| Shortcut: WP:DP |
One of Ireland Information Guide's policies and guidelines
In the normal operations of Ireland Information Guide, about 100 articles are deleted each day. While it is possible for any user to blank a page, the original content will still be available in the page history for others to view and put back if they wish. When pages are deleted, this removes not only the current version but also all previous versions.
Only administrators have the ability to delete and undelete pages within the system. With our current deletion system (cf meta:deletion management redesign), administrators necessarily must use their best judgment in making this decision. You can expect administrators (or sysops) to follow the process detailed below to aid them in their judgement.
Deleted pages can be restored, by administrators, if and only if there is support on votes for undeletion or the page was speedily deleted out of process. If deletions are made too casually, it is easy to lose track. Hence, the decision to permanently delete an article is not taken lightly, and the deletion process is followed. See Ireland Information Guide:Undeletion policy for the guidance on undeletion.
If an article is constantly being deleted and re-created, this should be seen as evidence for the need for an article. Administrators should always be responsible with the power that they have. If in doubt... don't delete!
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If a page does not fall into one of the categories listed under Ireland Information Guide:Candidates for speedy deletion, then you cannot delete it without it spending five days on Ireland Information Guide:Votes for deletion (or the analogous pages for Ireland Information Guide:Images for deletion, Ireland Information Guide:Categories for deletion, Ireland Information Guide:Templates for deletion, Ireland Information Guide:Redirects for deletion) first.
Does the page really belong on VfD? Read the following two tables to find out what to do with a problem page.
| Problem with page | Solution | Add this tag |
|---|---|---|
Article is a candidate for speedy deletion
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Speedy deletions. In simple cases, just add the {{delete}} tag and the page will automatically be listed in CAT:CSD | {{delete}} |
Article is possible copyright infringement
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Copyright problems | {{copyvio}} or {{copyvio|url=Alleged source of material}} |
| Image is possible copyright infringement | List on Ireland Information Guide:Copyright problems | {{imagevio}} or {{imagevio|url=Alleged source of image}} |
| Image or other media needs deleting (but not because of copyright violation) | List on Ireland Information Guide:Images for deletion | {{ifd}} |
A useless redirect
| Don't worry, redirects are cheap. If you must, list on Ireland Information Guide:Redirects for deletion but only after reading our recommendations on deleting redirects | {{rfd}} |
A category scheme gone awry
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Categories for deletion | {{cfd}} |
| A redundant or misguided series box. | List on Ireland Information Guide:Templates for deletion | {{tfd}} (Put in the box itself) |
Can never be more than a dictionary definition
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Things to be moved to Wiktionary | {{wiktionary}} |
Article is a source text
| Move text to Wikisource and replace it with a stub and a link. | |
| Talk to the user; if that doesn't work, come back here | ||
| Nominate on Ireland Information Guide:Votes for deletion | {{vfd}} |
| Problem with page | Solution | Add this tag |
|---|---|---|
Article written in a foreign language
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Pages needing translation | {{notenglish}} |
A stub (but with potential)
| Expand it! | {{stub}} |
Such a minor branch of a subject that it doesn't deserve an article
| Merge the useful content into a more comprehensive article and redirect | |
Article duplicates information in some other article
| Redirect and merge. If you can't figure out how to do the merge, list on Ireland Information Guide:Duplicate articles and add the tag: | {{merge}} [[article]]. |
Article needs improvement
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Cleanup | {{cleanup}} |
| Article needs a lot of improvement | List on Ireland Information Guide:Pages needing attention | |
Article is biased or has lots of POV
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Pages needing attention | {{npov}} |
Dispute over article content
| List on Ireland Information Guide:Requests for comments | {{disputed}} |
Two subjects have the same name
| Make a disambiguation page | {{disambiguation}} |
Can't verify information in article
| Follow the procedure on Ireland Information Guide:Verifiability; if that doesn't work, come back here | |
| Inappropriate user page | Talk to the user; if that doesn't work, come back here | |
Vandalism
| Revert it and mention it on Ireland Information Guide:Vandalism in progress | |
| Annoying user | Add user to Ireland Information Guide:Requests for comment. But stay cool. |
See also: Ireland Information Guide:Template messages#Deletion
Each deletion category has a slightly different procedure. See the page for that category for details.
