Wikipedia:Proposed blanking

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✘ This proposal has failed to attain consensus within the Wikipedia community. A failed proposal is one for which a consensus to accept is not present after a reasonable amount of time, and seems unlikely to form, regardless of continuing discussion.
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WP:PROB
This page in a nutshell: As a shortcut around AfB for uncontroversial blankings, an article can be proposed for blanking, though once only. If no one contests the proposal within five days, the article may be blanked by a user.
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Proposed blanking is the way to suggest that an article is uncontroversially a blanking candidate, but that it does not meet the more stringent criteria for speedy blanking. If a ({{subst:prob}}) tag is added to an article, the article will be blanked about 5 days later if nobody objects. If any user objects — usually by removing the tag — then the article may be taken to Articles for blanking for further discussion. User and User talk pages may also be blanked in the same way, but only if the user has no recent edits and has made few or no contributions to the encyclopedia. If the tag is removed from a User or User_talk page, the page may be taken to Miscellany for Discussion.

Contents

[edit] How it works

Articles tagged with the {{prob}} template will be checked over by a user after five days if there have been no objections by other users. If the reason given is valid then the article will be blanked. Blanked articles should be replaced with a redirect or with a template such as Wikipedia:Experimental Deletion/XD1/Example.

Articles that:

  • Have previously been proposed for blanking
  • Have previously been unblanked
  • Have been discussed on AfB or MfB

are not candidates for {{prob}}.

Additionally, only articles may be proposed for blanking. The only exceptions to this rule are pages in the User and User talk namespaces which may be proposed for blanking if the user has no recent edits and has made few or no contributions to the encyclopedia.

See Category:Proposed blanking for the listing of all articles currently proposed for blanking. An automated summary table can be found at WP:PROBSUM.

[edit] How to nominate

  • If you think that an article is an uncontroversial candidate for blanking:
    1. Review the article's history to confirm that it has not been recently vandalized. If it was proposed for blanking before, nominate it for Wikipedia:Articles for blanking if you think it should be blanked.
    2. Add {{subst:prob|reason}} to the top of the main article page. Tailor your reason to each individual article; generic messages are not helpful. Use an informative edit summary clearly indicating that the article has been nominated for blanking. Do not mark the edit as minor.
    3. Although not required, it is considered courteous to notify the article's creator and other significant contributors that you have proposed an article for blanking. You can use {{subst:PROBWarning|Article title}} ~~~~ for this. For your convenience, this line is generated at the end of the "prob" box after you have added it to the article.
    4. Consider adding the article to your watchlist.

[edit] Contesting a proposed blanking

[edit] Before blanking

  • If you do not agree that the article should be blanked without discussion you can do the following things:
    1. Remove the {{dated prob}} tag from the article, noting this in the edit summary. Editors should explain why they disagree with the proposed blanking.
    2. While you're editing the article anyway, please consider improving it, especially to address the concerns given as a reason for blanking.
    3. If you feel that the article should be blanked, but not without discussion, you may nominate the article for an Articles for blanking debate.

[edit] After blanking

Make a request at blanking review. Any user can unblank upon a reasonable request.

[edit] Conflicts

  • Contested blankings: If anyone, including the article's creator, removes Template:Prob from an article for any reason, do not put it back, except if the removal was clearly not an objection to blanking (such as blanking the entire article, or removing the tag along with inserting blatant nonsense). If the edit is not obviously vandalism, do not restore tag, even if the tag was apparently removed in bad faith. If you still believe the article needs to be blanked, list it on Wikipedia:Articles for blanking. Note:
  1. If someone replaces a PROB tag with an AfB tag, this constitutes a contested blanking, and the PROB tag should not be restored.
  2. If someone replaces a PROB tag with a speedy blanking tag (although they should simply add the speedy tag), the PROB tag may be restored, as the user obviously thinks the article should be blanked quickly without discussion.

The other blanking and related processes have priority over PROB:

  • An article flagged for both PROB and AfB should be dealt with in AfB, and the {{prob}} tag should be removed.
  • Appropriate alternatives such as Wikipedia:Copyright problems or Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy blanking take precedence. However, when tagging a PROBed article as a speedy candidate, the PROB tag should be left in place in case the speedy blanking is rejected. (Note contrast with the above: a rejected speedy candidate is still eligible for PROB, but a rejected AfB candidate is not.)
  • Any blanking via this process which is taken to blanking review is implicitly a contested blanking, and the article may therefore be immediately restored by any user without discussion.
  • Any article blanked via this process and then re-created is not subject to speedy blanking under speedy criterion G4, as re-creation is a way for contesting (removing) the prob tag. If you feel the article should be re-blanked, list it on Articles for blanking.

[edit] Procedure for users

If you are a user deciding whether or not to blank a PROBed article:

  1. Check that the tag has been in place continuously for at least 5 days and no objections have been raised on the talk page.
  2. Check the article's blanking log to confirm that it has never previously been proposed for blanking, unblanked or been discussed on AfB. If it has been, it is not eligible to be PROBed and should be kept or sent to AfB.
  3. If you agree that the article should be blanked, blank it giving an informative blanking reason, such as that given by the nominator, not just "expired prob". If you are using an automated script, check that it does not leave an inadequate message. Blanked articles should be replaced with a redirect or with a template such as Wikipedia:Experimental Deletion/XD1/Example.
    If you decide not to blank it, consider editing the article to deal with the concerns that were raised, or nominating the article for blanking on AfB.

Note: To ensure independent judgment, an article should not be blanked by the same person who placed the tag on it.

[edit] See also

  • Wikipedia:WikiProject Proposed blanking Patrolling — WikiProject to ensure articles are correctly probed and deprobed
  • Wikipedia:blanking reform/Proposals/Uncontested blankings -- Earlier, similar proposal (rejected, superseded)
  • Wikipedia:Proposed blanking/Template prob - Similar proposal for templates, rejected
  • Category:Proposed blanking
  • Wikipedia:Experimental deletion
See also Alternative outlets | Unblanking policy | blanking guidelines for users
AfB Precedents | Archived blank debates | Policy consensus discussions