User:Wiki-Pharaoh/Policy References


 * ''For the Wikipedia project, see Wikiproject Essays
 * ''To cite essay policy in an MfD essay discussion, use WP:ESSAYS

This is a list or reference to various policies and guidelines posted by users or WP:POLICY which I find relevant to various different aspects on Wikipedia. The reason I have listed them is for personal quick reference and so that others might be able to quick reference things that are really important to editing and patrolling which might at first be difficult to find.

I hope that other users can use these Policy References as a quick reference resource as I do but if you have any comments or would like to suggest improvements or even point my attention to a policy / guideline I have missed out please contact me on my Talk Page.

Useful for First Time Patrol
The following guidelines, WP:POLICY or essays posted by various users has helped me while I make first time patrols:

User:SoWhy's The Commandments

 * 1) Instead of reading the templates, read what Criteria for speedy deletion says. Given the changing nature of speedy deletion criteria, the templates are bound to use incorrect or out-of-date wording sometimes and their wording is not the basis for the reviewing admin's decision. Also, read Criteria for speedy deletion/Explanations.
 * 2) Remember that all criteria represent a very strict set of possible pages that may be deleted without further input. If a criterion does not cover the page in question and you think it should be deleted, Proposed deletion or Deletion discussions is the correct way to achieve it. Remember that a page cannot be speedy deleted just because it meets What Wikipedia is not. Make yourself familiar with the Non-criteria.
 * 3) G1: Patent nonsense is actually just a small set of possible pages and does not apply to anything but those pages. If you can understand what the page is about, it's not patent nonsense. If it's a test page, that's what G2 is for. Resist the urge to tag articles that are blatantly un-encyclopedic but not nonsense with G1. It's almost always incorrect as G1 is not acarte blanche
 * 4) Not all hoaxes are vandalism and can be deleted via G3. It applies only to those where no one (except maybe the creator) would have any doubt whatsoever.
 * 5) G4 is limited to deletions that were decided by consensus in a deletion discussion. It does not apply if the page was previously deleted by means of speedy or proposed deletion. Also, it does only apply, if the page is substantially the same. If it makes claims the deletion discussion could not have investigated (for example sources that appeared after deletion), the previous consensus cannot be applied to it.
 * 6) G11 requires blatant advertising. If the page can serve any other purpose at all, it's not blatant advertising. "Buy software XXX now!!!" is blatant advertising. "Software XXX is the best software for apply the infinite monkey theorem to cats!" is not. If you encounter such a page, try to remove the spammy sounding bits. If you still have a valid stub afterwards, it's not a G11.
 * 7) A1 does only apply if there is no context at all. If you can understand, what it's about or even guess it, use context instead or try to improve it. Similar, A3 does only apply if there is no content at all. If there is any real text content, even if it's only speculation or similar, it does have content, just no encyclopedic at all. But remember: Content that failsWP:NOT is explicitly not covered in the speedy criteria, so A3 cannot be applied to pages only consisting of such content.
 * 8) A2 requires that the exactly the same content exists on another Wikimedia project. If it doesn't, use notenglish.
 * 9) Remember that A7 is much stricter than most people think!
 * a.) A7 is not about notability. It's about having no indication whatsoever why its subject is important or significant and may meet the guidelines for inclusion. It is a lower standard than notability.
 * b.) Credible claims are enough. The article does not have to fulfill Verifiability or Reliable sources to fail speedy deletion under this criterion.
 * c.) It can only be applied to real people, individual animals, organisations or web content. Not software, not books, not fictional characters, not movies, not TV shows, not games, nothing that is not one of those four (although musical recordings are eligible under A9).
 * 1) R3 applies only to recent and implausible redirects. If a redirect exists since 2004 and you think it's implausible, use Redirects for discussion.

