Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion

The "Speedy deletion" policy governs limited cases where Wikipedia administrators may delete Wikipedia pages or media "on sight" without further debate, as in the cases of patent nonsense or pure vandalism. Non-admins can request deletion of such a page, either by listing it on speedy deletions, or by adding a {{deletebecause|Reason}} template. The word "speedy" in this context refers to the rapid decision-making process, not the length of time since the article was created.

Before nominating an article for speedy deletion, please consider whether an article could be improved or reduced to a stub. Also, please note that some Wikipedians create articles in multiple saves, so try to avoid deleting a page too soon after its initial creation. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criteria the page meets; it would also be considerate to notify the original author — remember, everyone was new once. Note that the Sandbox is exempt from deletion.

This page contains the criteria for speedy deletion and a list of helpful templates that can be used to tag a candidate for speedy deletion. Articles that do not meet the speedy criteria may be nominated for the alternative deletion processes Wikipedia:Proposed deletion and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion.

The list of current candidates for speedy deletion is at Category:Candidates for speedy deletion.

Criteria

General criteria

People sometimes use abbreviations to refer to these criteria (e.g. "A3" meaning articles, criterion 3), but for the sake of clarity this is not recommended).

1. Patent nonsense, i.e. no meaningful content, unsalvageably incoherent page. This does not include: poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, badly translated material, implausible theories or hoaxes.
2. Test pages (e.g., "Can I really create a page here?").
3. Pure vandalism, including redirects created during cleanup of page move vandalism.
4. Recreation of deleted material. A substantially identical copy, by any title, of a page that was deleted according to the deletion policy, except if it is in user space or undeleted per the undeletion policy. Before deleting again, the admin should ensure that the material is substantially identical, and not merely a new article on the same subject. In case of a speedily-deleted page, they must also determine that it met a criterion for speedy deletion in the first place. Likewise, an article that was deleted as an uncontested prod and then re-created is not subject to this criterion, as the re-creation effectively amounts to contesting the proposed deletion. Such cases should be taken to Articles for deletion for discussion by the community.
5. Banned user. Pages created by banned users while they were banned.
6. Housekeeping. Non-controversial maintenance tasks such as temporarily deleting a page in order to merge page histories, performing a non-controversial page move like reversing a redirect, or removing a disambig page that only points to a single article.
7. Author requests deletion. Any page for which deletion is requested by the original author, provided the page's only substantial content was added by its author and was mistakenly created. If the author blanks the page, this can be taken as a deletion request. Note: Please check the page history to make sure there is only a single author.
8. Talk pages of pages that do not exist, unless they contain deletion discussion that isn't logged elsewhere.

Articles

For any articles that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Articles for deletion or Wikipedia:Proposed deletion.

1. Very short articles providing little or no context (e.g., "He is a funny man that has created Factory and the Hacienda. And, by the way, his wife is great."). Limited content is not in itself a reason to delete if there is enough context to allow expansion. Note: A search engine may help in determining context and allow for the article's expansion. An earlier revision of the article might provide some context so the article could be reverted to that version.
2. Foreign language articles that exist on another Wikimedia project. If the article in question does not exist on another project, the template {{notenglish}} should be used instead.
3. No content whatsoever. 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. Note: An earlier revision of the article might contain some content, so the article could be reverted to that version.
4. (merged into 3)
5. Transwikied articles. Any article that has been discussed at Articles for Deletion (et al), where the outcome was to transwiki, and where the transwikification has been properly performed and the author information recorded.
6. Attack pages. Articles that serve no purpose but to disparage their subject (e.g., "John Citizen is a moron").
7. Unremarkable people or groups/Vanity Pages. An article about a real person, group of people, band, or club that does not assert the importance or significance of its subject. If the assertion is disputed or controversial, it should be taken to AFD instead. (See Wikipedia:Deletion of vanity articles for further guidance on this criterion).
8. An article that is a blatant copyright infringement and meets these parameters:
   • Material is unquestionably copied from the website of a commercial content provider (e.g. encyclopedia, news service) and;
   • The article and its entire history contains only copyright violation material, excluding tags, templates, and minor edits and;
   • Uploader makes no assertion of permission or fair use, and none seems likely and;
   • The material is identified within 48 hours of upload and is almost or totally un-wikified (to diminish mirror problem).
   When tagging a page for deletion under this criterion, a user should notify the page's creator using wording similar to {{Nothanks-sd}} or an equivalent message. Before deleting any page under this criterion, an admin should verify that the page creator has been notified — if not, the admin should do so. If the deleting administrator is notified of an error, and finds the claim of error plausible, he should restore the content immediately and, if a confirmation email has not been received, follow the Wikipedia:Copyright problems procedure, blanking the article with the {{copyvio}} template in the process.

