User:Retired username/History of speedy deletion

This page is an attempt to document the general history of speedy deletion policy on Wikipedia, and trace the history of each modern rule to its origins and document important developments along the way from that initial form to the modern rule. Why? In a nutshell, knowing the history adds context to speedy deletion discussions. It's important to understand how speedy deletion used to be thought of, versus how it is now. If people are more informed about this history of this set of policies, I think they will be better at making changes to it now.

Timeline of speedy deletion policy

 * 29 November 2001 Appearance of Wikipedia policy on permanent deletion of pages, the first real deletion policy. It essentially allows for the deletion (by Jimbo, Larry Sanger and Tim Snell alone) of pages that are A) vandalism, or B) "simply will never become encyclopedia articles, e.g., with titles that will never be misspellings, that represent completely idiosyncratic non-topics, etc."
 * 25 February 2002 Wikipedia policy on permanent deletion of pages is renamed Deletion policy
 * 31 May 2003 Wikipedia:Speedy deletions is created, as an experiment. The first candidate is not added until August 6, 2003. Adding nominations to that page was apparently how it worked until 23 June 2004, when CAT:CSD came to be.
 * 26 July 2003 The birth of CSD? On WP:DP, Martinhelper gives five specific cases where an article contains "no useful content or history" and the longer VFD process can be skipped. Prior to this edit, deletion policy had simply said speedy deletion was allowed "if the page contains no useful content or history".
 * 18 August 2003 A discussion/dispute leads to some rather strong wording, that (perhaps inadvertently) creates the first strong distinction between "speedy deletion" criteria and pages that need to go to VFD
 * 19 August 2003 first appearance of the phrase "Candidates for Speedy Deletion", apparently coined by Martinhelper
 * 22 December 2003 - Last version of CSD included directly in deletion policy
 * 9 January 2004 - Criteria for Speedy Deletion created as a seperate page.
 * 23 June 2004 - User:Duncharris updates the Speedy deletions and delete to use a category, CAT:CSD, to organize current candidates. Prior to this date, one had to manually edit the page Speedy deletions to make a nomination. This actually did not catch on at first, and the manual reporting continued to be used widely until wording was added on 7/2/04 suggesting people use the template/category unless "you feel it might need a short discussion". Manual reports, apparently ones needing a short discussion, continued well into 2005, although gradually the page became only usable to delete user subpages (not everyone adopted the new template/category system quickly though). Speedy deletions continued as something of a legacy page until mid-2006, where people could request and challenge speedy deletions. It now redirects to WP:CSD.
 * 27 August 2004 User:Netoholic divides the criteria by namespace, creating some of the familiar "modern" rule conventions like A1 and R1.

The criteria
As a shorthand, I use "classic criteria" to refer to the original criteria that were simply a numbered list, and did not try to break down speedy deletion rules by namespace.

G1: Patent nonsense

 * Descendant of criteria #1 from the very first version of CSD in July 2003.
 * Original wording: No meaningful content or history (eg "sdhgdf").
 * 12/20/07 wording: Patent nonsense and gibberish, an unsalvageably incoherent page with no meaningful content. This does not include: poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, badly translated material, implausible theories, or hoaxes of any sort; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases.
 * Not actually called patent nonsense until 8/18/03.
 * Was an article criteria, A1, for a while.

G2: Test pages

 * Descendent of criteria #2 from the original CSD in July 2003.
 * Original wording: Test pages (eg "Can I really create a page here?").
 * 12/20/07 wording: Test pages (e.g., "Can I really create a page here?"). Testing is permitted in the sandbox and in users' own user space.
 * Perhaps the least modified rule.
 * Was an article criteria, A2, for a while.

G3: Vandalism

 * Descendant of criteria #3 from the original CSD in July 2003.
 * Original wording: Pure vandalism (see dealing with vandalism).
 * 12/20/07 wording: Pure vandalism - WP:VANDAL for details. (Note that the definition of vandalism also covers blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation.) This also covers redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism.
 * "Note that the definition of vandalism also covers blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation" was long an understood but unwritten application of G3, it was added on 12/18/07, quite likely because W.marsh pointed out CSD didn't technically cover hoaxes a few hours earlier at DRV.
 * The hoax provision was first proposed on 10/30/04
 * Was an article criteria, A3, for a while.

