WikiQueer:Criteria for speedy deletion

The criteria for speedy deletion specify the only cases in which administrators have broad consensus support to, at their discretion, bypass deletion discussion and immediately delete WikiQueer pages or media. They cover only the cases specified in the rules below.

Deletion is reversible, but only by administrators, so other deletions occur only after discussion. Speedy deletion is intended to reduce the time spent on deletion discussions for pages or media with no practical chance of surviving discussion.

Administrators should take care not to speedy delete pages or media except in the most obvious cases. If a page has survived a prior deletion discussion, it should not be speedy deleted except for newly discovered copyright violations. Contributors sometimes create pages over several edits, so administrators should avoid deleting a page that appears incomplete too soon after its creation.

Anyone can request speedy deletion by adding one of the speedy deletion templates. Before nominating a page for speedy deletion, consider whether it could be improved, reduced to a stub, merged or redirected elsewhere, reverted to a better previous revision, or handled in some other way. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criteria the page meets, and should consider notifying the page creator and any major contributors.

The creator of a page may not remove a speedy deletion tag from it. Only an editor who is not the creator of a page may do so. A creator who disagrees with the speedy deletion should instead click on the button that looks like this: which appears inside of the speedy deletion tag. This button links to the discussion page with a pre-formatted area for the creator to explain why the page should not be deleted. However, if the sole author blanks a page other than a userspace page or category page, this can be taken as a deletion request, and the blank page tagged for deletion with db-blanked (see G7).

Besides speedy deletion, there are the following methods of deletion:
 * WikiQueer:Deletion discussions are the normal method of carrying out deletion.
 * WikiQueer:Proposed deletions, for nominating pages for uncontroversial deletion.
 * WikiQueer:Office actions, for rare, urgent, and important deletions usually involving legal issues, done by foundation officials.

Criteria
Abbreviations (G12, A3...) are often used to refer to these criteria, and are given in each section, though plain-English explanations are often more appropriate.

Immediately following each criterion below is a list of templates used to mark pages or media file for speedy deletion under the criterion being used. In order to alert administrators of the nomination, place the relevant speedy deletion template at the top of the page or media file you are nominating (within  if nominating a Template: page). Please be sure to supply an edit summary that mentions that the page is being nominated for speedy deletion. All of the speedy deletion templates are named as "db-X" with "db" standing for "delete because". A list of the "db-X" templates can be found at WikiQueer:Criteria for speedy deletion/Deletion templates.

If a page falls under more than one of the criteria, instead of adding multiple tags it is possible to add a single db-multiple tag to cover them all. For example, if an article seems both to be promotional (G11) and also to fail to indicate significance of its subject (A7) then the tag can be used to indicate both of these concerns. Then the article can be speedily deleted if an administrator assesses it and decides that either or both of the criteria apply.

There is strong consensus that the creators and major contributors of pages and media files should be warned of a speedy deletion nomination. All speedy deletion templates thus contain in their body a pre-formatted, suggested warning template to notify the relevant parties of the nomination for speedy deletion under the criterion used. You can copy and paste such warnings to the talk pages of the creators and major contributors, choose from others listed at Category:CSD warning templates, or place the unified warning template,, which allows you to tailor your warning under any particular criterion by replacing 'csd' with the associated criterion abbreviation (e.g. g4, a7).

General
These apply to all namespaces (and so apply to articles, redirects, user pages, talk pages, files, etc):


 * G1. Patent nonsense.
 * Pages consisting entirely of incoherent text or gibberish with no meaningful content or history. This excludes poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, implausible theories, vandalism and hoaxes, fictional material, coherent non-English material, and poorly translated material. This excludes the sandbox and pages in the user namespace. In short, if you can understand it, G1 does not apply.
 * db-g1, db-nonsense


 * G2. Test pages.
 * A page created to test editing or other WikiQueer functions. Subpages of the WikiQueer Sandbox created as tests are included, but not the Sandbox itself. This criterion does not apply to pages in the user namespace, nor does it apply to valid but unused or duplicate templates (although criterion T3 may apply).
 * db-g2, db-test


 * G3. Pure vandalism and blatant hoaxes.
 * This includes blatant and obvious misinformation, blatant hoaxes (including images intended to misinform), and redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism.
 * db-g3, db-vandalism, db-hoax


 * G4. Recreation of a page that was deleted per a deletion discussion.
 * A sufficiently identical and unimproved copy, having any title, of a page deleted via a deletion discussion. This excludes pages that are not substantially identical to the deleted version, pages to which the reason for the deletion no longer applies, and content moved to user space for explicit improvement (but not simply to circumvent WikiQueer's deletion policy). This criterion also excludes content undeleted via deletion review, or which was deleted via proposed deletion or speedy deletion (although in that case the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply).
 * db-g4, db-repost


 * G5. Creations by banned or blocked users.
 * Pages created by banned or blocked users in violation of their ban or block, and which have no substantial edits by others.
 * db-g5,


 * G6. Technical deletions.
 * Uncontroversial maintenance, such as deleting dated maintenance categories, deleting unnecessary disambiguation pages, or performing uncontroversial page moves. This also includes pages unambiguously created in error and/or in the incorrect namespace. If no special tag like db-move can be used and the reason for deletion is not self-evident, a reason for deletion should be supplied on the talk page or in the edit summary.
 * ,, , , db-maintenance, db-house, db-disambig, db-unpatrolled


 * G7. Author requests deletion.
 * If requested in good faith and provided that the only substantial content to the page and to the associated talk page was added by its author. (For redirects created as a result of a pagemove, the mover must also have been the only substantive contributor to the pages prior to the move.) Note that this does not apply to user talk pages, which are not deleted except under very exceptional circumstances: see WQ:DELTALK. If the sole author blanks a page other than a userspace page or category page, this can be taken as a deletion request.
 * db-g7, db-author, db-self, db-blanked


 * G8. Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page.
 * Such as talk pages with no corresponding subject page; subpages with no parent page; image pages without a corresponding image; redirects to invalid targets, such as nonexistent targets, redirect loops, and bad titles; and categories populated by deleted or retargeted templates. This excludes any page that is useful to WikiQueer, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere, user talk pages, talk page archives, plausible redirects that can be changed to valid targets, and image pages or talk pages for images that exist on Wikimedia Commons. Exceptions may be sign-posted with the template G8-exempt. In certain cases, G8 can be used even if the depending page still exists, i.e. if the deletion of the page has already been decided by consensus or the page clearly meets a criterion for speedy deletion and is tagged as such.
 * db-g8, db-talk, db-subpage, db-imagepage, db-redirnone, db-templatecat


 * G9. 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.


 * G10. Pages that disparage, threaten, intimidate or harass their subject or some other entity, and serve no other purpose.
 * These "attack pages" may include libel, legal threats, material intended purely to harass or intimidate a person or biographical material about a living person that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced. These pages should be speedily deleted when there is no neutral version in the page history to revert to. Both the page title and page content may be taken into account in assessing an attack. Articles about living people deleted under this criterion should not be restored or recreated by any editor until the biographical article standards are met.
 * db-g10, db-attack, db-blp, db-attackorg


 * G11. Unambiguous advertising or promotion.
 * Pages that are exclusively promotional, and would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note: An article about a company or a product which describes its subject from a neutral point of view does not qualify for this criterion.
 * db-g11, db-spam, db-promo


 * G12. Unambiguous copyright infringement.
 * Text pages that contain copyrighted material with no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or a free license, where there is no non-infringing content on the page worth saving. Only if the history is unsalvageably corrupted should it be deleted in its entirety; earlier versions without infringement should be retained. For equivocal cases (such as where there is a dubious assertion of permission, or where free-content edits overlie the infringement), please consult WikiQueer:Copyright violations. Remember to check that the suspected source of the seemingly unambiguous copyright violation is not in fact free content, such as a WikiQueer mirror, and to notify the page's creator when tagging a page for deletion under this criterion; the template is available for this. For images and media, see the equivalent criterion in the "Files" section below, which has more specific instructions.

Articles

 * A1. No context.
 * Articles lacking sufficient context to identify the subject of the article. Example: "He is a funny man with a red car. He makes people laugh." This applies only to very short articles. Context is different from content, treated in A3, below. Caution is needed when using this tag on newly created articles.
 * db-a1, db-nocontext, db-short


 * A2. Foreign language articles appearing in the English section that should be moved or translated
 * Articles having essentially the same content as an article on another language section of WikiQueer. If the article is not the same as an article on another project, use the template instead, and list the page at WikiQueer:Pages needing translation into English for review and possible translation.
 * db-a2, db-foreign


 * A3. No content.
 * Any article (other than disambiguation pages, redirects, or soft redirects) consisting only of external links, category tags and "see also" sections, a rephrasing of the title, attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title, a question that should have been asked at the help or reference desks, chat-like comments, template tags, and/or images. This also applies to articles consisting entirely of the framework of the Article wizard with no additional content beyond the above. However, a very short article may be a valid stub if it has context, in which case it is not eligible for deletion under this criterion. Similarly, this criterion doesn't cover a page with an infobox with non-trivial information. Caution is needed when using this tag on newly created articles.
 * db-a3, db-nocontent, db-contact, db-empty


