Before listing an article for deletion here, consider whether a more efficient alternative is appropriate:
|
Deletion discussions |
---|
|
Articles |
Templates and modules |
Files |
Categories |
Redirects |
Miscellany |
Speedy deletion |
Proposed deletion |
V | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CfD | 0 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 18 |
TfD | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
MfD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
FfD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
RfD | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
AfD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Articles for deletion (AfD) is where Wikipedians discuss whether an article should be deleted. Articles listed are normally discussed for at least seven days, after which the deletion process proceeds based on community consensus. Common outcomes are that the article is kept, merged, redirected, incubated, renamed/moved to another title, userfied to a user subpage, or deleted per the deletion policy. Disambiguation pages are also nominated for deletion at AfD.
This page explains what you should consider before nominating, the steps for nominating, and how to discuss an AfD. It also links to the lists of current debates, and two companion processes to AfD: speedy deletion has a clearly defined set of criteria such as vandalism and patent nonsense, whereas proposed deletion is used to suggest deletions that no editor would contest.
If you want to nominate an article, the Wikipedia deletion policy explains the criteria for deletion, and may help you understand when an article should be nominated for deletion. The guide to deletion explains the deletion process. If an article meets the criteria for deletion and you understand the process, consult the instructions below. If you are unsure whether a page should be nominated for deletion, or if you need more help, try this talk page or Wikipedia's help desk.
Articles being considered for possible deletion are indexed by the day on which they were first listed.
Alternatively, if you believe that deletion of an article would be uncontroversial, you may place the code {{
subst:prod|insert reason for deletion}}
on the article instead. See also
Wikipedia:Proposed deletion for more information, and
Category:Proposed deletions, for other currently pending nominations for deletion.
AfDs sorted by topic & country
AfDs are a place for rational discussion of whether an article is able to meet Wikipedia's article guidelines and policies. Reasonable editors will often disagree, but valid arguments will be given more weight than unsupported statements. When an editor offers arguments or evidence that do not explain how the article meets/violates policy, they may only need a reminder to engage in constructive, on-topic discussion. But a pattern of groundless opinion, proof by assertion, and ignoring content guidelines may become disruptive. If a pattern of disruptive behavior persists after efforts are made to correct the situation through dialogue, please consider a dispute resolution process outside the current AfD.
There are a number of practices that most Wikipedians use in AfD discussions:
*
), 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 *
s).When participating, please consider the following:
<del>
and </del>
after the *
, as in "• There are many good ways to advocate keeping, deleting or even redirecting an article. This includes:
{{subst:rescue list}}
to the discussion thread. Please do not do this for articles which are likely to be eventually deleted on grounds other than simple incompleteness or poor writing (see
WP:SNOW).If the reasons given in the deletion nomination are later addressed by editing, the nomination should be withdrawn by the nominator, and the deletion discussion will be closed by an admin. If the nominator fails to do it when you think it should have been done (people can be busy, so
assume good faith on this point), leave a note on the nominator's talk page to draw their attention.You do not have to make a recommendation on every nomination; consider not participating if:
Please also see Wikipedia:Notability.
Prior to nominating article(s) for deletion, please be sure to:
{{
notability}}
, {{
hoax}}
, {{
original research}}
, or {{
advert}}
; this ensures readers are aware of the problem and may act to remedy it.Does this look too complicated?
Try this semi-automated process instead:
|
This section describes how to list articles and their associated talk pages for deletion. For pages that are not articles, list them at other appropriate deletion venues 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. Use Wikipedia:Proposed mergers for discussion of mergers.
Only a registered, logged-in user can complete steps II and III. (Autoconfirmed registered users can also use the Twinkle tool to make nominations.) If you are unregistered, you should complete step I, note the justification for deletion on the article's talk page, then post a message at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion requesting that someone else complete the process.
You must sign in to nominate pages for deletion. If you do not sign-in, or you edit anonymously, you will get stuck part way through the nomination procedure.
