or a web publication that the uploader claims to be their own. Instances of
obvious
copyright violations where the uploader would have no reasonable expectation of obtaining permission (e.g. major studio movie posters, television images, album covers, logos that are
not
simple enough to be public domain
, etc.) should be speedily deleted per
reason F9
(unambiguous copyright infringement), unless fair-use can be claimed. Files tagged with
{{
Permission pending
}}
for more than 30 days may also be speedily deleted under this criterion. (Please note that the backlog for messages sent to the permissions-en queue is currently 0 days. You may wish to wait at least this amount of time before tagging VRT pending images for deletion.) Files tagged
{{
Permission received
}}
whose permissions have not been confirmed after 30 days may be deleted immediately under this criterion, without waiting an additional seven days, provided a check of the ticket is performed by a VRT agent to confirm that no further interaction is ongoing.
Categories
For any
category
pages that are not speedy deletion candidates, use
Wikipedia:Categories for discussion
.
C1. Unpopulated categories
This criterion applies to categories that have been unpopulated for at least seven days. This does not apply to
disambiguation categories
,
category redirects
,
featured topics categories
, categories under discussion at
Wikipedia:Categories for discussion
(or other such
discussions
), or project categories that by their nature may become empty on occasion (e.g.
cleanup categories
, or
Category:Wikipedians looking for help
). Place
{{
Possibly empty category
}}
(or, for administrative categories,
{{
Wikipedia category
}}
) at the top of the page to prevent such categories from being deleted.
C2. Speedy renaming and merging
Assorted sub-criteria that are used only at
WP:CFDS
; please see that page for details and instructions.
User pages
These criteria apply only to pages in the User: and User talk: namespaces. For any
user pages
that are not speedy deletion candidates, use
Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion
.
U1. User request
Personal
user pages
and
subpages
(but
not
user talk pages
) upon request by their user. This also includes
editnotices
for
user pages
. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page. User talk pages are not eligible for speedy deletion under this criterion. Pages which have previously been moved are only eligible if all previous titles were in the user's userspace.
Note:
The template does not display on certain pages (such as
.css
and
.js
pages), but its categorization will work.
U2. Nonexistent user
This applies to user pages, user subpages, and user talk pages of users that do not exist on the English Wikipedia (check
Special:ListUsers
), except user pages for IP users who have edited, redirects from misspellings of an established user's user page, and redirects created due to a
user being renamed
. Pages of users who exist on other WMF wikis but do not have local accounts are eligible for deletion.
[20]
Before placing one of the following templates or deleting a page under this criterion, consider whether moving the page to another location, such as a sub-page of the user page of the primary contributor, is preferable to deletion.
U5. A non-contributor's misuse of Wikipedia as a web host
Pages in userspace consisting of
writings, information, discussions, or activities not closely related to Wikipedia's goals
, where the owner has made few or no edits outside of
user pages
, except for plausible drafts and pages adhering to
Wikipedia:User pages §?What may I have in my user pages?
. It applies regardless of the age of the page in question.
Before placing this template or deleting a page under this criterion:
Exceptional circumstances
These temporary criteria apply to large scale cleanups of problematic pages that would overwhelm the normal deletion processes. Criteria should be deprecated when no longer needed.
X3. Redirects with no space before a parenthetical disambiguation
Examples: "Foo(bar)", "Joe Smith(disambiguation)". This does
not
apply to terms that will correctly or plausibly be searched for without spaces, nor does it apply if the redirect contains substantive page history (e.g. from a merge).
Before
nominating a redirect under this criterion:
- Create the correctly spaced version as a redirect to the same target if it would make a good redirect but does not exist
- Adjust any incoming internal links to point to the correctly spaced version
Non-criteria
Commonly denied CSD reasons
The following proposals for new speedy deletion criteria are frequently raised, but have repeatedly failed to gain consensus:
- How-to articles
- Essay articles
- Expansion of A7, A9 and A11 to include books, software, schools and/or other subjects
- Neologisms
- Unsourced articles
A7, A9 and A11 scope
A7, A9 and A11 do not apply to any other subject that does not indicate importance. Expanding the scope of A7, A9 and A11 to different subjects (such as products, software, books, schools,?etc.) have been proposed several times in the past and failed to gain consensus. Amongst the reasons for those rejections were that such subjects are not created often enough to require speedy deletion (such articles can be handled by
proposed deletion
or by listing the article at
articles for deletion
), that such subjects cannot be objectively covered in A7, A9 and A11's wording and that admins are not able to assess claims of importance for certain subjects. Before proposing a change to A7, A9 and A11 to expand their scope, please check whether your proposal has not already been discussed on the
talk page
(
archives
).
