Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Closing instructions

Closing instructions for Templates for discussion: Every day, the TfD discussions more than seven days old should be closed. This relies on the discretion and common sense of the user closing a debate. If you disagree with a decision, please discuss it with that user before contesting the deletion.

Note that by using XFDcloser the following steps will be semi-automated, but at certain times manually closing a discussion may be necessary. For example, with batch nominations the full list of templates may be hidden or listed on a separate page, at which point XFDcloser may not be able to determine which pages need updating.

Closing the discussion

 * 1) If it may take significant time to assess the debate and/or do the closing edits, consider first editing the discussion section for the template and adding Closing just after the section header, to notify others that a close of the particular discussion is in progress. This helps to avoid edit conflicts during the close.
 * 2) Determine whether or not a rough consensus to delete has been reached.
 * 3) After the template's section header, add:
 * (where Result is usually either Delete, Merge or Keep)
 * 1) Remove Closing if you added it earlier.
 * 2) At the end of the template's section, but before the next template's section header, add:
 * 3) Update or delete the related pages according to the relevant subsection below.
 * 1) Update or delete the related pages according to the relevant subsection below.
 * 1) Update or delete the related pages according to the relevant subsection below.

Keep, Redirect, or No consensus
If the decision is Keep (including any variant such as Redirect or No Consensus):
 * 1) Add a link on the template's talk page to the discussion sub-page.
 * 2) * The template Old TfD is recommended for this, for example:
 * (N.B. the date must be in the format: yyyy_Month_dd in other words, the month must be written out, it must be in year month day sequence, and the date must not be wikilinked)
 * (the default disc is the template's name, so that parameter may be omitted entirely)
 * (the default result is "Keep", so that parameter may be omitted)
 * 1) * If the discussion failed to reach consensus, then the template is kept by default, but the decision should generally include a reference to the lack of consensus, in order to minimize ambiguity and future confusion.
 * 2) Remove Template for discussion/dated or Tfm/dated from the template
 * 3) If the page becomes a redirect, remember to fix double-redirects. Ensure page protection for the redirect matches that of the template which the page now redirects to, and that page protection for the target template is appropriate for the number of transclusions which may have increased after the redirection.
 * 1) * If the discussion failed to reach consensus, then the template is kept by default, but the decision should generally include a reference to the lack of consensus, in order to minimize ambiguity and future confusion.
 * 2) Remove Template for discussion/dated or Tfm/dated from the template
 * 3) If the page becomes a redirect, remember to fix double-redirects. Ensure page protection for the redirect matches that of the template which the page now redirects to, and that page protection for the target template is appropriate for the number of transclusions which may have increased after the redirection.

Delete
If the decision is Delete, the template can be deleted by an administrator after all instances of the template used in pages have been removed.
 * 1) If easily done, remove all calls for the template and delete the template and its subpages. Otherwise,
 * 2) List the template under the "To orphan" section of Templates for discussion/Holding cell; use
 * 3) On the to-be-deleted template page, replace Tfd or Tfm/dated with  . For YYYY Month D, use Year, Month, Day date of the nomination (with no leading zero on the day).
 * 4) Include an edit summary such as "Per close at (Link to TfD discussion), added ".
 * 5) Look at the categories used by the template. If the template has a matching category that is not used for other purposes (for example, cleanup and Category:Wikipedia cleanup), delete the category as well.
 * 6) In general, no action is required by the closing user for mere links to a template on a talk page or in project space.

Merge, Review, Convert, or Substitute
If the decision is or includes Merge into another template, or Review, Convert, Substitute, etc.,
 * 1) List the template under the appropriate section of Templates for discussion/Holding cell; use
 * 2) On the to-be-merged template page, replace Tfd or Tfm/dated with  . For YYYY Month D, use Year, Month, Day date of the nomination (with no leading zero on the day)
 * 3) Include an edit summary such as "Per close at (Link to TfD discussion), added ".
 * 4) If the page becomes a redirect, remember to fix double-redirects. Ensure page protection for the redirect matches that of the template which the page now redirects to, and that page protection for the target template is appropriate for the number of transclusions which may have increased after the redirection.

Relisting
If after seven days there is no consensus or little participation the closing editor may, at their discretion, choose to relist the discussion. When relisting a discussion:
 * 1) Copy the discussion to the current day's nomination page and add {{subst:relist}} to the end of the discussion
 * 2) Close the old discussion (see  above, using Relisted as the result), leaving a link to the new discussion location and then remove or collapse the discussion
 * 3) Update the link parameter in the Template for discussion/dated or Tfm/dated on the nominated template so that it points to the new location.

Header and footer text
After closing the discussion, the section will look like this:

Template:example template

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the template below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the template's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the discussion was delete. RESULT. my username date DISCUSSION THREAD
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the template's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this section.