I – Put the deletion tag on the article.
|
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 for editing. Some text and instructions will appear. You can do it manually as well:
|
III – Notify users who monitor AfD discussions.
|
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 articles which may be bundled into a single nomination:
An article with a fair or better chance of standing on its own merits should not be bundled—nominate it separately. For the avoidance of doubt, bundling should not be used to form consensus around policy decisions such as "should Wikipedia include this type of article". Bundling AfDs should be used only for clear-cut deletion discussions based on existing policy. If you're unsure, don't bundle it.
For the sake of clarity, debates should be bundled only at the start or near the start of the debate, ideally before any substantive discussion, but may be acceptable following one or two other editors' comments, particularly (but not only) where those comments are "per nom", by single purpose accounts, the article creator, or were clearly in bad faith.
To bundle articles for deletion:
I. II. III. |
Nominate the first article.
Follow steps I to III above. |
IV. | Nominate the additional articles.
On each of the remaining articles, at the top insert the following:
Replace NominationName with the page 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 (or Some article (nth nomination) if this is not the first nomination of Some article). As before, please include the phrase "AfD: Nominated for deletion; see [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/NominationName]]" in the edit summary (again replacing NominationName with the first page name to be deleted), and do not mark the edit as minor. Publish the page. Repeat for all articles to be bundled. (If the article has been nominated before, use |
V. | Add the additional articles to the nomination.
Go to the first article's deletion discussion page: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName, and add a note 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. |
This template can be used by autoconfirmed users to nominate an article for deletion:
If you do it this way, remember to add {{
subst:AFD|Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/subpage name}}
at the top of the article, as well as list the nomination at the top of
the current AFD log page.
Alternatively, you can use Twinkle (TW) to do the same thing, and without having to add the nomination to the current AFD log page, plus a bunch of other things, such as reverting and reporting vandalism and marking articles and templates for speedy deletion. Twinkle can be activated by going to your preferences page, click on the " Gadgets" tab, make sure the "Twinkle" checkmark under the "Editing gadgets" section is selected, and click on "Save". For more information, see Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc.
While it is sufficient to list an article for discussion at AfD (see above), nominators and others sometimes want to attract more attention from and participation by informed editors. All such efforts must comply with Wikipedia's guideline against biased canvassing.
To encourage participation by less experienced editors, please avoid Wikipedia-specific abbreviations in the messages you leave about the discussion, link to any relevant policies or guidelines, such as notability, verifiability or a specific section of Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, e.g., Wikipedia is not a directory, and please provide a link to the AfD discussion page itself.
{{
subst:Afd notice|article name|AfD discussion title}} ~~~~
At this point, you've done all you need to do as nominator. Sometime after seven days have passed, someone will either close the discussion or, where needed, " relist" it for another seven days of discussion. (The "someone" must not be you, the nominator. However, if you want to see how it's done, refer to the next section.)
If you change your mind about the nomination, you can withdraw it. This might be because the discussion has produced new information about the topic, or because you realise the nomination was a mistake.
To withdraw a nomination, add a note saying "Withdrawn by nominator" immediately below your nomination statement at the top of the discussion, give a brief explanation, and sign it.
If no one has supported deletion of the article you may close the discussion yourself as a WP:Speedy keep, or you may leave it for someone else to close the discussion. Withdrawing a nomination can save other editors' time by cutting short the discussion.
As mentioned above, the AfD nominator can withdraw the nomination and close a discussion as speedy keep reason #1, if all other viewpoints expressed were for Keep and doing so does not short-circuit an ongoing discussion.
This procedure involves performing edits to three pages, as follows:
{{
Closing}}
tag from the page, if it was placed beforehand.As mentioned above, an editor in good standing who is not an administrator, and is also uninvolved, may close AfDs in certain circumstances; closures that non-admins may make are detailed at Wikipedia:Deletion process#Non-administrators closing discussions.
For a result of "keep", this procedure differs from the Procedure for non-administrator close (nominator withdrawal) above, only in the reasons to be listed in the templates and the comments to be annotated in the edit summaries. Follow those instructions, replacing references to "keep (nomination withdrawn)" with the relevant reason.
For any other appropriate result, the procedure is basically the same, with the differences listed in WP:Articles for deletion/Administrator instructions#Carrying out the AfD close.
