Wikipedia:Proposed deletion

Please edit this proposal.

The Articles for deletion process has been subject to much controversy over the past months, and the issue has been debated to death several times with widely varying solutions and ideas. The main problems with AFD include

1. Excessive bureaucracy, with many repetitive debates about similar cases.
2. A focus on negativity rather than improvement of articles.
3. Complaints from people that the articles about them (or written by them) are treated badly.

It is difficult to change a process while it's running. Thus, this is a proposal for a simple alternative to AFD. Since 80% of all AFD nominations are not controversial and end up as obvious "keeps" or obvious "deletes", there's really no need to go into lengthy debates on them. Hence, this new system is to delete any articles nominated here, unless a single person objects within five days. It is really very simple and rules-light, please read the specifics below.

Because this process will not delete any articles that anyone considers worthwhile, the proposal is that this process goes live for a test run in one week (Feb 4th) - unless there are significant objections in the meantime, and assuming that several people promise (below) to watch the process as it goes. This should take much of the workload off of AFD. We can then take our time to decide if we want to keep using AFD for the few debates that are actually controversial, or if we want another process.

Radiant_>|< 17:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

How to propose deletion of an article

1. Edit the article and add the Template:Prod at the top, providing your reasoning. For instance,

   {{prod|has no sources, likely a hoax}}

2. Click on this link to edit today's log page.
3. Add a link to the article you want deleted, repeating your reason. For instance,

   * [[Useless Article]] - has no sources, likely a hoax.

4. (optional) Inform the creator of the article, or a related WikiProject.

How to prevent an article from being deleted

1. Edit the article to remove the Template:Prod.
2. (optional) While you're editing the article anyway, please consider improving the article to address the concerns raised earlier. For instance, in the above example, add a source if you know one.
3. (optional) Edit the relevant deletion log page and add a brief line stating while the article shouldn't be deleted, such as

   ** Not a hoax. Added a source and clarified a bit.

4. People are strongly encouraged to edit, rename, proofread or merge articles proposed for deletion.

What this process is NOT for

• This page is supposed to be short and simple. No lengthy diatribes, no rebuttals, no arguments. Any further discussion related to an article or improvement thereof will be summarily moved to the article's talk page.
• This page is not for contested deletion, and edit warring is bad form. If someone removes Template:Prod from an article for whatever reason, don't place it back. If the template was removed and replaced, the article will not be deleted.

Closing guideline for administrators

1. Any article listed here unopposed for at least five days may be deleted without further argument.
2. Before deleting the article, the admin should check if the Template:Prod is still there; if not, don't delete it.
3. Also, if the template is present, the admin should check the page history to verify it wasn't removed and put back.
4. Admins are never obliged to delete anything. If the closing admin disagrees with an article's deletion, the admin should simply remove the template, and optionally improve the article.
5. To ensure an extra pair of eyes, an article should not be deleted by the very person that placed the Template:Prod on it.
6. Since this process is about uncontested deletions, any page deleted here can be undeleted without further argument

People watching this process

The following people will be watching the daily log files to find articles to improve, and to make sure no worthwhile content is deleted: