Wikipedia:Recreation of previously deleted pages

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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This is a failed proposal.

Consensus for its implementation was not established within a reasonable period of time. If you want to revive discussion, please use the talk page or initiate a thread at the village pump.

Recreating a previously deleted page is not forbidden. But if you do choose to recreate the page, you should be aware of the issues leading to its earlier deletion prior to recreation.

If an article was deleted, it may or may not have been deleted for a reason agreeable to you. The article's creator may have opposed its deletion, and may feel strongly about reproducing it with exactly the same content and perhaps more. A recreated page has staying power if the earlier issues have been successfully addressed or the consensus regarding those issues has changed.

Valid reasons for recreating a deleted page

Acceptable reasons for recreating a previously deleted page are:

Notability status has changed: The subject matter may not have been notable at the time the page was initially deleted. For example, the article could be about a person who is just at the beginning of achieving fame, a newly released film, or a growing company. When an article was first created, the subject was not notable, but coverage has since expanded, thereby establishing notability.
Improvement of previous writing: The original article may have been lacking of references or other criteria for inclusion, thereby leading others in an AfD to view the page as unsuitable. But the original author or someone else may believe the page has a chance and be interested in adding some references or otherwise modifying the content in order to address the issues and improve the page.
Poorly created articles: Sometimes, a newbie will create a page on a perfectly notable topic, but will do a poor job of making it appear as such, thereby leading to its deletion. Such pages when originally written may be interpreted at first as being unnotable or nonsense, when a good writer is capable of writing them to meet Wikipedia standards.
Reuse of title: If a title that was used for a previously deleted page matches that of one to be created on a different subject, it can be used. For example, if an article on one person with a particular name is deleted, then another person with the same name becomes notable, the exact title can be used. Also, titles deleted for a move are always recreated following the move.
Recreation as redirects: Following deletion of an article, it may be possible under some circumstances to recreate the title as a redirect, even when it did not qualify for a standalone article. When this is done, it is advisable that those who had an active interest in the page's deletion keep the title on their watchlist because a redirect can be changed into an article while bypassing new page patrol. This does not mean that the article should automatically be deleted or reverted to a redirect. But it should be monitored to make sure it meets Wikipedia's guidelines.

Deletion of a recreated page

Speedy deletion

A previously deleted page can be speedy deleted if its reason for deletion was any of the following, and the recreated version has the same issues:

Advertising, Self-promotion, Spam Pages intended to promote a person, company, organization, or cause
Attack pages and other writing intended to disparage the subject
Copyright violations and other forms of copyright infringement that remain in violation in the new version
Inaccurate information: Blatant hoaxes and other untruths, where the new version continues to espouse the false information
Total nonsense: Words or characters presented in a totally incoherent fashion that in no way appear to be headed to the construction of an article.

Proposed deletion

If a previously deleted article was recreated after deletion for any of the following reasons, its deletion must be brought again to AfD. Regardless, a page shall not be proposed for deletion on the day it is recreated if it has a {{construction}} tag. Either seven days shall pass without any significant edits, or else the creator shall be contacted in order to ascertain their intentions prior to proposing the page for deletion.

Lack of notability: References may have been added to the subject. Even if no more references have been added, and the article's notability has not been improved, other changes in circumstance may lead to a change in consensus regarding the page's notability.
Original research: Prior to the addition of references that may eventually be placed on the page, an article may appear to be original research, but this appearance will diminish once sources are provided.
Lists and directory pages: Since many lists and directory-like pages may be long, an editor who is considering proposing a page for deletion shall contact the page's creator to ascertain their intentions prior to the proposal. Since many such lists are quite lengthy, it may be worth proposing such a page for deletion even while under construction in order to prevent to expenditure of effort.

Oversighted material

Reposting oversighted material is forbidden. Material is not oversighted without good cause, a valid reason to even prevent administrators from viewing the material, therefore, reposting such material is highly disruptive.

If you plan to recreate

Here are the steps to take if you plan to recreate a previously deleted page:

Check the deletion log. Examine any previous discussions regarding the page's deletion, such as AfDs and deletion reviews. From these, you may be able to learn the reason behind the deletion and the consensus on the issue.
Consider deletion review. If the page was not previously taken up on deletion review, you may be able to obtain a restoration via deletion review. Also consider contacting the administrator who made the actual deletion.
Prepare your improvements. Keep in mind in advance what is necessary to make the improvements that would give the page staying power. This may either be improvements to the article itself, or you may be able to use changes in policy that have been made since, even if no changes are being made to the article.
Recreate. It may be a good idea to leave a note in hidden text or on the discussion page so new page patrollers know that the issues have been addressed. If you need time to improve the page from its original text, and you want to prevent the page from being deleted again, place the {{newpage}} tag at the top of the page as well. (Any recreated pages that continue to bear any of the problems listed in the speedy deletion criteria listed above may still be deleted even with the construction tag. See Wikipedia:Deletion of pages under construction for more details). If it'll take a very long time (several days or more) to recreate the page, it may be worth using your user space to do so, though you will not be able to test its viability.