The following are not
by themselves
sufficient to justify speedy deletion:
- Reasons based on
Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not
or essays
. Wikipedia is not: "a dictionary", "an indiscriminate collection of information", "a crystal ball", "a how-to list"; or essays like
Wikipedia:Listcruft
,
Wikipedia:Obscure topics
,
Wikipedia:Deny recognition
,...; are not valid reasons for speedy deletion.
- Less-obvious hoaxes
. If even remotely plausible, a suspected hoax article should be subjected to further scrutiny in a wider forum. Truth is often stranger than fiction. Note that "blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation" are subject to speedy deletion as
vandalism
.
- Original research
. It is not always easy to tell whether an article consists of material that violates
the policy against novel theories or interpretations
or is simply unsourced.
- Notability
. Articles that seem to have obviously non-notable subjects are eligible for speedy deletion only if the article does not give
a credible indication of why the subject might be important or significant
.
- Failure to assert importance but not an
A7
,
A9
or
A11
category
. There is no consensus to speedily delete articles of types not specifically listed in A7, A9 or A11 under those criteria. Nor does it apply for
neologisms
that do not meet
A11
because new specialized terms should have a wider hearing.
- Author deletion requests made in bad faith
. Author deletion requests made in bad faith, out of frustration, after others have contributed substantially (because the work of others is involved) or in an attempt to
revoke their freely-licensed contributions
are not granted. However, anyone may request deletion of pages in their userspace.
- Very short articles
. Short articles with sufficient content and context to qualify as
stubs
may not be speedily deleted under criteria
A1
and
A3
; other criteria may still apply.
- Copies that are not copyright violations
. If content appears both here and somewhere else (possibly in modified form), consider the possibility that Wikipedia's is the original version and the other site copied from Wikipedia's version. Alternatively, the same author may have written both versions, or the original may be free content.
- PNG / GIF files replaced by JPEG images
. JPEG encoding discards information that may be important later. Do not delete the original PNG / GIF files.
- Questionable material that is not vandalism
. Earnest efforts are never vandalism, so to
assume good faith
, do not delete as vandalism unless reasonably certain.
- User and user talk pages of IP addresses
. Although users are encouraged to create Wikipedia accounts, unregistered users are still allowed to edit Wikipedia, and are identified by their IP addresses. If an unregistered user has a static IP address, it may have a user page and/or user talk page associated with it, and even for non-static IP addresses, the history can contain important discussions or information that may be of interest.
- An article written in a foreign language or script
. An article should not be speedily deleted just because it is not written in English. Instead it should be tagged with
{{
Not English
}}
and listed at
Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English
. It may be reconsidered after translation whether the article merits deletion, retention or improvement by means of a suitable tag. However, if it already exists on another Wikimedia project, it
might
be speedily deletable under criterion
A2
.
- Subject request
. Sometimes somebody claiming to be the subject of a biographical article requests deletion of the article, or even blanks the article. Article subjects do not have an automatic right to have their articles deleted. Nor does such a criterion apply to namespaces other than article space: for example, pages in the Wikipedia namespace devoted to a discussion about a particular editor. See also:
Wikipedia:Deletion policy §?Deletion of biographies and BLPs
- Orphaned pages or redirects
. A page cannot be deleted just because no other pages link to it. This includes redirects ? even if 'What links here' returns nothing, a redirect may be a likely search phrase, or have links to it from outside Wikipedia.
- Redirects that are poorly targeted
. A redirect should not be deleted just because its target is incorrect or confusing. Instead, change the redirect to a better target. If you're not sure where it should be targeted, open a discussion at
Redirects for discussion
.
- Drafts covering the same topic as an existing mainspace article
. These are not valid deletions under
A10
(due to not being articles) nor
G6
. They can be
replaced with a redirect to the mainspace article
if necessary.
Procedure for administrators
Make sure to specify the reason for deletion in the deletion summary. Also, in general the article's creator and major contributors should have been notified.
Before deleting a page, check the
page history
to assess whether it would instead be possible to
revert
and salvage a previous version, or there was actually a
cut-and-paste move
involved. Also:
- The initial
edit summary
may have information about the source of or reason for the page.
- The
talk page
may refer to previous deletion discussions or have ongoing discussion relevant to including the page.
