Wikipedia:Undeletion policy
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This page is an official policy on the English Wikipedia. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
| Wikipedia policy |
| Deletion policy Proposed deletion Criteria for speedy deletion Undeletion policy |
Articles and multimedia are sometimes deleted by administrators. These decisions are usually completely correct and undisputed. Sometimes, they are more controversial. The archives list deletions prior to the MediaWiki 1.4 upgrade. Since then, a searchable list of deleted pages can be accessed at Special:Log/delete, and you may discuss the deletion with the deleting administrator if you feel that it may be problematic. Take disputed case to Wikipedia:Deletion review.
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[edit] Reasons why an article might be requested for undeletion
- If the article has been wrongly deleted (i.e. that Wikipedia would be a better encyclopedia with the article restored). A request for undeletion on these grounds may happen because someone was not aware of the discussion on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion (AFD) or Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion (MFD), or because the article was deleted without being listed on AFD, or because the person making the undeletion request had objected to deletion on bona fide grounds but was improperly ignored.
- If the answer to the question "would Wikipedia be a better encyclopedia with the article restored" is obviously "no", then do not request undeletion.
- If an article was deleted under Wikipedia:Proposed deletion an admin may undelete the article, based on a user contesting the deletion, without further argument (though such articles may still be subject to deletion through the regular process).
- Deletion "out of process". But beware of disputing deletions simply because a process was not followed. Undeletion requests for inappropriate items do not succeed.
- Non-sysops who wish to see the content of a deleted article, either to use its content elsewhere, or alternatively, because they cannot tell if it was wrongly deleted without seeing what exactly was deleted. (temporary undeletion)
- To permit a deleted article to be transwikified or properly moved to a sister wiki-site. (temporary undeletion)
- "History only" undeletions can always be performed without needing to list the articles on the votes for undeletion page, and don't need to be kept for a full ten days. Article histories that include copyright infringements should not be undeleted.
[edit] To request that a page (or image) be restored
If an article was speedy deleted, this may have been done in error. You may ask any administrator to undelete an article if it has been obviously deleted out of process (no justification under the deletion policy). See the "Exceptions" section below. An article undeleted in this way may be listed on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion if it still appears to be deletable under the deletion policy. If you cannot persuade an administrator that the deletion was in error, try Wikipedia:Deletion review.
To nominate a page for undeletion, place the page title on Wikipedia:Deletion review, with the reason you think it should be undeleted. Sign and date your entry (~~~~). If the page was deleted via the Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion or Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion processes rather than speedy deletion, please include a link to the relevant deletion debate, and provide a good reason for overriding the existing debate. Be sure to leave a message on the administrator's talk page informing them that you have nominated a page for undeletion. A template, {{subst:DRVNote}} is available to make this easier.
Pages that were recently deleted in accordance with deletion policy after being listed on AFD or MFD should not be listed unless new information has come to light. If the article was deleted because it was a stub and contained little or no information and you believe you can write a non-trivial non-stub article on the subject, you should be bold and write it, rather than request the stub for undeletion. The speedy deletion criterion for "reposted content that was deleted according to deletion policy " only applies if the content is "substantially identical" (under any article title) — not if you added a lot of new information.
If an article is nominated for undeletion but is kept deleted according to consensus, please do not renominate unless you have significant new information that may convince people to change their minds.
[edit] Restoring the page (for admins)
A page listed for undeletion should remain on DRV for at least five days.
After five days, if there is a consensus for undeletion with at least three people in favor, including the person who proposed it, the page may be undeleted by a sysop.
After ten days, if there is a consensus for undeletion, it should be undeleted. If there is a consensus to endorse the deletion, it should remain deleted. If there is no consensus, it should be relisted on the relevant deletion process.
When undeleting an article:
- If the deletion was not via XfD, the undeleting sysop should notify the deleting sysop that the page has been undeleted.
If the result was to relist:
- The page should be undeleted and listed on the appropriate deletion process (e.g. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion, Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion).
- Further discussion can take place on the XfD page and, after the usual lag period, the undeleted page will either be deleted again or left undeleted.
If a request to undelete is made, a sysop may choose to undelete the article and protect it blank so that people may look at the article on which they are voting. This is done through use of Template:TempUndelete. If you wish to only view a deleted article, list it in the content review section and say why. A sysop will provide the deleted article to you in some form — either by quoting it in full, or by emailing it to you, or by temporarily undeleting it. See also Wikipedia:Viewing and restoring deleted pages by sysops.
[edit] Exceptions
- If the page was obviously deleted "out of process" (i.e. not in accordance with current deletion policy), then a sysop may choose to undelete immediately. In such a case, the sysop who deleted the page should be informed of the undeletion and the reason for it. If deletion policy dictates that the undeleted page is an AfD candidate, please list it there. If you are unclear as to whether it was out of process or not, the normal undeletion procedure should apply.
- An article deleted through the WP:PROD system can be speedily undeleted at any time.
[edit] Partial undeletion
The MediaWiki software now makes it possible to only undelete selected revisions of a page. When doing such an undeletion, the admin must be very careful to maintain the history requirement of the GFDL. See Wikipedia:Viewing and restoring deleted pages by sysops. Example cases are mentioned at Wikipedia talk:Undeletion policy.
