User:Sphilbrick/Deletion policy observations

Statement of Issue
Imagine a relatively new editor, trying to understand the rules regarding the deletion of pages and other elements of Wikipedia. The editor will no doubt easily find the overall deletion policy, and the various XFD pages:
 * Deletion policy
 * AFD - articles
 * TFD - templates
 * FFD - images
 * CFD - categories
 * RFD - redirects
 * SFD - stub types
 * MFD - miscellany

The editor will note some sort of structure to these pages. It appears that these pages were constructed such that each XFD page lists the specific options available for the type of item, and the overall deletion policy covers all options, along with a complete explanation of the option.

In summary form, we have a deletion policy listing and describing all options (A,B,C,....) and individual XFD pages listing the applicable options to X.

However, if you read the articles with this structure in mind, a number of questions may emerge. Most of the readers of this discussion have enough experience to answer all of these questions, but view this through the eyes of a new editor, trying to understand the overall deletion policy:


 * "Incubation" is an option listed in Deletion policy but not AFD
 * "Userfied" is an option mentioned in AFD, but not Deletion policy.
 * "Tranwikied" is in AFD, but called "Other projects" in Deletion policy
 * "Merge" and "redirect" are distinct options in Deletion policy, but seems to be combined in AFD
 * "Edit" is mentioned in Deletion policy—is this the same as "Change Scope" in SFD?
 * "Keep" is surely always an option, and it is explicitly mentioned in AFD,MFD,FFD, and RFD, but it is only implicit in TFD, CFD, SFD and Deletion policy
 * "Keep" is called "Keep" in AFD,MFD, and FFD, but "not delete" in RFD
 * "Archiving" is discussed in Deletion policy, but not listed in any XFD
 * The options in each XFD are usually mentioned in the opening paragraph, but "Merge" in SFD is further down in the body of the article

As an aside, I plan to propose guidelines covering when we userfy and incubate articles, but first, I think we should discuss a technical cleanup of the various policies first. While I am sure the veteran editors have no difficulty understanding our overall deletion policy, new editors face a small challenge when first encountering the policies. I'm not proposing any change in policy, simply editorial changes to the various pages to use consistent terms in all places.

The first question is whether it is worth the effort to copy-edit the various XFD and Deletion Policy pages. if it is, we can put together draft versions and debate the wording.

Summary of existing options by article
The following table is a quick summary,identifying which option is mentioned in which article.

1 Identified as a single option "merged or redirected" in AFD, but as two distinct options in Deletion Policy

2 Called Transwiki in AFD, "other projects" in Deletion Policy

3 Called "not deleting" in RFD

4 Included in the body of the article, but not the introduction

5 Called "Change Scope" in body of article

Goal
Note that the goal is not to ensure that there is an X is every cell, as some options should not apply to some XFD. My goal is to:
 * Ensure that the names of the options are consistent everywhere
 * Ensure that all options for all XFD are cleanly listed in the opening section of the XFD page

My hope is that we can have discussion to see if there's consensus to work on this, and then work on drafts for the intro to each XFD and a revised draft Deletion policy.

User space issues
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Mattgallop#Deletion_policy