Wiktionary:Deletion

This page is a hard rule on the Simple English Wiktionary. Many people agree with it. They see it as a standard that all users should follow. When changing the page, please check that the other people agree with your changes. Use the talk page when you are not sure or when you want to propose a change.

Only administrators have the ability to delete pages, categories, and files. Sometimes, it is okay to delete pages immediately. Other times, the deletion should be talked about with other editors.

Sometimes, changing a page to a redirect is better than deleting it if the page's title is helpful for finding information.

Unless a good page could be created, administrators should remove internal links and delete redirects when deleting a page.

Overview

There are two main ways that pages can be deleted:

Type of deletion	How to use	How to do it
Quick deletion (QD)	Pages that should be deleted very fast without needing to be discussed. This includes pages that don't make sense (in other words nonsense), vandalism, as well as others listed under the quick deletion criteria.	Add {{delete|reason}} or {{QD|reason}} to the page you think should be deleted.
Requests for deletion (RfD)	A discussion page where all users can talk about the best way to handle an page. This can be used when deletion is unsure or may need debate.	Add {{delreq|reason}} or {{RfD|reason}} to the page you think should be deleted. Then, list the page on Requests for deletion, using the instructions on that page

Quick deletion

Administrators must always check the page's change history to see if the page can be reverted to an earlier version.

Quick deletion criteria

Abbreviations are sometimes used when talking about these rules. For example, when someone says "A4", they are referring to rule 4 under the articles section.

General rules – All pages

All pages can be quickly deleted if it is:

1. Nonsense includes content that does not make sense or is not meaningful. However, this does not include bad writing, bad words, vandalism, things that are fake or impossible, or parts not in English.
2. Test pages such as "Can I really create a page here?".
3. Only vandalism, including redirects that were made when cleaning up page move vandalism.
4. Creation of content that was already deleted. An identical or similar copy, with any title, of a page that was deleted after being discussed in Requests for deletion, unless it was undeleted due to another discussion or was recreated in the user space. Before deleting again, the administrator should be sure that the content is similar and not just a new article on the same subject. However, this rule cannot be used if the content had already been quickly deleted before.
5. Banned user. Pages created by banned users while they were banned.
6. Housekeeping. A deletion that doesn't need to be discussed because the administrator deleting the page was trying to fix an accidental mistake or trying to clean up something.
7. Author wants deletion. Any page whose original author wants deletion, but only if most of the page was written by that author and was created as a mistake. If the author blanks the page, this might mean that he or she wants it deleted.
8. Talk pages of pages that do not exist, unless they contain discussion on deletion that can't be found anywhere else. Subpages of talk pages can only be deleted under this rule if its top-level page does not exist. However, this cannot be used on user talk pages or talk pages of images on Commons.
9. Office action. The Wikimedia Foundation office can delete any page quickly if there is any controversy over it.
10. Attack pages. Pages that were only created to insult a person or thing (such as "John Q. Doe is dumb"). This includes pages about a living person that are insulting, where there is no version in the history that is not insulting.
11. Obvious advertising. Pages which were created only to say good things about a company, item, group or service and which would need to be written again so that it can sound like a dictionary entry. However, simply having a company, item, group or service as its subject does not mean that an article can be deleted because of this rule: an article that is obvious advertising should have content that shouldn't be in a dictionary as well. If a page has already gone through RfD or QD and was not deleted, it should not be quickly deleted using this rule.
12. Obviously breaking copyright law such as if it was:
    • Copied from another website which does not have a license that can be used with Wiktionary;
    • Has no content in the page history that is worth being saved.
    • Made by one person instead of being created on wiki and then copied by another website such as one of the many Wiktionary mirror websites.
    • Added by someone who doesn't tell if he or she got permission to do so or not, or if his or her claim has a large chance of not being true;
    When tagging a page for deletion using this rule, a user should tell the page's creator first. If the administrator deletes the page is told that he may have made a mistake, he or she should add the content back and, if a confirmation e-mail has not been received, blank the article and list the page at requests for deletion.

Articles

For any articles that should not be deleted quickly, use Wiktionary:Requests for deletion. All articles can be quickly deleted if it is:

1. Very short articles providing little or no meaning (e.g., "He is a funny man that has created Factory and the Hacienda. And, by the way, his wife is great."). Having a small amount of content is not a reason to delete if it has useful information.
2. No content. Any article consisting only of links elsewhere (including hyperlinks, category tags and "see also" sections), a rephrasing of the title, and/or attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title. This does not include disambiguation pages.
3. Transwikied articles. Any article that has been discussed at Requests for Deletion, where most of the users wanted to transwiki, and where the transwikification has already been done.
4. Words that do not exist in the English language or where the headword does not exist.
5. People, groups, companies or websites that are not notable. An article about a real person, group of people, band, club, company, or web content that does not say why it is important. If not everyone agrees that the subject is not notable or there has been a previous RfD, the article should be discussed at RfD instead. Note: Avoid the use of the word "vanity" as some people think it is an insult.