Before listing an article for deletion here, consider whether a more efficient alternative is appropriate:
|
Deletion discussions |
---|
|
Articles |
Templates and modules |
Files |
Categories |
Redirects |
Miscellany |
Speedy deletion |
Proposed deletion |
V | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CfD | 0 | 0 | 12 | 6 | 18 |
TfD | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
MfD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
FfD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
RfD | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
AfD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Articles for deletion (AfD) is where Wikipedians discuss whether an article should be deleted. Articles listed are normally discussed for at least seven days, after which the deletion process proceeds based on community consensus. Common outcomes are that the article is kept, merged, redirected, incubated, renamed/moved to another title, userfied to a user subpage, or deleted per the deletion policy. Disambiguation pages are also nominated for deletion at AfD.
This page explains what you should consider before nominating, the steps for nominating, and how to discuss an AfD. It also links to the lists of current debates, and two companion processes to AfD: speedy deletion has a clearly defined set of criteria such as vandalism and patent nonsense, whereas proposed deletion is used to suggest deletions that no editor would contest.
If you want to nominate an article, the Wikipedia deletion policy explains the criteria for deletion, and may help you understand when an article should be nominated for deletion. The guide to deletion explains the deletion process. If an article meets the criteria for deletion and you understand the process, consult the instructions below. If you are unsure whether a page should be nominated for deletion, or if you need more help, try this talk page or Wikipedia's help desk.
Articles being considered for possible deletion are indexed by the day on which they were first listed.
Alternatively, if you believe that deletion of an article would be uncontroversial, you may place the code {{
subst:prod|insert reason for deletion}}
on the article instead. See also
Wikipedia:Proposed deletion for more information, and
Category:Proposed deletions, for other currently pending nominations for deletion.
AfDs sorted by topic & country
AfDs are a place for rational discussion of whether an article is able to meet Wikipedia's article guidelines and policies. Reasonable editors will often disagree, but valid arguments will be given more weight than unsupported statements. When an editor offers arguments or evidence that do not explain how the article meets/violates policy, they may only need a reminder to engage in constructive, on-topic discussion. But a pattern of groundless opinion, proof by assertion, and ignoring content guidelines may become disruptive. If a pattern of disruptive behavior persists after efforts are made to correct the situation through dialogue, please consider a dispute resolution process outside the current AfD.
There are a number of practices that most Wikipedians use in AfD discussions:
*
), 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 *
s).When participating, please consider the following:
<del>
and </del>
after the *
, as in "• There are many good ways to advocate keeping, deleting or even redirecting an article. This includes:
{{subst:rescue list}}
to the discussion thread. Please do not do this for articles which are likely to be eventually deleted on grounds other than simple incompleteness or poor writing (see
WP:SNOW).If the reasons given in the deletion nomination are later addressed by editing, the nomination should be withdrawn by the nominator, and the deletion discussion will be closed by an admin. If the nominator fails to do it when you think it should have been done (people can be busy, so
assume good faith on this point), leave a note on the nominator's talk page to draw their attention.You do not have to make a recommendation on every nomination; consider not participating if:
Please also see Wikipedia:Notability.
Prior to nominating article(s) for deletion, please be sure to:
{{
notability}}
, {{
hoax}}
, {{
original research}}
, or {{
advert}}
; this ensures readers are aware of the problem and may act to remedy it.Does this look too complicated?
Try this semi-automated process instead:
|
This section describes how to list articles and their associated talk pages for deletion. For pages that are not articles, list them at other appropriate deletion venues 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. Use Wikipedia:Proposed mergers for discussion of mergers.
Only a registered, logged-in user can complete steps II and III. (Autoconfirmed registered users can also use the Twinkle tool to make nominations.) If you are unregistered, you should complete step I, note the justification for deletion on the article's talk page, then post a message at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion requesting that someone else complete the process.
You must sign in to nominate pages for deletion. If you do not sign-in, or you edit anonymously, you will get stuck part way through the nomination procedure.
