Template:Deletion process cheat sheet/doc

This template provides supplementary how-to documentation about the deletion process in a collapsible section, and is intended for use on User sandbox or talk pages, and Project pages. It provides instructions for deleting a single article, following the content and style of WP:AFDHOWTO and related documentation, with additional notes to make it easy to follow step-by-step.

Usage
The default invocation generates general instructions for any page:



When used with an argument, it provides detailed, copy-pasteable instructions for a specific article:




 * Note: see caveat below on "expensive" parser function calls, and other factors.

Parameters
This template takes the following parameters, all of which are optional. They are case-sensitive. Those that take CSS measurements require them in CSS format (e.g.  not.


 * art – Article title; creates step-by-step tailored to the given article
 * title – collapse banner title; default: 'Deletion process how-to' (+ 'for ArticleName&apos;, if param art is present)
 * collapse – any non-null value uncollapses (default: collapsed). Equivalent: yes.

Remaining parameters are pass-through; see Template:Collapse top for description of these:
 * expand
 * left
 * bg
 * bg2
 * fc
 * padding
 * width
 * indent
 * clear

Examples
The simplest version with no args creates a general summary:



You can add a title at the top of the box, and styling:



Specifying Some article redoes the description using that specific title:



Collapsed is the default, so it's not necessary to specify it. You can uncollapse by specifying no. (This template follows conventions of cot; in particular, 'collapse=yes' gives the same behavior as 'collapse=no', i.e., uncollapsed.)

Example invocation with some style params:

Example with an article which has never been nominated for deletion:

Example with an article having previous nominations for deletion (at this writing, six previous nominations; using redirect):

Try it now
If you would like to run an example showing these Afd instructions tailored specifically for an article you are considering nominating, you can do it right now. Customized instructions for your article will be created for you in a new section in your sandbox. You can view the results in preview mode and just abandon it afterward, or you could save the results for use later. To run an example now and create a new section in your sandbox, click.

Limitations and accuracy of results
When provided with the optional parameter art, this template attempts to provide the correct Afd nomination filename for the specific article given, based on what previous deletion discussions it finds for that article. In almost all cases, it returns the correct value, but in some cases it may not. Additional information about previous nominations may be found on the article Talk page. Several factors can affect the accuracy of results:
 * redirects and case
 * non-standard naming of older deletion discussions
 * inherent depth limitations – max depth level searched is "10th nomination"
 * expensive parser function calls: number of previous nominations, and other templates on the same page

The information below does not apply when the template is invoked without the art parameter as no expensive parser function calls are used in that case. But when the parameters is in use, keep these factors in mind:

Redirects and case
Pay attention to possible redirects and case. If you want to nominate Chaise lounge for deletion, you are probably nominating the wrong file, as that is a redirect. If that really is the page you want to delete, this is not the right procedure; see Redirects for discussion instead. Normal redirects are detected by the template, which will advise you of this fact. WP:Soft redirects, however, are not detected automatically, but if discovered, they can be added to an exceptions list which will give advice in the deletion status summary box at the top of the instructions (e.g., like Glomp).

Except for the first letter, article names are case sensitive, so watch for differences of case: Giant Monster for example does not exist; it was deleted after its fourth nomination, and Giant monster is a redirect.

Non-standard naming of older deletion discussions
In attempting to generate the correct filename for the deletion discussion, the template examines previous discussions, searching for files that use the standard naming conventions for deletion nominations, which are typically either of two typical forms for each level above the first. For example, second nominations are usually called either "ArticleName (second nomination)" or "ArticleName (2nd nomination)". There are very few exceptions, but there are some. A series of deletion nominations for the same article that skips levels (e.g, a "4th nomination" but no "3rd") or that have nonstandard naming (like Lolifox or Matthew 1:2) will not be recognized and lead the template astray into suggesting the wrong nomination level. (These could be caught, but there are only a handful of them, and it would increase the expensive parser function count in all cases for little net gain, so not worth it. The solution is simply to create a redirect using the standard naming convention, pointing to the nonstandard nomination page.)

Inherent depth limitation
The template detects previous deletion nominations up to level nine and can accurately propose a 10th nomination, but no further. The results will not be accurate for articles that have already been nominated for deletion ten or more times. This is a trade-off between utility and increasing load of expensive parser function calls. There are very few articles that have been nominated more than ten times; there are four "11th nominations" for example. If you wish to nominate one of these, you will need to adjust the nomination name shown by the template.

Expensive parser function calls
It is recommended that this template not be placed more than once on the same page, when used with a non-empty value for parameter art. In this case, the template uses expensive parser functions to determine the next nomination name ("second", "third", and so on). The number of expensive calls is two for articles that have not been nominated for deletion before, and higher for ones that have been nominated. For an article nominated N times for deletion, it is 2N+2, e.g., 12 for an article nominated five times before; this is well below the limit. In the worst case, if the page on which it appears has too many other templates with expensive function calls, they will return false after the limit is exceeded, and the template may return a lower value than expected: e.g., it may suggest "third nomination" for an article already nominated five times before.

As a practical matter, this is very unlikely to occur unless the template appears on pages that have too many other expensive function calls. On a test page containing 35 invocations of this template fully expanded, the count of expensive function calls was less than 20% of the maximum. If this template exceeds the limit, it will be obvious, because the suggested deletion log filename will be blue instead of a red link. If it appears as a blue link, that means that the template was unable to find the next deletion log filename for this article; in this case, you must determine the nomination name manually. If you are a new user of WP:AFD, or if you're unsure how to determine the proper nomination name manually, you should ask for help; try the WP:Tea house or WP:Help desk.