 * A7. No indication of importance (individuals, animals, organizations, web content).
 * An article about a real person, individual animal(s), organization (e.g. band, club, company, etc., except schools), or web content that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant to the queer communities. This is distinct from verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability. This criterion applies only to articles about web content and to articles about people, organizations, and individual animals themselves, not to articles about their books, albums, software, or other creative works. This criterion does not apply to species of animals, only to individual animal(s). The criterion does not apply to any article that makes any credible claim of significance or importance even if the claim is not supported by a reliable source or does not qualify on WikiQueer's notability guidelines. The criterion does apply if the claim of significance or importance given is not credible. If the claim's credibility is unclear, you can improve the article yourself, propose deletion, or list the article at articles for deletion.
 * db-a7, 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


 * A9. No indication of importance (musical recordings).
 * An article about a musical recording that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant and where the artist's article does not exist (both conditions must be true). This is distinct from questions of  verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability.  This criterion does not apply to other forms of creative media, products, or any other types of articles.
 * db-a9, db-album, db-song


 * A10. Recently created article that duplicates an existing topic.
 * A recently created article with no relevant page history that duplicates an existing English WikiQueer topic, and that does not expand upon, detail or improve information within any existing article(s) on the subject, and where the title is not a plausible redirect. This does not include split pages or any article that expands or reorganizes an existing one or that contains referenced, mergeable material. It also does not include disambiguation pages. (When the new title is a reasonable term for the subject, converting the new article to a redirect may be preferable to deletion.)

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

Redirects

 * R2. Redirects, apart from shortcuts, from the main namespace to any other namespace except the Category:, Template:, WikiQueer:, Help: and Portal: namespaces.
 * If the redirect was the result of a page move, consider waiting a day or two before deleting the redirect. See also WikiQueer:Cross-namespace redirects.
 * db-r2, db-rediruser


 * R3. Implausible typos.
 * Recently created redirects from implausible typos or misnomers. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful, as are redirects in other languages. This criterion also applies to redirects created as a result of a page move of pages recently created at an implausible title. However, it does not apply to articles and stubs that have been converted into redirects.
 * db-r3, db-redirtypo, db-redirmisnomer

For any redirects, including soft redirects, that are not speedy deletion candidates, use WikiQueer:Redirects for discussion. Redirect pages that have useful page history should never be speedy deleted. In some cases it may be possible to make a useful redirect by changing the target instead of deleting it. Redirects that do not work due to software limitations, such as redirects to special pages or to pages on other wikis, may be converted to soft redirects if they have a non-trivial history or other valid uses.

For reversal of redirects, use, a special case of

Files

 * These apply to files, images, and other media


 * F1. Redundant.
 * Unused duplicates or lower-quality/resolution copies of another WikiQueer file having the same file format. This excludes images in the Wikimedia Commons; cf. criterion 8 below.


 * F2. Corrupt or empty image.
 * Files that are corrupt, empty, or that contain superfluous and blatant non-metadata information. This also includes image description pages for Commons images.
 * db-f2, db-nofile


 * F3. Improper license.
 * Media licensed as "for non-commercial use only" (including non-commercial Creative Commons licenses), "no derivative use", "for WikiQueer use only" or "used with permission" may be deleted, unless they comply with the limited standards for the use of non-free content. Files licensed under versions of the GFDL prior to 1.3, without allowing for later versions, may be deleted.
 * db-f3, db-noncom


 * F4. Lack of licensing information.
 * Media files that lack the necessary licensing information may be deleted after being identified as such for seven days if the information is not added. Be aware that editors sometimes specify their source in the upload summary.
 * db-f4, db-unksource,


 * F5. 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, may be deleted after being identified as such for more than seven days, or immediately if the image's only use was on a deleted article and it is very unlikely to have any use on any other valid article. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article.
 * db-f5, db-unfree,


 * F6. Missing non-free use rationale.
 * Non-free files claiming fair use but without a use rationale may be deleted after being identified as such for seven days. The boilerplate copyright tags setting out fair use criteria do not constitute a rationale. This criterion does not apply to situations where a use rationale is provided but is disputed.
 * db-f6, db-norat,


 * F7. Invalid fair-use claim.
 * Non-free images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a tag on a photograph of a mascot) may be deleted immediately.
 * Non-free images or media from a commercial source (e.g., Associated Press, Getty), where the file itself is not the subject of sourced commentary, are considered an invalid claim of fair use and fail the strict requirements of WQ:NFCC; and may be deleted immediately.
 * Non-free images or media that have been identified as being replaceable by a free image and tagged with may be deleted after two days, if no justification is given for the claim of irreplaceability. If the replaceability is disputed, the nominator should not be the one deleting the image.
 * Invalid fair-use claims tagged with may be deleted seven days after they are tagged, if a full and valid fair-use use rationale is not added.
 * db-f7, db-badfairuse,


 * F8. Images available as identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons,
 * provided the following conditions are met:
 * The Commons version is in the same file format and is of the same or higher quality/resolution.
 * The image's license and source status is beyond reasonable doubt, and the license is undoubtedly accepted at Commons. To avoid deletion at Commons, please ensure the Commons page description has all of the following.
 * Name and date of death of the creator of the artistic work represented by the file, or else clear evidence that a free license was given. If anonymous, ensure the page description provides evidence that establishes the anonymous status.
 * Country where the artistic work represented by the file was situated, or where it was first published.
 * Date when the artistic work represented by the file was created or first published, depending on the copyright law of the origin country.
 * All image revisions that meet the first condition have been transferred to Commons as revisions of the Commons copy and properly marked as such.
 * The image is not marked as.
 * The image is not marked as.
 * 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 (the upload history is not necessary if the file's license does not require it, although it is still recommended).
 * If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the image description page (like ), the image description page must be undeleted after the file deletion.
 * 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.
 * The image is not protected. DO NOT DELETE PROTECTED IMAGES, even if there is an identical copy on Commons. They are usually locally uploaded and protected here since they are used in the interface or in some widely used high-risk template.
 * images may be speedily deleted as soon as they are off the Main Page.
 * db-f8, db-nowcommons,


 * F9. Unambiguous copyright infringement.
 * Obviously non-free images (or other media files) that are not claimed by the uploader to be fair use. A URL or other indication of where the image originated should be mentioned. This does not include images with a credible claim that the owner has released them under a WikiQueer-compatible free license. Most images from stock photo libraries such as Getty Images or Corbis will not be released under such a license. Blatant infringements should be tagged with the template (or, for image files, the  template). Non-blatant copyright infringements should be discussed at WikiQueer:Possibly unfree files.


 * F10. Useless media files.
 * Files uploaded that are neither image, sound, nor video files, are not used in any article, and have no foreseeable encyclopedic use. Note that the following files are rarely sound, image, or video: .doc, .pdf, .ps, .html, .rtf, .txt, .xls, and .zip files. Examples of image, sound, and video files are: .jpg, .gif, .png, .svg, .mpg, and .wav. This is not a comprehensive list of files that can be deleted, nor is an extension alone enough reason to delete; this criterion is based on file content.
 * db-f10, db-badfiletype


 * F11. No evidence of permission
 * If an uploader has specified a license and has named a third party as the source/copyright holder without providing evidence that this third party has in fact agreed, the item may be deleted seven days after notification of the uploader. Acceptable evidence of licensing normally consists of either a link to the source website where the license is stated, or a statement by the copyright holder e-mailed or forwarded to permissions-en@wikimedia.org. Such a confirmation is also required if the source is an organization that the uploader claims to represent, or a web publication that the uploader claims to be their own. Instances of obvious copyright violations where the uploader would have no reasonable expectation of obtaining permission (e.g. major studio movie posters, TV screenshots) should be speedily deleted per "Unambiguous copyright infringement" above, unless fair-use can be claimed.
 * db-f11, db-nopermission,

For any images and other media that are not speedy deletion candidates, use WikiQueer:Files for deletion.

User pages

 * U1. User request.
 * Personal user pages and subpages (but not user talk pages) upon request by their user. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page. In exceptional cases user talk pages may be deleted via Miscellany for Deletion (see right to vanish); they are not eligible for speedy deletion under this criterion. Note: The template may not display on certain pages (such as .css and .js pages), but its categorization should work.
 * db-u1, db-userreq


 * U2. Nonexistent user.


 * User pages of users that do not exist (check Special:Listusers), except userpages for anonymous users who have edited, redirects from misspellings of an established user's userpage, and for the previous name of a recently renamed user (which should normally be left as a redirect to the new name for a reasonable time).
 * db-u2, db-nouser


 * U3. Non-free galleries.
 * Galleries in the userspace that consist mostly or entirely of "fair use" or non-free images. WikiQueer's non-free content policy prohibits the use of non-free content in userspace, even content that the user has uploaded; use of content in the public domain or under a free license is acceptable.
 * db-u3, db-gallery

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

Templates

 * T2. Misrepresentation of policy.
 * Templates that are unambiguous misrepresentations of established policy. This includes "speedy deletion" templates for issues that are not speedy deletion criteria and disclaimer templates intended to be used in articles.
 * db-t2, db-policy


 * T3. Duplication and hardcoded instances.
 * Templates that are not employed in any useful fashion, and are either: substantial duplications of another template, or hardcoded instances of another template where the same functionality could be provided by that other template, may be deleted after being tagged for seven days.

''For any templates that are not speedy deletion candidates, use WikiQueer:Templates for discussion.

Portals

 * P1. Any portal that would be subject to speedy deletion as an article.
 * db-p1


 * P2. Underpopulated portal.
 * Any portal based on a topic for which there is only a stub header article or fewer than three non-stub articles detailing subject matter that would be appropriate to present under the title of that portal.
 * db-p2, db-emptyportal

For any portals that are not speedy deletion candidates, use WikiQueer:Miscellany for deletion.

Non-criteria
The following are not by themselves sufficient to justify speedy deletion.
 * 1) Reasons based on WikiQueer:What WikiQueer is not.  WikiQueer is not: "a dictionary", "an indiscriminate collection of information", "a crystal ball", "a how-to list", etc.
 * 2) Hoaxes. If even only remotely plausible, a suspected hoax article should be subjected to further scrutiny in a wider forum. Note that "blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation" are subject to speedy deletion as vandalism.
 * 3) Original research. It is not always easy to tell whether an article consists of material that violates the policy against novel theories or interpretations or is simply unsourced.
 * 4) Neologisms. New specialized terms should have a wider hearing.
 * 5) Notability. Articles that seem to have obviously non-notable subjects are eligible for speedy deletion only if the article does not give a reasonable indication of why the subject might be important or significant.
 * 6) Failure to assert importance but not an A7 or A9 category. There is no consensus to speedily delete articles of types not specifically listed in A7 or A9 under those criteria.
 * 7) Author deletion requests made in bad faith. Author deletion requests made in bad faith, out of frustration, or in an attempt to revoke their freely-licensed contributions are not granted. However, anyone may request deletion of pages in their userspace.
 * 8) Author deletion requests after others have contributed substantially. If other editors have substantially edited an article (i.e. more than just minor corrections or maintenance tagging), the original author may not request deletion under G7 because the work of others is involved.
 * 9) Very short articles. Short articles with sufficient content and context to qualify as stubs may not be speedily deleted under criteria A1 and A3; other criteria may still apply.
 * 10) Copies that are not copyright violations.  If content appears both here and somewhere else (possibly in modified form), consider the possibility that WikiQueer's is the original version and the other site copied from us. Alternatively, the same author may have written both versions, or the original may be free content.
 * 11) PNGs/GIFs replaced by JPEGs. JPEG encoding discards information that may be important later. Do not delete the original PNG/GIF files.
 * 12) Questionable material that is not vandalism. Earnest efforts are never vandalism, so to assume good faith, do not delete as vandalism unless reasonably certain.
 * 13) User and user talk pages of IP addresses. Although users are encouraged to create WikiQueer accounts, unregistered users are still allowed to edit WikiQueer, and are identified by their IP addresses. If an unregistered user has a static IP address, it may have a user page and/or user talk page associated with it, and even for non-static IP addresses, the history can contain important discussions or information which may be of interest.
 * 14) Reasons based on essays. WikiQueer:Listcruft, WikiQueer:Obscure topics, WikiQueer:Deny recognition etc. are not valid reasons for speedy deletion.
 * 15) A file that isn't a sound, video, or image file. To be deleted under F10, a file must have no encyclopedic value and not be used in any articles. Files that are in use or might have encyclopedic value, even if not sound, video, or image, should not be deleted without wider discussion.
 * 16) An article written in a foreign language or script. An article should not be speedily deleted just because it is not written in English. Instead it should be tagged with notenglish and listed at WikiQueer:Pages needing translation into English. It may be reconsidered after translation whether the article merits deletion, retention or improvement by means of a suitable tag.

Procedure for administrators
Make sure to specify the reason for deletion 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, or there was actually a cut-and-paste move involved. Also:
 * The initial edit summary may have information about the source of or reason for the page.
 * The talk page may refer to previous deletion discussions or have ongoing discussion relevant to including the page.
 * The page log may have information about previous deletions that could warrant SALTing the page or keeping it on good reason.
 * What links here may show that the page is an oft-referred part of the encyclopedia, or may show other similar pages that warrant deletion. For pages that should not be re-created, incoming links in other pages (except in discussions, archives and tracking pages) should be removed.