I – Put the deletion tag on the article.
|
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 for editing. Some text and instructions will appear. You can do it manually as well:
|
III – Notify users who monitor AfD discussions.
|
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 articles which may be bundled into a single nomination:
An article with a fair or better chance of standing on its own merits should not be bundled—nominate it separately. For the avoidance of doubt, bundling should not be used to form consensus around policy decisions such as "should Wikipedia include this type of article". Bundling AfDs should be used only for clear-cut deletion discussions based on existing policy. If you're unsure, don't bundle it.
For the sake of clarity, debates should be bundled only at the start or near the start of the debate, ideally before any substantive discussion, but may be acceptable following one or two other editors' comments, particularly (but not only) where those comments are "per nom", by single purpose accounts, the article creator, or were clearly in bad faith.
To bundle articles for deletion:
I. II. III. |
Nominate the first article.
Follow steps I to III above. |
IV. | Nominate the additional articles.
On each of the remaining articles, at the top insert the following:
Replace NominationName with the page 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 (or Some article (nth nomination) if this is not the first nomination of Some article). As before, please include the phrase "AfD: Nominated for deletion; see [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/NominationName]]" in the edit summary (again replacing NominationName with the first page name to be deleted), and do not mark the edit as minor. Publish the page. Repeat for all articles to be bundled. (If the article has been nominated before, use |
V. | Add the additional articles to the nomination.
Go to the first article's deletion discussion page: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PageName, and add a note 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. |
This template can be used by autoconfirmed users to nominate an article for deletion:
If you do it this way, remember to add {{
subst:AFD|Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/subpage name}}
at the top of the article, as well as list the nomination at the top of
the current AFD log page.
Alternatively, you can use Twinkle (TW) to do the same thing, and without having to add the nomination to the current AFD log page, plus a bunch of other things, such as reverting and reporting vandalism and marking articles and templates for speedy deletion. Twinkle can be activated by going to your preferences page, click on the " Gadgets" tab, make sure the "Twinkle" checkmark under the "Editing gadgets" section is selected, and click on "Save". For more information, see Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc.
While it is sufficient to list an article for discussion at AfD (see above), nominators and others sometimes want to attract more attention from and participation by informed editors. All such efforts must comply with Wikipedia's guideline against biased canvassing.
To encourage participation by less experienced editors, please avoid Wikipedia-specific abbreviations in the messages you leave about the discussion, link to any relevant policies or guidelines, such as notability, verifiability or a specific section of Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, e.g., Wikipedia is not a directory, and please provide a link to the AfD discussion page itself.
{{
subst:Afd notice|article name|AfD discussion title}} ~~~~
At this point, you've done all you need to do as nominator. Sometime after seven days have passed, someone will either close the discussion or, where needed, " relist" it for another seven days of discussion. (The "someone" must not be you, the nominator. However, if you want to see how it's done, refer to the next section.)
If you change your mind about the nomination, you can withdraw it. This might be because the discussion has produced new information about the topic, or because you realise the nomination was a mistake.
To withdraw a nomination, add a note saying "Withdrawn by nominator" immediately below your nomination statement at the top of the discussion, give a brief explanation, and sign it.
If no one has supported deletion of the article you may close the discussion yourself as a WP:Speedy keep, or you may leave it for someone else to close the discussion. Withdrawing a nomination can save other editors' time by cutting short the discussion.
As mentioned above, the AfD nominator can withdraw the nomination and close a discussion as speedy keep reason #1, if all other viewpoints expressed were for Keep and doing so does not short-circuit an ongoing discussion.
This procedure involves performing edits to three pages, as follows:
{{
Closing}}
tag from the page, if it was placed beforehand.As mentioned above, an editor in good standing who is not an administrator, and is also uninvolved, may close AfDs in certain circumstances; closures that non-admins may make are detailed at Wikipedia:Deletion process#Non-administrators closing discussions.
For a result of "keep", this procedure differs from the Procedure for non-administrator close (nominator withdrawal) above, only in the reasons to be listed in the templates and the comments to be annotated in the edit summaries. Follow those instructions, replacing references to "keep (nomination withdrawn)" with the relevant reason.
For any other appropriate result, the procedure is basically the same, with the differences listed in WP:Articles for deletion/Administrator instructions#Carrying out the AfD close.