User:Dlohcierekim/deletion

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Contents 1 What does that box at the top of my article mean? 1.1 Proposed deletion 1.2 Speedy deletion 1.3 Articles for deletion 2 My page has vanished! 3 How can I stop my articles being deleted?

[edit] What does that box at the top of my article mean?

[edit] Proposed deletion

If you see a blue box with the message It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern... at the top of your article, this means someone has proposed it for deletion ("prodded it"); the reason will be given in the blue box. If nobody challenges the proposal for five days, an admin will look at the article and decide whether to delete it. If you don't agree that it should be deleted, just edit the page and remove the {{dated prod}} line from the top of the article. Give the reason you think the article should be kept in the "edit summary" box.

[edit] Speedy deletion

If you see a pink box with the message This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion at the top of your article, this means someone feels it meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion ("speedied it"). An admin will look at the article at any time and decide whether to delete it. If you don't agree that it should be deleted, put {{hangon}} at the very top of the article without deleting the line starting {{db}}, and put the reason you think the article should be kept on the article's talk page.

[edit] Articles for deletion

If you see a gray box with the message This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy at the top of your article, this means someone has nominated the page for a deletion discussion ("AfD'd it"). This does not mean the page will be deleted — it doesn't even necessarily mean the nominator thinks it should be deleted. The page will be listed at Deletion Discussions for five days, and people will discuss (not vote) whether it ought to be kept; after five days, an admin will read the discussion and decide whether it ought to be kept. Anyone, including the author of the article, can contribute to the discussion — click the link in the box at the top of the article.

[edit] My page has vanished!

This means that someone has deleted the article. If you have a good reason why you think the decision to delete it was wrong, leave me a message on my talk page or go to Deletion Review and follow the instructions there. It would be a very good idea to read the Wikipedia inclusion criteria, and if the article is about a person to read WP:BIO. If you think someone's picking on you, as a last resort you can post a complaint at WP:AN/I, but make sure you have a good reason. If you would like to work or view a deleted page, I can put a copy in your userspace. Please understand that it may wind up that someone asks for that deletion be deleted as well. Also, recreated articles that are not substantially different from the deleted versions may be be speedily deleted. Cheers, and happy editing!

[edit] How can I stop my articles being deleted?

Pages that don't meet Wikipedia guidelines can be nominated for deletion by any editor. The obvious way to make sure your article gets kept is to make sure your article meets those guidelines; most importantly, the article has to prove that the subject of the article has been the subject of "multiple independent non-trivial sources", such as links to two newspapers or major websites discussing the subject. To do this correctly, visit WP:CITE and follow the instructions there. Don't worry too much about getting the formatting perfect; as long as the sources are there, the article will be cleaned up by other editors rather than deleted.

Unsorted stub articles and uncategorised articles are much more likely to come to notice than any other kind. If your article's relatively short, go to the list of stub tags and add the appropriate tag to the bottom of your article (eg, for an article about a Canadian cricketer, add {{Canada-cricket-bio-stub}}). Likewise, add appropriate categories to the bottom of your article; for example, the Canadian cricketer would have Category:Canadian cricketers at the bottom of the article. There is a full list of categories at Special:Categories but it isn't very useful because it's so long; the easiest way to find the appropriate categories is to look at the bottom of another article on a similar subject.

Inappropriate stub tags and categories will just be deleted (and annoy a bunch of people), but even very short articles have a much better chance of surviving as long as they're appropriately tagged and categorised.