Wikibooks:Deletion policy/Unstable
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Not all content is suitable for Wikibooks, and occasionally some content (including books and individual book pages) need to be deleted. Only Administrators can delete content, but deleted content can also be restored by administrators.
Deletion is not the same as blanking a page. Any user can blank a page (remove the content from the page). Deletion, however, removes both the content of the page and the entire page history. Regular users are not able to see the histories of deleted pages, but administrators can.
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[edit] Deletion
Wikibooks is for the creation of free open-context textbooks. If a book or page does not aid the creation of textbooks than it can be either nominated for tranwiki to a more appropriate wiki or nominated for speedy deletion. Books and pages which are not so obvious can alternatively be listed on Votes for Deletion for discussion. This includes, user pages, help pages, policy pages, discussion pages, any other meta-content pages, images and other media files.
New books, and books created by new Wikibookians should be handled with tolerance and understanding. New users cannot be expected to understand all the minutia of Wikibooks policy and inclusion criteria, and we cannot expect every user to read every line of policy text on our site. In general, it is better to help new books and the contributions of new users become acceptable, then to nominate them for deletion. A book with meaningful content may not be listed on VfD or nominated for speedy deletion until at least 1 week after it has been created. That time would be better spent working with the author to fix problems before moving for deletion.
[edit] What to keep or delete
Wikibooks is not a democracy, nor is there a hierarchy among users. All decisions concerning deletion should be made through concensus. What is considered a textbook is open to some interpretation, so you will have to use your best judgment to make this decision. The following is not intended to be an exhaustive list, just recommendations to follow when deciding whether pages or books should be kept or deleted:
- Keep stubs, books and pages that have the potential to become textbook material or just need heavy editing. List them on Modules needing attention instead.
- Keep pages that are part of a valid textbook, unless nominated for deletion due to a general consensus decision by the book contributors. In this situation, please note the location of the relevant discussion that occurred regarding the deletion.
- Keep pages that are biased. Instead fix it or tag it as a NPOV dispute.
- Delete very short pages with little or no context (e.g "This guy is great!"), newbie experiments (e.g "Can I really create a page here?") and vandalism (including linkspamming) (e.g. "f**k you", "http://mysite.co.zz"). Always check the history of the page, as this may have replaced good content. If this is the case, simply revert to the last good version. See also: dealing with vandalism
- Delete pages with little hope of ever becoming acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to, racism, bigotry or other prejudice, personal attacks against Wikibookians or other people, and sensitive personal information without the owner's consent.
- Delete pages that simply will never become textbook material, for example, modules that represent completely idiosyncratic non-topics ("Teaching 100 monkeys to type the works of Shakespeare").
- Delete a repost of content previously voted for deletion, where the page was not listed on votes for undeletion and taken through the necessary procedural steps there.
- Delete contents that are nominated for deletion by the original author with no other contributors.
- Delete user pages, user talk pages or any subpages thereof requested by the user that the pages belong to.
- Delete contents confirmed to be copyright violations. See Copyright infringements for reporting copyright violations or suspected copyright violations (Read Wikipedia and copyright issues and Avoid Copyright Paranoia for perspective).
- Delete contents which violate one or more official Wikibooks policies or guidelines, unless there is a good reason not to.
- Delete books/contents that are too narrow in topical choice to ever be much good, i.e., a book on the geological studies of 1883/4 on Krakatau by the Dutch.
Use common sense and assume good faith.
[edit] Transwiki
To nominate a module or book for transwiki to another wiki, add {{transwiki|<suggested wiki>}} to the top of the module or the main page of the book, which will look like:
The book or module will then appear in Category:Modules for transwiki. Any user can transwiki a book or module out of Wikibooks, so long as they follow the rules and policies of the destination wiki. After being transwikied, if the contents is outside Wikibooks' scope, the page or book can be speedily deleted, and the page or main page of the book replaced with a temporary link to the new location. Otherwise simply remove the transwiki notoce once the transwiki is finished.
Keep in mind that modules and books from Wikibooks cannot legally be transwikied to a place that uses a license different from the GFDL.
[edit] Speedy deletions
To nominate a module or book for speedy deletion, add {{delete|<your personal justification for a speedy deletion>}} to the top of the module or the main page of the book, which will look like:
The book or module will then appear in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion. Even though books and modules in this category are called "speedy" deletion candidates, there is no set time frame in which administrators should or will delete these books and modules. Books or modules that are particularly bad may be given some priority, however.
Some redirect pages can become candidates for speedy deletion as well. Redirects can be considered for deletion if they:
- Are the result of page moves to a better naming convention
- Where created in error or as the result of vandalism
- Are so obscure or poorly named that they are likely never to be found in a search
Any books or modules in which a speedy deletion nomination has been removed in good faith may not be renominated for speedy deletion. Books or modules may instead be nominated for deletion using votes for deletion as described below.
[edit] Votes for deletion
Books and modules that fit the criteria for deletion listed above, and are not necessarily speedy deletion candidates, can be listed for discussion at Wikibooks:Votes for deletion, using the book or module's name as a title, so that other Wikibookians can have a chance to argue for or against its removal. Please include a justification for deletion, and sign/date your justification with four tildes, ~~~~, or similar. In addition, add {{vfd}} to the top of the module or the main page of the book, which will look like:
The book or module will then appear in Category:Votes for deletion. At this time, the discussion process begins using the 'high impact decision making rules. During a VfD, the community should evaluate the work on it's conformance to our inclusion criteria, and our other content-related policies. Other metrics may be used as well, but it is important that works not be kept if they are in violation of one or more policies.
Once community consensus has been reached on the matter, the work will either be kept or delete, depending on the outcome of the discussion. The outcome of a VfD decision may be used to update the inclusion criteria. Works that are kept may have {{vfd-survived}} added to the top of their discussion page. Works that are to be deleted may have {{Impending Doom}} added to the top of their module page, to alert contributors of the community's decision and to give contributors time to find a more suitable home for the works contents.
Administrators are able to delete pages from Wikibooks that manifestly do not belong here, regardless of the outcome of a discussion on VfD. In practice, such actions should be extremely rare, and should never be performed without strong justifications and significant forethought.
Books and modules which have survived a deletion using this process should not be nominated again unless new information comes to light that was not brought up in the previous discussion, or the situation for keeping the work has changed.
[edit] Votes for undeletion
[edit] Nominations as Vandalism
One thing to keep in mind with a deletion and undeletion nominations is that it may be added as an act of vandalism, or as a part of an edit war between two contributors who may not like each other. In situations like this it would be considered appropriate to remove {{delete}}, {{Impending Doom}} and/or {{vfd}} from the book or module in question, as well as any discussion on the matter from Wikibooks:Votes for deletion or Wikibooks:Votes for undeletion, with perhaps a note that the discussion was terminated because it was started as a means of vandalism, even if legitimate arguments for or against keeping were subsequently posted. If afterwards a serious objection is still being raised, the discussion can resume.
[edit] Guidelines for administrators
In addition to What to keep or delete, administrators are expected to follow some guidelines when making the decision to delete or not:
- If another solution has been found rather than deletion, leave them listed on Wikibooks:Votes for deletion for a short while, so the original poster can see why it wasn't deleted, and what did happen to it. This will prevent reposting of the same item. Alternately, leave a message on their user page explaining the verdict of the deletion process.
- As a general rule, don't delete pages you nominate for deletion, let someone else do it.
- When in doubt, don't delete. Don't hesitate to seek a second opinion or to turn a speedy delete into a VfD discussion. It is better to get community input than indiscriminate deleting on the part of administrators.
- Give contributors time to move meaningful contents outside Wikibooks' scope before deleting or email them a copy of the work.
- Simply deleting a page does not automatically delete its talk page, any subpages or redirects. Please delete these pages too.
- Books may also have templates and categories that may also need to be deleted. Please delete these too.
- Use common sense, and respect the judgment and feelings of other Wikibookians.
Administrators necessarily must use their best judgment to determine when rough consensus has been reached. Consensus is never defined as being a simple voting majority, nor does it require 100% agreement of all parties. Comments from all parties must be weighed and considered in light of Wikibooks' scope. It is possible (although not generally recommended) for an administrator to act against the decision of the community, if that decision does not follow policy.
When an administrator deletes a test page or other page with no useful content, it is a good idea to put a note on the author's talk page explaining things, pointing them to the sandbox in cases of tests. Be friendly! Everyone was new once. In the case of anon IP users this is not as important as they have likely moved on or their IPs changed since that edit.
[edit] Frequently Asked Questions
- Is deleted content lost forever?
- It will be removed from Wikibooks but the content is free to be copied or transferred to another location under the same license used on Wikibooks (the GFDL license with the some limitations). There are also sites that mirror Wikibooks automatically.