Redirects

For any redirects that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Redirects for deletion.

1. Redirects to non-existent pages (although it may be possible to make it a useful redirect to some other target)
2. Redirects to the User: space from the main article space. If this was the result of a page move, consider waiting a day or two before deleting the redirect.
3. Redirects as a result of an implausible typo that were recently created. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful.

Images/Media

For any images that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Images for deletion.

Please remove images from any pages they are used in before marking them for speedy deletion. With respect to fair use disputes, if a fair use rationale is provided, use WP:IFD instead.

1. Redundant. An image that is a redundant copy, in the same image file format and same or lower resolution, of something else on Wikipedia. This does not apply to images duplicated on Wikimedia Commons, because of licence issues; these should be tagged with {{NowCommons|Image:newname.ext}} or {{NowCommonsThis}} instead.
2. Corrupt or empty image.
3. Improper license. Images licensed as "for non-commercial use only" or "used with permission" that were uploaded on or after May 19, 2005, and for which no assertion of fair use is provided. [1]
4. Lack of licensing. Images in category "Images with unknown source", "Images with unknown copyright status", or "Images with no copyright tag" that have been tagged with a template that places them in the category for more than 7 days, regardless of when uploaded. Note, users sometimes specify their source in the upload summary, so be sure to check the circumstances of the image.
5. Unused copyrighted images. Images 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 Category:Orphaned unfree images (or a valid subcategory) for more than seven days. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article. The templates {{or-cr}}, {{or-cr-re}}, {{or-fu}}, and {{or-fu-re}} place an image in this category.
6. Missing fair-use claim. Any image tagged only with {{fairuse}} or {{fairusein}}, with no fair use rationale, may be deleted seven days after it was uploaded. Images uploaded before May 4, 2006 should not be deleted immediately; instead, the uploader should be notified that a fair-use rationale is needed.
7. Invalid fair-use claim. Any image with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a {{logo}} tag on a photograph of a mascot) can be deleted at any time.

Categories

For any categories that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Categories for deletion.

1. Empty categories (no articles or subcategories for at least four days) whose only content has consisted of links to parent categories. This does NOT apply to categories being discussed on WP:CFD. If the category isn't relatively new, it possibly contained articles earlier, and deeper investigation is needed.
2. Speedy renaming. Empty categories that have qualified for speedy renaming.
   1. Typo fixes (e.g., Brdiges -> Bridges), but not changes between British and American spelling.
   2. Capitalization fixes (e.g., characters In harry Potter -> Characters in Harry Potter)
   3. Conversions from singular to plural, or back (e.g., Steamship -> Steamships)
   4. Renaming to conform with the "by country" categorization conventions
   5. Abbreviation expanding for country names, e.g. changing "U.S." to "United States"
3. Template categories. If a category is solely populated from a template (e.g. Category:Wikipedia cleanup from {{cleanup}}) and the template is deleted per deletion policy, the category can also be deleted without further discussion.

User pages

For any user pages that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.

1. Owner request. Personal subpages, upon request by their owner. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page. Also, sometimes, main user pages may be deleted as well. See Wikipedia:User page for full instructions and guidelines.

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 that are divisive and inflammatory. (Note that this criterion was established with an endorsement from Jimbo Wales)

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. 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 discuss under the title of that Portal.

Deletion templates

The following templates add articles to Category:Candidates for speedy deletion but do not appear in the category themselves:

• {{db|reason}}, {{db-reason|reason}}, {{Deletebecause|reason}}, {{Delbecause|reason}} : Replace reason with a specific reason for speedy deletion. Please try to write out a reason that will be comprehensible to non-Wikipedians.
• Specific reason templates are:
  • {{db-nonsense}} : CSD G1 - patent nonsense. You can put {{subst:test-n|page name}} -- ~~~~ on the user's talk page.
  • {{db-test}} : CSD G2 - test page
  • {{db-vand}} : CSD G3 - vandalism. You can put {{subst:test-n|page name}} -- ~~~~ on the user's talk page.
  • {{db-repost}} : CSD G4 - copies of previously deleted material
  • {{db-ban|Name of the banned user}} : CSD G5 - contributions made by a banned user
  • {{db-histmerge|Page to merge history from}} : CSD G6 - history merge
  • {{db-move|Page to be moved}} : CSD G6 - making way for a noncontroversial move. Please add the name of the page that is to be moved
  • {{db-author}} : CSD G7 - speedy request by only editor
  • {{db-talk}} : CSD G8 - talk page of a deleted or nonexistent page
  • {{db-empty}}, {{nocontext}} : CSD A1 - very short articles without context
  • {{db-foreign}} : CSD A2 - foreign language article duplicated on other Wikimedia project
  • {{db-nocontent}}, {{db-contact}} : CSD A3 - no content other than external links of whatever kind, or an attempt to contact subject of article
  • {{db-transwiki}} : CSD A5 - transwikification completed
  • {{db-attack}} : CSD A6 - attack page intended to disparage its subject
  • {{db-bio}}, {{db-band}}, {{db-club}}, {{db-group}} : CSD A7 - non-notable biography / vanity about a person or persons that does not assert the notability of the subject. You can put {{subst:nn-warn|page name}} -- ~~~~ on the user's talk page, or, if it seems that someone has created a user page in the encyclopedia section instead of their user page, you can use put {{subst:Userfy warning|page name}} --~~~~ on their talk page.
  • {{db-copyvio|url=url of source}} : CSD A8 - blatant copyright violation. Please notify uploader on their talk page with: {{subst:nothanks-sd|pg=page name|url=url of source}} -- ~~~~
  • {{db-blanked}} : CSD G7 and CSD A1 - pages that are blanked by their authors can be assumed to be a request for deletion by the authors.
  • {{db-redirnone}}: CSD R1 - redirect to non-existent page.
  • {{db-rediruser}}: CSD R2 - redirect to user page.
  • {{db-redirtypo}}: CSD R3 - redirect that is a result of an implausible typo.
  • {{Isd|name of replacement image without the Image: prefix}} : CSD I1 - same or better image exists on Wikipedia (not for now on Commons)
  • {{Missing image}} : CSD I2 - corrupt or empty image
  • {{Db-noncom}} : CSD I3 - "No commercial use" or "by permission" images uploaded after target date.
  • {{db-unksource}} : CSD I4 - lack of licensing -- Should only be used if the image has been previously tagged with {{no license}}, {{nosource}}, or a similar template.
  • {{db-unfree}} : CSD I5 - unused copyright image -- Should only be used if the image has been previously tagged with {{or-cr}}, {{or-fu}}, or a similar template.
  • {{db-norat}}: CSD I6 - image with fair use tag but no fair use rationale - must have been tagged as such for seven days and uploaded after 2006-05-04.
  • {{db-badfairuse}}: CSD I7 - bad fair use rationale - image tagged for fair use under a rationale that is patently irrelevant to the actual image, like {{game-screenshot}} on a photo of a celebrity. Please notify uploader on their talk page using {{subst:badfairuse|image name including prefix|tag that was on the image}}
  • {{db-catempty}} : CSD C1 - category that is empty for at least four days and has never contained anything other than links to parent categories
  • {{db-owner}} : CSD U1 - user's subpage requested to be deleted by its owner
  • {{db-afd}}: - an admin has closed an Articles for deletion debate as a "delete" but not deleted the article.
• {{delete}}, {{d}}: Request Speedy Deletion, without providing a reason. This template should only be used in extremely obvious cases.

Procedure for Administrators

See also: Wikipedia:Deletion process

Before deleting a page, an admin should check the page history to assess whether it would instead be possible to restore and salvage a previous version.

Admins should specify the deletion criteria in their edit summary and should notify the article's creator about the deletion, where applicable.

See also

• Wikipedia:Deletion policy
• Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace (Grid of warning messages)