Deletion Tools
General
These criteria apply to all namespaces, and are in addition to namespace-specific criteria in following sections.
  1. Patent nonsense and gibberish, an unsalvageably incoherent page with no meaningful content. This does not include: poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, poorly translated material, implausible theories, or hoaxes; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases.
  2. Test pages. Testing is permitted in the sandbox and in users' own user space.
  3. Pure vandalism. This includes blatant and obvious misinformation, and redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism.
  4. Recreation of deleted material. A copy, by any title, of a page deleted via a deletion discussion, provided the copy is substantially identical to the deleted version and that any changes in the recreated page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted. This does not apply to content that has been undeleted via deletion review, deleted via proposed deletion, or to speedy deletions (although in that case, the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply). Also, content moved to user space for explicit improvement is excluded, although material moved or copied to circumvent Wikipedia's deletion policy is not.
  5. Banned user. Pages created by banned users in violation of their ban, with no substantial edits by others.
  6. Technical deletions. Non-controversial maintenance, such as temporarily deleting a page to merge page histories, or performing uncontroversial page moves.
  7. Author requests deletion, if requested in good faith, and provided the page's only substantial content was added by its author. (For redirects created as a result of a pagemove, the mover must also have been the only substantive contributor to the page prior to the move.) If the author blanks the page, this can be taken as a deletion request.
  8. Talk pages whose corresponding article does not exist. This excludes any talk page which is useful to the project, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere, user talk pages, talk pages for images on Wikimedia Commons, and talk subpages (such as archives) whose corresponding "top-level" page exists. This includes talk pages of pages which were deleted since the creation of the talk page.
  9. Office actions. The Wikimedia Foundation office reserves the right to speedily delete a page temporarily in cases of exceptional circumstances. Deletions of this type should not be reversed without permission from the Foundation.
  10. Pages that serve no purpose but to disparage their subject or some other entity (e.g., "John Q. Doe is an imbecile"). These are sometimes called "attack pages". This includes a biography of a living person that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced, where there is no neutral version in the history to revert to. Administrators deleting such pages should not quote the content of the page in the deletion summary, and if the page is an article about a living person it should not be restored or recreated by any editor until it meets biographical article standards.
  11. Blatant advertising. Pages which exclusively promote some entity and which would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note that simply having a company or product as its subject does not qualify an article for this criterion.
  12. Blatant copyright infringement. Text pages that meet all of the following (for images and media, see I9):
    • The material was copied from another website or other source (but consider the possibility that the other copy was obtained from Wikipedia—see Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks);
    • There is no non-infringing content on either the page itself, or in the history, worth saving;
    • The material was introduced at once by a single person; and
    • There is no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or a free license (see also List of countries' copyright length as a guide).
    Notify the page's creator when tagging a page for deletion under this criterion; the template {{nothanks-sd}} is available for this. After deleting, administrators should recreate the page from earlier noninfringing page content if available. If multiple deletion criteria apply, list them all on the deletion summary. If notified of a plausible error, the deleting administrator should restore the content and, if a confirmation e-mail has not been received, follow the Wikipedia:Copyright problems procedure, replacing the article with the {{copyvio}} template. Some suspected copyright infringements are listed at Wikipedia:Suspected copyright violations.
Articles
For any articles that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Articles for deletion or Wikipedia:Proposed deletion. Note that all these criteria apply to Portals as well.
  1. No context. Very short articles lacking sufficient context to identify the subject of the article. Example: "He is a funny man with a red car. He makes people laugh." Context is different from content, treated in A3, below.
  2. Foreign language articles that exist on another Wikimedia project. If the article does not exist on another project, use the template {{notenglish}} instead, and list the page at Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English for review and possible translation.
  3. No content. Any article (other than disambiguation pages and redirects, including soft redirects) consisting only of external links, category tags and "see also" sections, a rephrasing of the title, attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title, chat-like comments, template tags and/or images. 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 doesn't cover a page with an infobox with non-trivial information.
  4. (Deprecated - placeholder to preserve numbering; merged with A3.)
  5. Transwikied articles. Any article that either consists only of a dictionary definition, has already been transwikied (e.g., to Wiktionary or Wikisource), or has been discussed at Articles for deletion with an outcome to move it to another wiki, after it has been properly moved and the author information recorded.
  6. (Deprecated - placeholder to preserve numbering; superseded by G10.)
