Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Administrator instructions

CFD instructions
Close after	7 days
Top tag	{{subst:Cfd top}} '''RESULT''' ~~~~
Bottom tag	{{subst:Cfd bottom}}
Archival	if that was the last discussion for that day, remove the day from WP:CFD/W, and copy any user cat discussions to the CFD monthly archive page
If merging, renaming, or deleting
While orphaning	Move to /Working
Orphan	Remove or rename instances in articles
If keeping
Tag talk page	{{Cfdend}}
Remove	Cfd tag

Visit Wikipedia:Deletion process for a complete listing of deletion and discussion processes

Administrator instructions for Categories for discussion:

Every day, the day page (that is, [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/Year Month Day]]) more than seven days old should be added to the Discussions awaiting closure list at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working#Closing discussions. The decision to keep or delete a category is to be implemented only after the discussion for that category has been closed.

Process

1. If it may take significant time to assess the debate and/or do the closing edits, consider first editing the discussion section for the category and adding {{Closing}} just after the section header, to notify others that a close of the particular discussion is in progress.
2. Determine whether or not consensus to delete or rename has been reached. See: Deletion guidelines for administrators.
3. After the category's section header, add:

   {{subst:Cfd top}} '''result'''. ~~~~

   (where result is usually either Delete or Keep)

4. Remove {{Closing}} if you added it earlier.
5. At the end of the category's section, but before the next category's section header, add:

   {{subst:Cfd bottom}}

6. If the decision is Keep (including any variant such as "Redirect" or "No Consensus"):
   1. Add a link on the category's talk page to the discussion sub-page.
      • The template {{Cfdend}} is recommended for this, so add one of:

      {{Cfdend | section heading | date = date of nomination | result = result}}

      {{Cfdend | date = date of nomination | result = result}}

      {{Cfdend | date = date of nomination}}

      (the default section heading is the category name, so that parameter may be omitted entirely)

      (the default result is "Keep", so that parameter may be omitted)

      • If the discussion failed to reach consensus, then the category is kept by default, but the decision should generally include a reference to the lack of consensus, in order to minimize ambiguity.
   2. Remove {{Cfd}} or other Cfd template from the category (be sure the Cfd category is also removed).
   3. If the page becomes a redirect, fix double redirects.
7. If the decision is Delete, Merge, or Rename:

   NOTE. If the decision or decisions affect a large number of articles, say 10,000 or more, then don't list the close in the normal sections. Instead list them as a bot subpage like User:Cyde/CFDW-May 17 (see User:Cyde/CFDW as an example) and leave a note on the talk page. The bot will process these as a separate process so that long delays in other processing are not created.

   1. List it under the appropriate section of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working. Be sure to include the link to the CFD day page above the listing. If you are a non-admin, the /Working page is protected, so please do not close discussions that require any of the above 3 actions.
   2. To rename a category, copy the introductory text and paste it to the new category name. If the category has a talk page the talk page can be moved to the new name. Also, any significant history of the category introductory text should be pasted into the new category talk page.
   3. All references to the category in templates, articles or other category pages must be changed to the new name, or removed, as the case may be. A variety of bots have at times been able to help with this task, but this can usually be accomplished quickly by checking "what links here" and updating (i) any navbox templates and (ii) category sub-pages of portals. "Article alert" subpages, user pages and talk pages can generally be ignored.
   4. After all instances of the category used in pages have been removed, the category can be deleted.
8. If the proposal includes an addition or change to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) which has consensus, make the indicated change to the policy page.

This relies on the discretion and common sense of the user closing a debate. If you disagree with a decision, please discuss it with that user.

Header and footer text

After closing the discussion, the section will look like this: