Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion

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The speedy deletion policy specifies the limited cases where administrators may delete Wikipedia pages or media without discussion. Non-administrators can request speedy deletion by adding an appropriate template (see below). In this context, "speedy" refers to the simple decision-making process, not the length of time since the article was created.

This page contains the criteria for speedy deletion and a list of templates that can be used to tag a candidate for speedy deletion. These criteria are worded narrowly, so that in most cases reasonable editors will agree what does and does not meet a given criterion. Where reasonable doubt exists, discussion using another method under the deletion policy should occur instead. If a page has survived a prior deletion discussion, it may not be speedily deleted, except in the case of newly discovered copyright infringements.

Before nominating an article for speedy deletion, consider whether it could be improved or reduced to a stub; if so, speedy deletion is probably inappropriate. Contributors sometimes create articles over several edits, so try to avoid deleting a page too soon after its creation if it appears incomplete. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criteria the page meets, and consider notifying the page's creator.

Any user who is not the creator of a page may remove a speedy tag from it. The creator may not do this; if they disagree with the speedy deletion, they should add {{hangon}} to the page, and explain their rationale on the page's discussion page.

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

Template:CSD CriteriaCriteria

Abbreviations are sometimes used to refer to these criteria. For example, "A7" refers to criterion 7 under articles (notability) and "G12" refers to criterion 12 under general (copyright infringement). These abbreviations can be confusing to new users (who are most likely to have created articles that can be speedily deleted), and should be avoided.

A table listing the template(s) for each of these criteria is provided below.

Template:CSD GeneralGeneral criteria

These criteria apply to all namespaces, and are in addition to namespace-specific criteria in following sections.

1. Patent nonsense and gibberish, an unsalvageably incoherent page with no meaningful content. This does not include: poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, badly translated material, implausible theories, or hoaxes of any sort; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases.
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 copy, by any title, of a page deleted via a deletion discussion, provided the copy is substantially identical to the deleted version and that any changes to it do not address the reasons for which it was deleted. This does not apply to content that has been moved to user space, undeleted via deletion review, or deleted via "proposed deletion", or to speedy deletions (although in that case, the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply).
5. Banned user. Pages created by banned users while they were banned.
6. Housekeeping. Non-controversial maintenance, such as temporarily deleting a page to merge page histories, or performing a non-controversial page move like reversing a redirect.
7. Author requests deletion, if requested in good faith, and provided the page's only substantial content was added by its author. If the author blanks the page, this can be taken as a deletion request.
8. Talk pages whose corresponding article does not exist, except for deletion discussion that is not logged elsewhere, User Talk pages, talk pages for images on Wikimedia Commons, or talk subpages (such as archives) whose corresponding "top-level" page exists.
9. Office actions. The Wikimedia Foundation office reserves the right to speedily delete a page temporarily in cases of exceptional circumstances. Deletions of this type should not be reversed without permission from the Foundation.
10. Pages that serve no purpose but to disparage their subject or some other entity (e.g., "John Q. Doe is an imbecile"). These are sometimes called "attack pages". This includes a biography of a living person that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced, where there is no neutral version in the history to revert to. Administrators deleting such pages should not quote the content of the page in the deletion summary.
11. Blatant advertising. Pages which exclusively promote some entity and which would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note that simply having a company or product as its subject does not qualify an article for this criterion.
12. Blatant copyright infringement. Text pages that meet all of the following:
    • The material was copied from another website or other source (but consider the possibility that the other copy was obtained from Wikipedia - see Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks);
    • There is no non-infringing content worth saving;
    • The material was introduced at once by a single person; and
    • There is no credible assertion of fair use or a free license.
    Notify the page's creator when tagging a page for deletion under this criterion; the template {{nothanks-sd}} is available for this. After deleting, administrators should recreate the page from earlier noninfringing page content if available. If multiple deletion criteria apply, list them all on the deletion summery. If notified of a plausible error, the deleting administrator should restore the content and, if a confirmation e-mail has not been received, follow the Wikipedia:Copyright problems procedure, replacing the article with the {{copyvio}} template. Some suspected copyright infringements are listed at Wikipedia:Suspected copyright violations.