  7. An article about a real person, organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant. This is distinct from questions of verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability; to avoid speedy deletion an article does not have to prove that its subject is notable, just give a reasonable indication of why it might be notable. A7 applies only to articles about web content or articles on people and organizations themselves, not articles on their books, albums, software and so on. Other article types are not eligible for deletion by this criterion. If controversial, as with schools, list the article at Articles for deletion instead.
  8. (Deprecated - placeholder to preserve numbering; superseded by G12.)
Redirects
For any redirects, including soft redirects, that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion. Redirect pages that have useful page history should never be speedy deleted. In some cases it may be possible to make a useful redirect by changing the target instead of deleting it. Redirects which do not work due to 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.
  1. Redirects to deleted, nonexistent or invalid targets, including redirect loops that do not end with a valid target.
  2. Redirects to the Talk:, User: or User talk: namespace from the article space. If this was the result of a page move, consider waiting a day or two before deleting the redirect.
  3. Recently created redirects from implausible typos or misnomers. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful, as are redirects in other languages.
  • For reversal of redirects, use {{db-move}}, a special case of {{db-g6}}
Images and media
For any images and other media that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion.
  1. Redundant. Any image or other media file that is a redundant copy, in the same file format and same or lower quality/resolution, of something else on Wikipedia should be tagged {{isd|Full name of image excluding the "Image:" prefix}}. This does not apply to images duplicated on Wikimedia Commons, because of license issues; instead see criterion #I8 below.
  2. Corrupt or empty image. Before deleting this type of image, verify that the MediaWiki engine cannot read it by previewing a resized thumbnail of it. Even if it renders, if it contains superfluous information that cannot be accounted for as metadata directly relating to the image data, it may be deleted. It is always possible for the uploader to correct the problem by uploading an image that contains only a good image plus acceptable metadata.
  3. Improper license. Images licensed as "for non-commercial use only", "non-derivative use" or "used with permission" that were uploaded on or after May 19, 2005, except where they have been shown to comply with the limited standards for the use of non-free content. [1] This includes images licensed under a "Non-commercial Creative Commons License".[2] Such images uploaded before May 19, 2005 may also be speedily deleted if they are not used in any articles.
  4. Lack of licensing information. Images in category "Images with unknown source", "Images with unknown copyright status", or "Images with no copyright tag" that have been in the category for more than seven days, and which still lack the necessary information, regardless of when uploaded. Note, editors sometimes specify their source in the upload summary, so be sure to check the circumstances of the image.
  5. Unused unfree images. Images and other media that are not under a free license or in the public domain, that are not used in any article, and that have been tagged with a template that places them in a dated subcategory of Category:Orphaned fairuse images for more than seven days. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article. Use {{subst:orfud}} to tag images for forthcoming deletion.
  6. Missing non-free use rationale. Non-free images or media claiming fair use but without a use rationale may be deleted seven days after they are tagged. The boilerplate copyright tags setting out fair use criteria do not constitute a use rationale. Offending images can be tagged with {{subst:nrd}}, and the uploader notified with {{subst:missing rationale|Image:image name}}. Such images can be found in the dated subcategories of Category:Images with no fair use rationale. If a use rationale is provided but disputed, this criterion does not apply.
  7. Invalid fair-use claim.
    • Non-free images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a {{Non-free logo}} tag on a photograph of a mascot) may be deleted at any time.
    • Non-free images or media that are used in at least one article and that fail any part of the non-free content criteria (except criteria 1 or 8) may be deleted forty-eight hours after notification of the uploader, except that for media uploaded before 13 July 2006 or tagged with the Replaceable fair use template, the uploader will be given seven days to comply with this policy after being notified.
    • Invalid fair-use claims may be tagged with {{subst:dfu}} for review after a seven-day period, and the uploader may be notified with {{subst:no fair|Image:image name}}. Such images can be found in the dated subcategories of Category:All disputed non-free images.
  8. Images available as identical copies on the 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 image's license and source status is beyond reasonable doubt, and the license is undoubtedly accepted at Commons.
      • All image revisions that meet the first condition have been transferred to Commons as revisions of the Commons copy and properly marked as such.
    • 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.
      • If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the image description page (like {{FeaturedPicture}}), the image description page must be undeleted after the file deletion.
    • If the image 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 image is not protected.
    • {{c-uploaded}} images may be speedily deleted as soon as they are off the Main Page.