G4: Reposts of deleted material

 * Descendant of classic criteria #5 from the original CSD in July 2003.
 * Original wording: resposting previously deleted content, where the page was not listed on wikipedia:votes for undeletion.
 * 12/20/07 wording: Recreation of deleted material. A copy, by any title, of a page deleted via a deletion discussion, provided the copy is substantially identical to the deleted version and that any changes in the recreated page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted. This does not apply to content that has been moved to user space, undeleted via deletion review, deleted via proposed deletion, or to speedy deletions (although in that case, the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply).
 * Swapped with G5 at some point
 * Requirement that the material in question was deleted per deletion policy first added 11/22/03 by Angela.
 * Was an article criteria, A5, for a while.
 * After some controversy, started applying only to articles previously deleted at VFD, not speedy deleted.

G5: Material by banned users

 * Descendant of criteria #4 from the original CSD in July 2003.
 * Original wording: Pages created and edited solely by a banned user, after they were banned. (see bans and blocks).
 * 12/20/07 wording: Banned user. Pages created by banned users while they were banned, with no substantial edits by others.
 * Swapped with G4 at some point
 * Perhaps the first disagreement about CSD policy, this criteria was removed within 2 hours of the initial criteria being created, then re-added with a note that the rule was controversial! Perhaps the first speedy deletion language compromise?
 * Was an article criteria, A6, for a while.

G6: Housekeeping

 * Descendant of classic criteria #8 and #9 added by Martinhelper on 8/31/03.
 * Original wording: #8: Deleting a redirect to make way for a non-controversial page move, #9: Temporarily deleting a page in order to merge page histories after a cut and paste move
 * 12/20/07 wording: Housekeeping. Non-controversial maintenance, such as temporarily deleting a page to merge page histories, performing uncontroversial page moves, or cleaning up redirects.
 * Became technical criteria #2 and #3 on 9/20/03
 * Was an article criteria, A8, for a while.

G8: Talk pages

 * First added as classic criteria #11 by Angela on 4/9/04
 * Original wording: Talk pages of already deleted articles unless the discussion is linked to Archived delete debates
 * 12/20/07 wording: Talk pages whose corresponding article does not exist. This excludes any talk page which is useful to the project, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere, user talk pages, talk pages for images on Wikimedia Commons, talk subpages (such as archives) whose corresponding "top-level" page exists.

G11: Advertising

 * First seen in policy on 10/22/04 as a part of G3/Vandalism.

G12: Blatant copyright infringement

 * Interestingly, the first versions of CSD specifically said copyright violations were not a reason for speedy deletion: Copyright infringement is not an exception to the seven day rule: see below.
 * Interestingly, the first versions of CSD specifically said copyright violations were not a reason for speedy deletion: Copyright infringement is not an exception to the seven day rule: see below.

A1: No context

 * Descendant of what was added by User:Evercat as classic criteria #4 on 7/28/2003, 2 days after the criteria were created.
 * Original wording: Very short pages with no definition or context (eg "This guy is great!")
 * 12/20/07 wording: No context. Very short articles lacking sufficient context to identify the subject of the article. Example: "He is a funny man with a red car and makes people laugh." Context is different than content, treated in A3, below. Care should be take to ensure that valid articles in progress are not deleted.
 * The surprisingly long-lived "Funny man" example wording appeared on 8/17/03, survived with no alteration for over 4 years until 9/1/07, when WikiDemo changed the example wording. Wikidemo explained he thought the comment about his wife was vaguely suggestive.
 * Was known as A4 for a while.

A5: Transwikied articles

 * Descendant of classic criteria #8 added by Angela on 12/4/03.
 * Original wording: Articles which have already been moved via the transwiki system.
 * 12/20/07 wording: Transwikied articles. Any article that either consists only of a dictionary definition, has already been transwikied (e.g. to Wiktionary or Wikisource), or has been discussed at Articles for deletion with an outcome to move it to another wiki, after it has been properly moved and the author information recorded.
 * Was known as A7 for a while.