Template:CSD ArticlesArticles

1. Lack of context. Very short articles that provide no context for their statements. Example: "He is a funny man who owns a red car and makes people laugh." Limited content is not in itself a reason to delete if there is enough context for the article to qualify as a valid stub.
2. Foreign language articles that exist on another Wikimedia project. If the article does not exist on another project, use the template {{notenglish}} instead, and list the page at Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English for review and possible translation.
3. Absence of content. Any article (other than disambiguation pages) consisting only of links, category tags and "see also" sections, rephrasing of the title, and/or chat-like comments.
4. (Placeholder to preserve numbering; merged with A3.)
5. Transwikied articles. Any article that either consists only of a dictionary definition or that has been discussed at Articles for deletion with an outcome to move it to another wiki, after it has been properly moved and the author information recorded.
6. (Placeholder to preserve numbering; superseded by #G10.)
7. No assertion of importance/significance. An article about a real person, group of people, band, club, company, or web content that does not state why its subject is important or significant. This is distinct from questions of notability, verifiability and reliability of sources. If controversial, list the article at Articles for deletion instead.
8. (Placeholder to preserve numbering; superseded by #G12.)

Template:CSD RedirectsRedirects

For any redirects that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion. In some cases it may be possible to make a useful redirect by changing the target instead of deleting it.

1. Redirects to deleted pages and to nonexistent pages.
2. Redirects to the Talk:, User: or User talk: namespace from the article space (this does not include the Wikipedia shortcut pseudo-namespaces). If this was the result of a page move, consider waiting a day or two before deleting the redirect.
3. Redirects from implausible typos or misnomers that were recently created. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful, as are redirects in other languages.

Template:CSD Images-mediaImages and media

1. Redundant. Any image or other media file that is a redundant copy, in the same file format and same or lower quality/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 {{subst:ncd|Image:newname.ext}} or {{subst:ncd}} instead.
2. Corrupt or empty image. Before deleting this type of image, verify that the MediaWiki engine cannot read it by previewing a resized thumbnail of it. Even if it renders, if it contains superfluous information that cannot be accounted for as metadata directly relating to the image data, it may be deleted. It is always possible for the uploader to correct the problem by uploading an image that contains only a good image plus acceptable metadata.
3. Improper license. Images licensed as "for non-commercial use only", "non-derivative use" or "used with permission" that were uploaded on or after May 19, 2005, except where they have been shown to comply with the limited standards for the use of non-free content. [1] This includes images licensed under a "Non-commercial Creative Commons License".[2] Such images uploaded before May 19, 2005 may also be speedily deleted if they are not used in any articles.
4. Lack of licensing information. Images in category "Images with unknown source", "Images with unknown copyright status", or "Images with no copyright tag" that have been in the category for more than seven days, and which still lack the necessary information, 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 unfree images. Images and other media 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 a dated subcategory of Category:Orphaned fairuse images for more than seven days. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article. Use {{subst:orfud}} to tag images for forthcoming deletion.
6. Missing non-free media rationale. Non-free images or media claiming fair use but without a use rationale may be deleted seven days after they are tagged. The boilerplate copyright tags setting out fair use criteria do not constitute a use rationale. Offending images can be tagged with {{subst:nrd}}, and the uploader notified with {{subst:missing rationale|Image:image name}}. Such images can be found in the dated subcategories of Category:Images with no fair use rationale. If a use rationale is provided but disputed, use Images and media for deletion instead.
7. Invalid fair-use claim. Non-free images or media that fail any part of the non-free content criteria and were uploaded after 13 July 2006 may be deleted forty-eight hours after notification of the uploader. For media uploaded before 13 July 2006 or tagged with the {{Replaceable fair use}} template, the uploader will be given seven days to comply with this policy after being notified. Invalid fair-use claims may be tagged with {{subst:dfu}} for review after a seven-day period, and the uploader may be notified with {{subst:no fair|Image:image name}}. Such images can be found in the dated subcategories of Category:All disputed non-free images. Non-free images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a {{logo}} tag on a photograph of a mascot) may be deleted at any time.
8. Images available as bit-for-bit identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons, provided the following conditions are met:
   • The image's license and source status is beyond reasonable doubt, and the license is undoubtedly accepted at Commons.
     • All image revisions that meet the first condition have been transferred to Commons as revisions of the Commons copy and properly marked as such.
   • All information on the image description page is present on the Commons image description page, including the complete upload history with links to the uploader's local user pages.
     • If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the image description page (like {{FeaturedPicture}}), the image description page must be undeleted after the file deletion.
   • The image is not protected, and the image description page does not contain a request not to move it to Commons.
   • The image has been marked with {{NowCommons}} for at least one week. Waiting one week is not necessary if it was the uploader who moved the image and marked it.
   • If the image is available on Commons under a different name than locally, all local references to the image must be updated to point to the title used at Commons.
   • {{c-uploaded}} images may be speedily deleted as soon as they are off the Main Page.