Give the reason why you think it should be deleted. It will remain there for a time, giving other users the chance to comment on whether they think deletion is in fact appropriate. After an appropriate lag time, an administrator will delete the page if a rough consensus is reached - see Ireland Information Guide:Deletion guidelines for administrators#Rough_consensus.
For candidates for speedy deletion, Administrators do not have to request deletion - they may delete them on sight, though some choose to use Ireland Information Guide:Speedy deletions in some cases.
When you list a page on Ireland Information Guide:Votes for deletion, it is courteous to let people know it might be deleted. The suggested way is to place {{subst:vfd}} (not {{vfd}}) above the page's content, which expands to:
This page has been listed on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion.
Please see its entry on that page for justifications and discussion. If you don't want the page deleted, please read the deletion guidelines and vote against its deletion there; you may first wish to review some of the common deletion phrases. Please do not remove this notice or blank this page while the question is being considered. However, you are welcome to make improvements to it.
Hopefully, this notice will prevent readers and new users from becoming confused as to why a page was removed. Please note: copyright problems have a different suggested notice. See also: Ireland Information Guide:Boilerplate_text#Listed_for_deletion
The notice is not needed for pages which a) have no content (such as redirects), and b) also have no significant history. (E.g. a redirect whose entire history is that it used to redirect from "Foo" to "Foobar", and has been changed to redirect to "FooBar", because the target page was moved, does not have any significant history.) A history which shows any content being added or removed that is not a candidate for speedy deletion is significant history.
Once a page is nominated for deletion by listing on one of the different pages, the nomination is kept open for a period of time to allow for community comment. The different pages have different "lag times" (the length of time that nomination should normally be listed before the article can be deleted). This gives other users the chance to comment on whether they think deletion is in fact appropriate. The lag times are discussed at Ireland Information Guide talk:Votes for deletion/lag time and are currently set at:
When someone has nominated an article for deletion on one of the lists, anyone else may comment on the request. When expressing an opinion, please include your opinion, your reasoning, and sign with ~~~~ (four consecutive tilde characters). Here are some suggested wordings:
Note that merge into [[article]] and delete is not a valid option (except for public domain text) unless the information on authorship of the content is somehow preserved.
To request that a page (or image) be permanently deleted, the request made on VfD, and any votes or comments relating to a listed page must be made in good faith. At the end of five days, if a "rough consensus" has been reached (some would call this a 2/3 majority) to delete the page, the page will be removed. Otherwise the page remains. The page will also remain if it has been improved enough since the initial listing that the reason for listing no longer applies. This requires a reason to be given initially when requesting that a page be deleted.
Ireland Information Guide:Deletion guidelines for administrators expands on this and provides a little rationale.
If another solution has been found for some of these pages than deletion, leave them listed on Ireland Information Guide:Votes for deletion for a short while, so the original poster can see why it wasn't deleted, and what did happen to it. This will prevent reposting of the same item. After the original poster has seen the explanation, or in any case after about a day, the page can be delisted from VfD.
At the end of the five days, the VfD discussions may be moved off the main VfD page onto a "holding page" called Votes for deletion/Old where they will stay until an admistrator has time to act on the consensus decision. When carrying out those duties, please follow the process at Ireland Information Guide:Deletion process which describes where and how the discussion should be archived. While the page itself may be deleted, the discussion about the deletion should be preserved.
Always give a good edit summary when editing the VfD page, especially when unlisting an article, so that the page history of the VfD page can be used as backup archive for discussions that have not been properly archived.