User:Olowe2011's Criteria for Speedy Deletion Summery
All Namespaces ( A namespace is most things on Wikipedia, i.e Articles, Redirects, user pages, talk pages, files, ect ) should go by the general Criteria for speedy deletion. Most of the criteria under this section is Common Sense (See WP:COMMON) however the following sums up the main aspect of the criteria:
 * Nonsense and gibberish (From CFSD G1) - This basically means what it says. A page which consists of totally unreadable or non-coherent text for example: dfghghs guhi hoiw aruee. This excludes poor writing styles, coherent non-English text or poorly translated text. As quoted Non-coherent literally means gibberish.
 * Test pages (From CFSD G2) - Test pages are pages that are made to test editing or other Wikipedia functions. Sub-pages from the Wikipedia sandbox are included however stuff like user talk pages or  User spaces are not included. So for example a Wikipedia test template or test article that is created outside of Sandbox or a persons own user space ( user space pages are distinguishable by the pre-text: User:Exampleusername/ which you will see above the article space ) are considered eligible for speedy deletion.
 * Pure vandalism and Blatant Hoaxes (From CFSD G3) - This means obvious misinformation and blatant hoaxes (Including images and intended misinformation.) An example of this is: The president of the United States is Jesus. This criteria also covers page redirects created by cleanup from page move vandalism ( A page redirect is a text on a page in which creates a redirect to another page in Wikipedia when a user visits it. You can visit the actual page in which redirected you by clicking the link in which will appear at the top of the page in which it moved you to. ) When a page is moved to another place as an act of vandalism when the page is moved back to its original location it leaves a redirect on the page in which it was moved from, The redirect page in which is left may be tagged for speedy deletion under this criteria.
 * Recreation of a page that was deleted per a deletion discussion (From CFSD G4) - When an article is nominated for deletion using the standard (non Speedy deletion) request for deletion protocol or AfD it creates a discussion page in which view points are heard regarding as to keep, comment or delete the article or other material. Once the discussion has produced an overall Consensus the discussion is closed by an administrator who deems if the nominated article should be kept or deleted. If in such circumstances the discussion was closed with the action to delete the article in question will be deleted from Wikipedia, however in some circumstances an Editor may re-create the page in which was deleted. In this situation you may forward a page under the speedy deletion criteria. This includes articles that have been re-named but have the same content however does not apply to articles of the same name / different name and the same topic with different content unless it falls under the WP:CFSD.
 * Creations by banned or blocked users (From CFSD G5) - This is self explanatory to a degree. Basically any pages or material you find from a banned user you can nominate for deletion and it will fit this section of the criteria unless the content has a lot of edits from other users. For example the banned / blocked user created an article named "Honest" and other editors have made whole articles or posted substantial materials then it is not eligible for deletion under this criteria. (See banning and blocking policies for more information.)
 * Technical Deletions (From CFSD G6) - Sometimes you or other editors might create pages and then for whatever reason stop developing them. If you need to preform  uncontroversial maintenance you can request the content to be removed under speedy deletion. Maintenance tasks are really for more experienced users but include deleting dated maintenance categories, deleting unnecessary disambiguation pages, or performing uncontroversial page moves. This also includes pages unambiguously created in error in places such as name spaces (explained above.) As said these tasks for for more experienced users and it is recommended you get familiar with general patrols before preforming maintenance tasks unless you get in a situation as an example you create a page on another editors user space or create an article yourself in error. If you need more help with this you can contact SoWhy (Administrator) by clicking here.
 * Author requests deletion (From CFSD G7) - Another quite self explanatory general criteria. Simply put this criteria means if you have created an article and the only content on such an article and it's associated talk page was added by you as the author you may request speedy deletion (assuming you make the request in good faith.) For redirects (explained above) created as a result of a page move, the mover must also have been the only substantial contributor to the pages prior to move. A substantial contributor is an editor who has posted the most content on a page compared to other editors. This criteria does not apply to user talk pages (see WP:Talk page) in which are only deleted under very exceptional circumstances. Please see WP:DELTALK for more information on the criteria for this. If the sole author ( the sole author is the actual page creator and sole contributor to a page ) blanks a page other than a userspace or a category page, this can be taken as a deletion request.