   This also includes empty (i.e., no content) image description pages for Commons images.

9. Suspected copyright infringement. The uploader does not assert public domain, fair use, or a free license. Examples of websites that do not have a license compatible with Wikipedia include stock photo libraries such as Getty Images or Corbis. For images, contested suspected copyright infringements should be discussed at Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion.

Template:CSD CategoriesCategories

For any categories that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Categories for discussion or Wikipedia:User categories for discussion. Due to current technical restrictions, renaming or merging a category effectively deletes the original category.

1. Empty categories that have been empty for four days. This does not apply to categories presently on deletion discussions, or to disambiguation categories.
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., Category:Heads Of State -> Category:Heads of state).
   3. Conversions from singular to plural, or back (e.g., Steamship -> Steamships).
   4. Renaming to conform with the "by country" categorization conventions.
   5. Expanding abbreviated country names (e.g. U.S. -> 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.

Template:CSD User pagesUser pages

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

1. User request. Personal subpages, upon request by their user. 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.
2. Nonexistent user. User pages of users that do not exist. (Check Special:Listusers.)
3. Non-free galleries. Galleries in the userspace which consist mostly of "fair use" or non-free images. Wikipedia's non-free content policy forbids the use of non-free content in userspace, even content which the user has uploaded themselves. Content in the public domain or under a free license such as the GFDL is acceptable.

Template:CSD TemplatesTemplates

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. This applies only to pages in the Template: namespace, although outside this namespace, other criteria, such as general criterion 10, may still apply; see Wikipedia:Userbox migration for further discussion.
2. Templates that are blatant misrepresentations of established policy, this includes "speedy deletion" templates for issues that are not speedy deletion criteria, and disclaimer templates that violate the policy that Wikipedia is not censored.

Template:CSD PortalsPortals

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. Underpopulated portal. 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 present under the title of that portal.

Template:CSD Non-criteriaNon-criteria

Sometimes speedy deletion criteria are applied to articles that they do not and were not intended to apply to; also, rules that are not speedy deletion rules are often mistakenly used to justify speedy deletion. This section aims to clarify some of the frequently used "non-criteria" that are commonly cited but are not sufficient, by themselves, to justify speedy deletion. These are not rules and intended only to be commonly understood interpretations of the criteria above.

• Reasons derived from Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not: "Wikipedia is not a dictionary", "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information" and "Wikipedia is not a crystal ball" are not part of the speedy deletion criteria. However, these reasons can be given as rationales for proposed deletion nominations, or as an argument for deletion at Articles for deletion.
• Hoaxes: Articles that present unverifiable and probably false ideas, theories, or subjects. Occasionally these can be deleted as vandalism if the article is obviously ridiculous, but remotely plausible articles should be subjected to further scrutiny in a wider forum.
• Original research: Although we have a policy against material that offers novel theories or interpretations on Wikipedia, this is not a basis for speedy deletion. The reason for this is that it's not always easy to tell whether an article is original research, or simply uncited.
• Neologisms: As with hoaxes, unless the article is obviously ridiculous, a wider forum is necessary to evaluate the currency of specialized terminology.
• Non-notable subjects with their importance asserted: Articles that have obviously non-notable subjects are still not eligible for speedy deletion unless the article "does not assert the importance or significance of its subject". If the article gives a claim that might be construed as making the subject notable, it should be taken to a wider forum. However, articles with only a statement like "This guy was like so friggin' notable!" can be deleted for lacking context, because it gives no context about the subject.
• Non-notable subjects not falling under the specified categories: Article criterion 7 (A7) lists only a few kinds of topics that can be deleted using this rule: people, groups, companies, and web content.
• Author deletion requests made in bad faith: Sometimes an author will ask to have content removed because they feel frustrated with the project and resent it profiting from their work. However, they licensed their work to be used in this way and they have no legal basis for asking for its removal. The article must be "mistakenly created"; for example, the author created it unwittingly by misspelling a name. Of course, anyone may request deletion of pages in their userspace.
• Author deletion requests made when others have contributed substantially: If other editors have substantially edited an article (e.g. more than just grammatical corrections or maintenance tagging), deleting it would delete not only the contributions of the original author, so they can no longer claim a right to delete it as the author.
• Very short articles: As explained above, some very short articles can be speedily deleted, but if they have content and offer sufficient context to qualify as stubs, they cannot be.
• "Copyright violations" whose sources copied Wikipedia: Our content is extensively used without credit, sometimes with modifications. We should be reasonably sure that content belonged to the source site first before deleting it.
• PNGs/GIFs replaced by JPEGs: Even if an image is a photograph or other continuous-tone image, JPEG encoding discards a variety of information that could be important for further editing. Do not delete the original PNG/GIF files.
• Finally, good faith edits are never vandalism. If you cannot be reasonably sure an article was written in bad faith, "vandalism" is not an appropriate reason to delete it.

Template:CSD Deletion templatesDeletion templates

In order to alert administrators that a page meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion, place one of the following relevant templates at the top of the page. Please be sure to supply an edit summary that mentions that the article is being nominated for speedy deletion.

Template	Aliases	Criteria	Used for
Whenever possible, use a reason-specific template.
{{db-g1}}	{{db-nonsense}}	CSD G1	Patent nonsense. You can put {{subst:Db-nonsense-notice|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g2}}	{{db-test}}	CSD G2	Test page. You can put {{subst:uw-creation1|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g3}}	{{db-vandalism}}	CSD G3	Vandalism. You can put {{subst:uw-creation2|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
	{{db-pagemove}}	CSD G3	Nonsense redirects that are created from the cleanup of page move vandalism. You can put {{subst:mp2-n|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
	{{db-hoax}}	CSD G3	Blatant hoaxes. You can put {{subst:uw-hoax|"page name"}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g4}}	{{db-repost}}	CSD G4	Copies of material that was previously deleted after an XfD discussion. Articles that were only previously speedily deleted do not fall under this category. You can put {{subst:repost-warn|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g5}}	{{db-banned|name of banned user}}	CSD G5	Contributions made by a banned user while they were banned.
{{db-g6}}	{{db-move|page to be moved| reason for move}}	CSD G6	Making way for a non-controversial move. Please add the name of the page that is to be moved and the reason for the move.
	{{db-copypaste|page to be moved}}	CSD G6	Cleaning up copy-and-paste page moves to make way for a clean, non-controversial move. Please add the name of the page that is to be moved.
	{{db-xfd}}	CSD G6	An experienced editor has closed a deletion debate as a "delete", but the page did not get deleted.
	{{db-g6}}	CSD G6	Other non-controversial "housekeeping" tasks, such as reversing a redirect.
{{db-g7}}	{{db-author}} {{db-self}}	CSD G7	Speedy request by only editor.
	{{db-blanked}}	CSD G7	Page blanked by only editor.
{{db-g8}}	{{db-talk}}	CSD G8	Talk page of a deleted or nonexistent page.
	{{db-subpage}}	CSD G8	Subpage of a deleted or nonexistent page.
	{{db-imagepage}}	CSD G8	Image page without a corresponding image.
	{{db-redirnone}}	CSD G8	Redirect to non-existent page.
	{{db-templatecat}}	CSD G8	Category that is populated solely by a template that has been deleted.
{{db-g10}}	{{db-attack}}	CSD G10	Attack page intended to disparage its subject. You can put {{subst:attack|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g11}}	{{db-spam}}	CSD G11	Blatant advertising. You can put {{subst:spam-warn|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g12|url=URL of source}}	{{db-copyvio|url=URL of source}}	CSD G12	Blatant copyright violation. You can put {{subst:uw-copyright|page name|url=URL of source}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-g13}}	{{db-afc}} {{db-blankdraft}}	CSD G13	Any page in draftspace or user drafts that are blank or with only the default Article Wizard text, if unedited for six months.
{{db-g14}}	{{db-disambig}}	CSD G14	Unnecessary disambiguation pages.
{{db-a1}}	{{db-empty}} {{db-nocontext}}	CSD A1	Very short articles without context. Use {{subst:empty-warn|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-a2}}	{{db-foreign}}	CSD A2	Foreign language article duplicated on other Wikimedia project.
{{db-a3}}	{{db-nocontent}} {{db-contact}}	CSD A3	No content other than external links of whatever kind, or an attempt to contact subject of article.
{{db-a7}}	{{db-bio}}– for a person	CSD A7	Article about a real person, individual animal(s), group, company, or web content that does not indicate the importance of the subject. Try to use one of the more specific templates rather than {{db-a7}}. 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 put {{subst:nn-userfy|page name}}-- ~~~~ on their talk page.
	{{db-person}} – for people
	{{db-band}} – for bands
	{{db-club}} – for clubs, societies, groups, and organizations
	{{db-inc}} – for companies and corporations
	{{db-web}} – for websites
	{{db-animal}} – for individual animals