- The
page log
may have information about previous deletions that could warrant
SALTing
the page or keeping it on good reason.
- What links here
may show that the page is an oft-referred part of the encyclopedia, or may show other similar pages that warrant deletion. For pages that should not be re-created, incoming links in other pages (except in discussions, archives and tracking pages) should be removed.
If speedy deletion is inappropriate
for a page:
- Please remove the speedy deletion tag from the page. Doing so will automatically remove the page from
Category:Candidates for speedy deletion
.
- Consider notifying the nominator, using
{{
speedy-decline
}}
or
{{
uw-csd
}}
. (If you're using
CSD Helper
, it will usually notify the nominator for you; it will normally use
its own notification template
.)
When deleting
a page through the speedy deletion process, please specify the reason for deletion in the deletion summary, so that it will be recorded into the
deletion log
. Quoting page content in the deletion summary may be helpful, but
must not
be done for
attack content
or
copyrighted text
. In some cases, it would be appropriate to notify the page's creator of the deletion.
Twinkle
or
CSDHelper
can be used to process nominations more quickly and smoothly. When processing a nomination:
- Twinkle can delete the page.
- Twinkle can notify the page creator if the page is deleted.
- CSDH can delete the page, convert the nomination into a PROD nomination, or decline the nomination.
- CSDH can notify the nominator if the nomination is converted or declined.
Obsolete
In the past, criteria beginning with the following letters were used:
- "
P
" for portals
- "
T
" for templates and modules
All criteria in these groups have been obsoleted; as such, these groups are not currently in use. Some criteria in the active groups were also used in the past but are no longer valid. They are kept here for historical reference and to preserve numbering. Two of the repealed criteria did not have consensus before being enacted, and two were meant to be temporary. The remainder were merged into broader criteria or deprecated entirely.
- A
4. Attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title
- Merged with and later superseded by
"No content"
(A3) in November 2005
[21]
as part of a
bold rewrite
that was made to simplify the CSD criterion (
archived discussion 1
,
discussion 2
,
discussion 3
).
- A5. Transwikied articles
- Was repealed in December 2022 due to lack of use (
unopposed proposal
). Instead, use
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion
. Deleted articles that are temporarily restored to allow for a transwiki can be re-deleted under
"technical deletion"
(G6).
- A6. Attack articles
- Superseded by
"Attack pages"
(G10) in March 2006
(
discussion
)
.
- A8. Blatant copyright infringement articles
- Superseded by
"Unambiguous copyright infringement"
(G12) in October 2006
(
unopposed proposal
)
.
- R
1. Redirects to non-existent pages
- Merged into
"Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page"
(G8) in September 2008 (
discussion
).
- F
7a.
Non-free
images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag
- Repealed in March 2021 due to the problem being easily surmountable (
discussion
). Instead, the invalid tag should be corrected. Once the tag is corrected, other speedy deletion criteria may apply.
- F10. Useless non-media files
- Deprecated in favor of
proposed deletion
in February 2023 following rare usage and added technical restrictions on what file types can be uploaded (
discussion
).
- C
3. Categories solely populated from a template
- Merged into
"Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page"
(G8) in October 2008 (
discussion
).
- T
1. Divisive and inflammatory templates
- Enacted by
Jimbo Wales
without formally assessing consensus during the
userbox wars
. Was repealed in February 2009 (
discussion
). Instead,
"attack pages"
(G10) may be applicable in some cases; otherwise, use
Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion
for userboxes and
Wikipedia:Templates for discussion
for all other templates.
- T2. Misrepresentation of policy
- Was repealed in July 2020 following rare, often incorrect, use (
discussion
). Instead,
"pure vandalism"
(G3) may be applicable in some cases; otherwise, use
Wikipedia:Templates for discussion
.
- T3. Duplication and hardcoded instances
- Was repealed in December 2020 due to misuse and the seven day hold (
discussion
). Instead, use an existing applicable criterion or submit the template to
Wikipedia:Templates for discussion
.
- T4. Subpages of non-existent pages
- Merged into
"Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page"
(G8) in September 2008 (
discussion
).
- U
3. Non-free galleries
- Was repealed in July 2021 since a bot automatically removes non-free images from user pages (
discussion
).
- U4. Old IP address talk pages that meet specific criteria
- Never enacted as policy anywhere, but deletions occurred nonetheless. Was repealed in March 2009 (
discussion
).
- P
1. Any portal that would be subject to speedy deletion as an article
- Repealed in February 2023 following rare usage (
discussion
).