Redirects

For any articles that should not be deleted quickly, use Wiktionary:Requests for deletion. Sometimes it is possible to make it a useful redirect to another page. All redirects can be quickly deleted if it is:

1. Redirects to pages that do not exist
2. Redirects to the User: or User_talk: space from the main article space. If this was because of a page move, please wait a day or two before deleting the redirect.
3. Redirects with an uncommon typo that were recently created. However, redirects from common accidental spellings are usually useful; redirects in other languages are not deletable using this rule.

Categories

For any categories that should not be deleted quickly, use Wiktionary:Requests for deletion. All categories can be quickly deleted if it is:

1. Empty categories (with no articles or subcategories for at least four days) whose only content includes links to parent categories. However, this can not be used on categories still being discussed on WT:RfD, or disambiguation categories. If the category wasn't newly made, it is possible that it used to have articles, and more inspection is needed.
2. Speedy renaming. Empty categories that have already been renamed. This include:
   1. Spelling fixes (such as Brdiges -> Bridges), but not changes between British and American spelling.
   2. Capitalization fixes (such as characters In harry Potter -> Characters in Harry Potter)
   3. Changing singular words to plural or plural words to singular ones (such as Steamship -> Steamships)
   4. Renaming of a title so that it has the "by country" standard
   5. Renaming of a title so it has no abbreviations
3. Template categories. If a category contains articles from only one template (such as Category:Cleanup needed from {{cleanup}}) and the template is deleted after being discussed, the category can also be deleted without being discussed as well.

User pages

For any user pages that should not be deleted quickly, use Wiktionary:Requests for deletion. All user pages can be quickly deleted if it is:

1. User request. User pages can be deleted if its user wants to, though there are some exceptions.
2. Non-existent user. User pages of users that do not exist. Be sure to check Special:Contributions.

Templates

For any templates that should not be deleted quickly, use Wiktionary:Requests for deletion. When nominating a template for quick deletion, add <noinclude> before the deletion template, and </noinclude> after it so pages that use the template do not get listed for quick deletion as well. Templates can be quickly deleted if it is:

1. Templates that are deprecated or replaced by a newer template and are completely unused and not linked to.

Not quick deletion criteria

Pages can not be quick deleted for the reasons below:

• Reasons on Wiktionary:What Wiktionary is not: "Wiktionary is not an encyclopedia", "Wiktionary is not an indiscriminate collection of information" and "Wiktionary is not a crystal ball" are not part of the speedy deletion criteria. However, these reasons can be given at RfD nominations.
• Hoaxes or articles that are false: Articles that do not have sources and are probably not true. Sometimes these can also be quickly deleted as vandalism if the article is obviously nonsense, but articles that might be true should be inspected and discussed more.
• Original research: It's not always easy to tell whether an article is original research or not, so they should not be quickly deleted.
• Neologisms or newly created names: Unless the article obviously does not make sense, more discussion may be needed to find out if a term is newly created or not.
• Subjects that are obviously unimportant but claims to be important: Articles that are about obviously unimportant subjects are still not allowed for quick deletion unless the article does not say why the subject is important. If the article gives a claim that might not be true, it should be discussed more. However, articles with only content such as "This guy was like so very important!" can be deleted per QD A1 because it gives no useful information about the subject.
• Author asks for deletion but made in bad faith: Sometimes an author will ask to have content removed because they are angry at Wiktionary. However, they allowed their work to be used in this way under license and cannot legally ask for its removal. Also, the article must be "accidentally created", such as if the author did not want to create it or misspelled a name. However, anyone can ask for deletion of pages in their user space.
• Very short articles: Some very short articles can be quickly deleted, but if they have content that is useful, it cannot.
• "Copyright violations" whose sources copied Wiktionary: Many times a lot of other sites use our content. When using G12, you must be sure that the content belongs to the source first.
• Finally, good faith edits are never vandalism. If you cannot be completely sure that an article was written in bad faith, G3 cannot be used.

Discussed deletion

Some pages should be discussed for seven (7) days before deletion. List these on Wiktionary:Requests for deletion:

• Pages that fall under Wiktionary:What Wiktionary is not
• Pages directly copied from other Wiktionaries

Pages that should not be deleted

• Those that appear on any internally agreed article lists or word lists (WT:BE850). Pages listed should be fixed, not deleted.
• Redirects which represent common word misspellings.

Logging

• All deleted pages are listed in the deletion log.

Undeletion

If you believe something was deleted unnecessarily, contact an administrator for assistance.