Wikipedia:Update/1/Deletion policy changes, July 2009 to December 2009


December 2009

  • Wikipedia:Attack page
    • In the introduction, changed: [An attack page is a page that] "exists" [primarily to disparage its subject] to "was created"


  • Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion
    • Under the WP:CSD#G7 anchor, added: [... the only substantial content to the page] "and to the associated talk page" [was added by its author]
    • Under the WP:CSD#A10 anchor, changed: [A recently created article with no relevant page history that] "does not aim to expand upon, detail or improve information" to: "duplicates an existing topic, and that does not expand upon, detail or improve information"
    • Under the WP:CSD#F8 anchor, added information on avoiding deletion of images at Commons
    • Under the WP:CSD#U2 anchor, changed: [User pages of users that do not exist (check Special:Listusers),] "not including IP addresses." to: "except userpages for anonymous users who have edited, redirects from misspellings of an established user's userpage, and for the previous name of a recently renamed user (which should normally be left as a redirect to the new name for a reasonable time)."
    • In WP:CSD#Templates, added: "Note: Criterion T1 was discontinued in February 2009."
    • In WP:CSD#Portals, changed: "Any topic ..." to "Any portal ..."




November 2009

  • Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion
    • In the introduction, changed several instances of "articles" to "pages" or "pages or media". Removed: "To avoid speedy deletion, make sure that articles provide both content and context."
    • Under the WP:CSD#G7 anchor, added: [If the sole author blanks a page other than a userspace page] "or category page", [this can be taken as a deletion request.]
    • Under the WP:CSD#G8 anchor, removed: [This excludes any page that is useful to the project, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere,] "user and" [ user talk pages, ...]
    • Under the WP:CSD#A2 anchor, added: "This applies to articles having essentially the same content as an article on another Wikimedia project"
    • Under the WP:CSD#A7 anchor, added: "This criterion does not apply to species of animals, only to individual animal(s)."
    • New anchor, WP:CSD#A10: "Recently created article that duplicates an existing topic. A recently created article with no relevant page history that does not aim to 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 content forks, split pages or any article that aims at expanding or reorganizing an existing one or that contains referenced, mergeable material."
    • Under the WP:CSD#R3 anchor, added: "This does not apply to articles and stubs that have been converted into redirects."
    • The entire WP:CSD#Categories subsection is now transcluded (mirrored) from Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Speedy criteria.
    • In WP:CSD#Non-criteria, added: "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 {{notenglish}} 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."


October 2009




September 2009

  • Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, previous selected version
    • Under the WP:CSD#F2 anchor, added: [that contain superfluous] "and blatant" [non-metadata information.]
    • Under the WP:CSD#F10 anchor, changed "(e.g. .doc, .pdf, or .xls files)" to "Note that the following files are rarely sound, image, or video: .doc, .pdf, .ps, .html, .rtf, .txt, .xls, and .zip files. Examples of image, sound, and video files are: .jpg, .gif, .mpg, and .wav. This is not a comprehensive list of files that can be deleted, nor is an extension alone enough reason to delete, this criteria is based on file content."
    • Under the WP:CSD#U1 anchor, added: "User talk pages may in exceptional cases (see right to vanish) be deleted via Miscellany for Deletion; they are not eligible for speedy deletion under this criterion."
    • Added to WP:CSD#Non-criteria: "A file that isn't a sound, video, or image file. To be deleted under F10, a file must have no encyclopaedic value and not be used in any articles. Files that are in use or might have encyclopedic value, even if not sound, video, or image, should not be deleted without wider discussion."




  • Wikipedia:Proposed deletion
    • In WP:PROD#Nominating, changed "Notify the article's creator and" [significant contributors that you have proposed an article for deletion] to "Consider notifying the article's creator or". Removed footnote: "Common sense applies – if the editor was a vandal, sockpuppet, was otherwise acting in bad faith, or was blocked, they need not be notified."
    • In WP:PROD#Objecting, changed "Notify the editors" to "Consider notifying the editors". Added: "It will then be listed at Category:Past Proposed Deletion Candidates for easy tracking."
August 2009

Besides CSD, there are the following methods of deletion:
Deprecated criteria include:



  • Wikipedia:Oversight
    • Moved WP:OVERSIGHT#Policy up, and changed the advice on vandalism to: "Removal of vandalism. Suppression may be occasionally used to remove vandalism that can not be removed by normal administrative measures. Such cases should be handled with suppression, rather than with the Oversight tool, so that they may be reversed if needed, and should be discussed in advance on the Oversight mailing list unless they are urgent or time-sensitive, in which case they should be discussed on the mailing list afterward. The strict policy at m:Oversight (items 1–3 above) was originally adopted to ensure that a minimum number of revisions were Oversighted and only for extraordinary reasons, as it is very difficult to restore Oversighted revisions, restoration requires the intervention of a developer, and is never done in actual practice. A slightly less restrictive policy (item 4 above) has been adopted for Suppression using RevisionDelete, as suppressed edits are easily reversible."
    • Moved WP:OVERSIGHT#Operation up.
    • Two new entries in the table at WP:OVERSIGHT#RevisionDelete vs Oversight:
      • Suppression of entire page || Only by suppressing each revision in turn as a whole, however many revisions there may be. Last revision on a page cannot be suppressed. || All revisions of the page are set to fully suppressed. Effectively a shortcut to quickly suppress the username, edit summary, and text, on each revision, when the entire page and all revisions are in breach.
      • Suppression of latest or only revision on a page || Last or only revision cannot be suppressed. || Last or only revision can have various fields suppressed but not the entire edit.
    • Removed section, WP:OVERSIGHT#Appearance
    • Changed WP:OVERSIGHT#Assignment and revocation substantially from the July 31 version
    • In WP:OVERSIGHT#Users with Oversight permissions, updated list, and added footnote: "Although this user has the oversight tool, he uses it only for review and does not actually oversight edits himself."


July 2009