- P2. Underpopulated portal
- Repealed in February 2023 following rare usage (
discussion
).
- X
1. Redirects created by Neelix
- Created
as a G6 extension in December 2015 shortly after the
discovery
and
arbitration case
regarding 50,000+ questionable redirects created by the user
Neelix
, and later
split into its own criterion
. Was repealed in April 2018 after cleanup was completed (
discussion
). Instead, use
Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion
.
- X2. Pages created by the content translation tool
- Created
to delete pages created by the
content translation tool
prior to 27 July 2016. Was deprecated in July 2017 when consensus agreed to move most of the remaining pages to the draft namespace (
discussion
).
See also
- ^
In this context,
speedy
refers to the simple decision-making process, not the length of time since the article was created.
- ^
The current wording of this paragraph dates to
an April 2020 discussion
. G14 was added in
October 2020
. C1 was added in
August 2022
.
- ^
The result of the most recent deletion discussion controls. This means that if the most recent discussion was "keep" or a default to keep through no consensus, G4 does not apply. Likewise, an article that was deleted through its most recent discussion, but was kept in earlier discussions, is subject to the criterion and may be deleted (
discussion
).
- ^
For the avoidance of doubt, if a page is deleted at AfD and subsequently recreated as a redirect, G4 does not apply, even if that option was discussed and rejected in the AfD (
discussion
).
- ^
A conversion to draft is when a page from a different namespace is moved, or its content copied, as a draft.
- ^
a
b
Page moves are excluded because of a history of improper deletions of these redirects. A move creates a redirect to ensure that any external links that point to Wikipedia remain valid; should such links exist, deleting these redirects will break them. Such redirects must be discussed at
Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion
before deletion. However, redirects that were obviously made in error can be deleted as G6, technical deletions.
- ^
Note that new editors sometimes mistakenly start article drafts on talk pages that have no article. If you see this, move the draft to
the draft space
or to the user's
userspace
, making sure the new user is listed as author and not you.
- ^
It was determined that the community consensus in
this RfC
regarding draft namespace redirects amounted to "there is a clear consensus against deletion of draft namespace redirects. There is a rough consensus against the alternative proposal to delete draft namespace redirects after six months."
- ^
Per
this RFC
.
- ^
An Rfc containing relevant discussions on the A1 criterion
- ^
a
b
Consensus has developed that in most cases articles should not be tagged for deletion under this criterion moments after creation as the creator may be actively working on the content; though there is no set time requirement, a ten-minute delay before tagging under this criterion is suggested as good practice. Please
do not
mark the page as
patrolled
before that delay passes, to ensure the article is reviewed at a later time.
- ^
Routine coverage of unorganised events
? for example, shooting incidents ? may not necessarily qualify under A7;
deletion discussions
should be preferred in such cases.
- ^
Past discussions leading to schools being exempt from A7
.
- ^
a
b
The definition of recent is intentionally flexible since some pages may receive more notice than others. Pages older than about 3?6 weeks are unlikely to be considered recently created; pages older than about 3?4 months almost never are. Higher-profile pages are considered recently created for shorter periods than those with a lower profile.
- ^
Unlike a hoax, subject to deletion as vandalism under
CSD G3
as a bad faith attempt to deceive, CSD A11 is for topics that were or may have been actually created and are real, but have no notice or significance except among a small group of people, e.g. a newly invented drinking game or new word.
- ^
See
Wikipedia:Merge and delete
for an explanation as to why redirects created by merges cannot be deleted in most cases.
- ^
This does not apply to images duplicated on Wikimedia Commons, because of
license issues
; instead see
"Images available as identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons"
.
- ^
Before deleting this latter type of file/page, check whether the
MediaWiki
engine can read it by previewing a resized thumbnail of it. Even if it renders, if it contains significant superfluous information that cannot be accounted for as
metadata
directly relating to the media data, it may be deleted. It is always preferred to correct the problem by uploading a file that contains only the good data plus acceptable metadata.
- ^
Content from file description pages that is relevant to the Commons should be copied over before deleting the local page. If necessary, copy the attribution history as well.
- ^
Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion/Archive 85 §?U2 and global accounts
- ^
Diff of change
|
---|
Policies
| |
---|
Guidelines
| |
---|
Information pages
| |
---|
Essays
| |
---|
Individual criteria
| |
---|
|
|
---|
General
| |
---|
Articles
| |
---|
Redirects
| |
---|
Files
| |
---|
Categories
| |
---|
User pages
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
|