    This also includes empty (i.e., no content) image description pages for Commons images.
  9. Blatant copyright infringement. Images that are claimed by the uploader to be images with free licenses when this is obviously not the case. This does not include images used under a claim of fair use, nor does it include images with a credible claim that the owner has released them under a Wikipedia-compatible free license. This includes images from stock photo libraries such as Getty Images or Corbis. Blatant infringements should be tagged with the {{Db-imgcopyvio}} template. Non-blatant copyright infringements should be discussed at Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images.
  10. Useless media files. Files uploaded that are neither image, sound, nor video files (e.g. .doc, .pdf, or .xls files) which are not used in any article and have no foreseeable encyclopedic use.
Categories
Also listed at Wikipedia:Category deletion policy#Speedy delete policy. For any categories that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Categories for discussion or Wikipedia:User categories for discussion. Due to technical restrictions, renaming or merging a category effectively deletes the original category.
  1. Unpopulated categories that have been unpopulated for at least four days. This does not apply to disambiguation categories, category redirects, 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. Category:Wikipedians looking for help).
  2. Speedy renaming.
    1. Typographic fixes (e.g., BrdigesBridges), but not changes between British and American spelling.
    2. Capitalization fixes (e.g., Heads Of StateHeads of state).
    3. Conversions from singular to plural, or back (e.g., SteamshipSteamships).
    4. Non-conformance with "x by y", "x of y", or "x in y" categorization conventions specified at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories).
    5. Expanding abbreviated country names (e.g., U.S.United States).
  3. Template categories. If a category is populated solely from a template (e.g., Category:Wikipedia cleanup from {{cleanup}}) and the template is deleted per deletion policy.
User pages
For any user pages that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
  1. User request. Personal user pages and subpages, upon request by their user. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page.
  2. Nonexistent user. User pages of users that do not exist (check Special:Listusers).
  3. Non-free galleries. Galleries in the userspace which consist mostly or entirely of "fair use" or non-free images. Wikipedia's non-free content policy prohibits the use of non-free content in userspace, even content which the user has uploaded; use of content in the public domain or under a free license is acceptable.
Templates
For any templates that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Templates for deletion. When nominating a template for speedy deletion, surround the speedy deletion tag with <noinclude></noinclude>, so that pages that use the nominated template do not themselves get listed as candidates for speedy deletion.
  1. Templates in "Template:" space that are divisive and inflammatory. General criterion 10 may also apply.
  2. Templates that are blatant misrepresentations of established policy. This includes "speedy deletion" templates for issues that are not speedy deletion criteria and disclaimer templates intended to be used in articles.
  3. Templates that are not employed in any useful fashion, and are either: substantial duplications of another template, or hardcoded instances of another template where the same functionality could be provided by that other template, may be deleted after being tagged for seven days.
Portals
For any portals that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
  1. Any topic that would be subject to speedy deletion as an article.
  2. Underpopulated portal. Any portal based on a topic for which there is not a non-stub header article and at least three non-stub articles detailing subject matter that would be appropriate to present under the title of that portal.
Non-criteria
The following are not sufficient, by themselves, to justify speedy deletion.
  • Reasons derived from Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Wikipedia is not: "a dictionary", "an indiscriminate collection of information", "a crystal ball", etc.
  • Hoaxes. If even remotely plausible, a suspected hoax article should be subjected to further scrutiny in a wider forum. 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 uncited.
  • Neologisms. If not obviously ridiculous, new specialized terms should have a wider hearing.
  • Notability. Articles that seem to have obviously non-notable subjects are only eligible for speedy deletion if the article does not assert the importance or significance of its subject.
  • Failure to assert importance but not an A7 category. There is no consensus to speedily delete articles of types not specifically listed in A7 under that criterion.
  • Author deletion requests made in bad faith. Author deletion requests made in bad faith, out of frustration, or in an attempt to revoke their GFDL contributions are not granted. However, anyone may request deletion of pages in their userspace.
  • Author deletion requests after others have contributed substantially. If other editors have substantially edited an article (i.e. more than just minor corrections or maintenance tagging), the original author may not request deletion under G7 because the work of others is involved.
  • 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 us. Alternately, the same author may have written both versions, or the original may be free content.
  • PNGs/GIFs replaced by JPEGs. 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.
  • Reasons derived from essays, such as Wikipedia:Deny recognition, Wikipedia:Listcruft, or the like.