{{db-a9}}	{{db-album}} {{db-song}}	CSD A9	Article about a musical recording (album, single, etc.) that does not indicate the importance of the subject, and where the artist's article does not exist.
{{db-r2}}	{{db-rediruser}}	CSD R2	Redirect to an article talk page, image description page, image talk page, mediawiki page, mediawiki talk page, category talk page, portal talk page, template talk page, help talk, user page, or user talk. You can put {{subst:rediruser-warn|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-r3}}	{{db-redirtypo}} {{db-redirmisnomer}}	CSD R3	Recently created redirect that is a result of an implausible typo or misnomer. You can put {{subst:redirtypo-warn|page name}}~~~~ on the user's talk page.
{{db-r4}}	{{db-redircom}}	CSD R4	Redirects in the file namespace that shadow a Commons file or redirect.
{{db-f1|replacement file name.ext}}	{{db-redundantfile| replacement file name.ext}} {{isd|replacement file name.ext}}	CSD F1	Same or better file exists on Wikipedia (see {{db-f8}} for files now on Commons).
{{db-f2}}	{{db-nofile}}	CSD F2	Corrupt or empty file. File page for a file on Commons without Wikipedia-related or assessment information.
{{db-f3}}	{{db-noncom}}	CSD F3	"No commercial use" or "by permission" files uploaded after target date.
{{db-f4}}	{{db-unksource}}	CSD F4	Lack of licensing – Should only be used if the file has been previously tagged with {{di-no license}}, {{di-no source}}, or a similar template.
{{db-f5}}		CSD F5	Unused copyright file – Should only be used if the file has been previously tagged with {{or-cr}}, {{or-fu}}, or a similar template.
{{db-f6}}	{{db-norat}}	CSD F6	File with fair use tag but no fair use rationale - must have been tagged as such for seven days and uploaded after May 4, 2006.
{{db-f7}}	{{db-badfairuse}}	CSD F7	Bad fair use template – file tagged as fair use with a template that is patently irrelevant to the actual file, like {{game-screenshot}} on a photo of a celebrity. Please notify uploader on their talk page using {{subst:badfairuse|File:file name|tag that was on the file}}.
{{db-f8}}	{{db-nowcommons}} {{db-nowcommons| name of file on Commons.ext}}	CSD F8	Identical file has been moved to or is otherwise available on Commons.
{{db-f9|url=URL of source}}	{{db-filecopyvio|url=URL of source}}	CSD F9	Blatant copyright infringements.
{{db-f11}}	{{db-nopermission}}	CSD F11	No evidence of permission from copyright holder to publish under license asserted by uploader – file must have been tagged with {{no permission}}, and uploader notified for seven days.
{{db-c1}}	{{db-catempty}}	CSD C1	Category that has been empty for at least four days.
{{db-u1}}	{{db-userreq}}	CSD U1	User page or subpage requested to be deleted by the user with whom it is associated.
{{db-u2}}	{{db-nouser}}	CSD U2	Userpages of users who do not exist.
{{db-u5}}	{{db-notwebhost}}	CSD U5	Inappropriate use of userpages as web hosting.
If you are not sure, you can use these general templates:
{{db}}	{{db-reason|reason}} {{deletebecause|reason}} {{delbecause|reason}} {{delete|reason}} {{d|reason}} {{Speedy deletion|reason}} {{Speedy|reason}} {{csd|reason}}		Replace reason with a specific reason for speedy deletion. Please try to write out a reason that will be comprehensible to non-Wikipedians.

Template:CSD Procedure for administratorsProcedure for administrators

See also: Wikipedia:Deletion process

Make sure to specify the deletion reason in the deletion summary. Also, in some cases the article's creator should be notified.

Before deleting a page, check the page history to assess whether it would instead be possible to revert and salvage a previous version. Also:

• The initial edit summary may have information about the source of or reason for the article.
• The talk page may refer to previous deletion discussions, or have ongoing discussion relevant to including the article.
• The page log may have information about previous deletions that could warrant SALTing the article or keeping it on good reason.
• 'What links here' may show that the subject of the article is an oft-referred part of the encyclopedia, or may show other similar pages that warrant deletion. For articles that should not be re-created, incoming links in other articles should be removed.

See also

• Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion/Explanations
• Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace (Grid of warning messages)