R1

 * Basically added by Angela on 9/8/03, not as a speedy deletion criteria but as a deletion suggestion.
 * Original wording: [Wikipedia:Redirect|Redirects]] to deleted pages should be deleted or redirected elsewhere to avoid broken redirects.
 * 12/20/07 wording: Redirects to deleted pages and to nonexistent pages.
 * Added as classic criteria #12 by Angela on 4/9/04

A3: No content

 * In the initial days of CSD, Martinhelper tells us opinions differ as to whether a page containing only external links should be speedy deleted
 * Sort of appears on 9/29/04 as a proposal in an edit by User:Rossami,, saying Sub-stub articles which add no information beyond what was obvious from the title (e.g. Swazi embassy to Mozambique which said "The Embassy of Swaziland is the home of Swaziland's representative to Mozambique."
 * Another part was added as a proposal on 9 October 2004 by Rossami. Wording: Any article whose contents consist only of an external link, "See Also" section, book reference, category tag or template tag.

A7: Non-notable

 * The first attempt at this was added as a proposal on 9 October 2004 by Rossami. It applied only to vanity articles: Extremely blatant vanity articles. ('e.g.' bands that have never released an album and contain no members that are famous for reasons other than being in the band; or high school kids where the article makes no claim of notability and the person gets virtually no Google hits.)

C1: Empty categories

 * Added as "other" criteria #5 and #6 by User:Anthony on 8/31/04
 * Empty categories (no articles or subcategories) whose only content has consisted of links to parent categories.

U1: User request

 * Descendant of classic criteria #6, added on July 27 2003, a day after the criteria themselves were first defined.
 * Original wording: Personal subpages that have been listed on Personal subpages to be deleted.
 * 12/20/07 wording: User request. Personal subpages, upon request by their user. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page. Also, sometimes, main user pages may be deleted as well. Requests can be made by adding db-userreq to the top of a page. See User page for full instructions and guidelines.
 * Became technical criteria #1 on 9/20/03, gradually became criteria #10 . There was long a separate process for requesting deletion of these pages, eventually located on Speedy deletions.

I1: Redundant

 * Originally added as classic criteria #9 by Angela on 12/22/03 and was a general rule allowing deletion of any redundant page or image. Narrowed just to images on 1/9/04 by Martinhelper.
 * Original wording: Deleting something that is an exact copy of something else. / Deleting an image which is an exact copy of something else.
 * 12/20/07 wording: '' Redundant. Any image or other media file that is a redundant copy, in the same file format and same or lower quality/resolution, of something else on Wikipedia. This does not apply to images duplicated on Wikimedia Commons, because of licence issues; these should be tagged with Image:newname.ext or instead.

Archaic criteria

 * Pages where a unanimous agreement has been reached on Wikipedia:Cleanup.
 * Added 10/10/03 by Angela. Removed a few hours later.
 * Pages created for the sole purpose of trolling that border on outright vandalism. Articles that may have any redeeming value should either be (1) posted on VfD or (2) moved outside of the article namespace (deleting the redirect in the article namespace so trolling is not published), and added to VfD so others may evaluate.
 * Added by Daniel Quinlan on 11/10/03.. Removed a day later with a note that speedy deleting trolling was controversial.
 * New Wikipedia user home pages accidentally created in main article space (move content to their user home page first).
 * Added as technical criteria #4 on 11/12/03 by Daniel Quinlan.. Gradually became a part of G6 housekeeping.
 * Deleting something that is an exact copy of something else.
 * Added as classic criteria #9 by Angela on 12/22/03 Scope changed broadly to cover just images.
 * User talk pages of non-logged in users where the message is no longer relevant (this is to avoid confusing new users who happen to edit with that same IP)
 * Added as classic criteria #13 by Angela on 4/9/04

Etc

 * Very early (2001-2002) discussion of deletion policy. Includes gems like "By the time [deleting articles] is too much for Bomis employees, we'll be able to pay more people to work on the project"
 * Evercat adds what could be the first suggestion to notify page creators of speedy deletions on 7/28/03