Wikibooks:Deletion policy/Unstable

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

This page contains a draft proposal for a Wikibooks policy or guideline. Discuss changes to this draft at the discussion page. Through consensus, this draft could become an official Wikibooks policy or guideline.

This page is an unstable version of the Wikibooks policy, Wikibooks:Deletion policy. Unstable versions are forks of existing policies by users who want to propose changes to existing policies. Content on this page might not have broad support from the Wikibooks community; in fact, it might only have support from one user. Be bold and edit this page, or discuss it on the talk page.

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.

Contents 1 Deletion 1.1 What to keep or delete 1.2 Transwiki 1.3 Speedy deletions 1.4 Requests for deletion 1.5 Requests for undeletion 1.6 Nominations as Vandalism 2 Guidelines for administrators

[edit] Deletion

Wikibooks is for the creation of free open-context textbooks. If a book or page does not aid the development 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 Request for Deletion for discussion. This includes, user pages, help pages, policy pages, discussion pages, uploaded files, and any other meta-content pages.

New books and pages should be treated with tolerance and understanding. New books and pages cannot be expected to adhere to every minute detail of Wikibooks policy and inclusion criteria right away. In general, improving books and pages, and helping new contributors to understand what needs to be done is better then nominating books and pages for deletion. A book or page with meaningful content may not be nominated for transwiki, delete or speedy deletion until at least a month after it has been created. That time would be better spent working to fix problems.

[edit] What to keep or delete

What is considered meaningful content is open to some interpretation and differs depending on the namespace. Use your best judgment when deciding to nominate books or pages for transwiki or deletion. Content is generally not considered meaningful if it does not contribute to the project or add value to readers. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Keep works that could become acceptable if improved. Even stubs and works that are biased, inaccurate, disorganized or abandoned can be improved. You can either improve works yourself or identify the problems so someone else can.
• Keep books of any size that are within scope. Books don't need to be a certain size to be useful to readers or educators.
• Keep material that can be reused as part of another work or could be used to start a new book or page.
• Keep pages that are within the scope of the book there in, 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.
• Delete works that are clearly outside Wikibooks' scope and has no reasonable chance of every being constructive. This includes works that consist of nonsense, spam, personal attacks, praises, personal information without the person's content, test edits or vandalism.
• Delete contents and media 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 materials and media that violate any of Wikibooks' official policies or guidelines, unless there is a good reason not to.
• Delete reposts of works previously deleted where deletion was due to consensus and no consensus to undelete was established on requests for undeletion.

Use common sense and assume good faith. Always check the page's history to make sure bad material didn't replace good material. If this is the case, revert the bad material instead of nominating for deletion.

[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:

A Wikibookian believes this work should be transwikied to <suggested wiki>. Transwikied pages will not be deleted unless they violate Wikibooks' inclusion criteria. Please keep this in mind when discussing this proposal.

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:

This page has been nominated for speedy deletion. The Wikibookian who left this tag provided the following reason: <your personal justification for a speedy deletion> If you disagree with its speedy deletion, please remove {{delete}} from this page and discuss this on the discussion page. If this page does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, use {{rfd}} instead and add it to requests for deletion where its future may be debated. Administrators: Please check the page history, page log, and especially the last edit, before deleting.

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:

1. Are the result of page moves to a better naming convention
2. Where created in error or as the result of vandalism
3. 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 requests for deletion as described below.

[edit] Requests 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:Requests 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 {{rfd}} to the top of the module or the main page of the book, which will look like:

A Wikibookian has proposed that this book or page be deleted. Please share your thoughts. This notice must not be removed until the discussion has been closed, in order to give everyone who might be affected a reasonable chance to share their thoughts. Please also consider notifying the primary contributors on their talk page with {{subst:Rfd warning|Wikibooks:Deletion policy/Unstable|~~~~}} After a decision has been made and the discussion closed, this notice should be replaced or removed to reflect the community's decision.

The book or module will then appear in Category:Requests for deletion. At this time, the discussion process begins using the 'high impact decision making rules. During a RfD, 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 RfD decision may be used to update the inclusion criteria. Works that are kept may have {{rfd-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 RfD. 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] Requests 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 {{rfd}} from the book or module in question, as well as any discussion on the matter from Wikibooks:Requests for deletion or Wikibooks:Requests 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:

1. If another solution has been found rather than deletion, leave them listed on Wikibooks:Requests 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.
2. As a general rule, don't delete pages you nominate for deletion, let someone else do it.
3. When in doubt, don't delete. Don't hesitate to seek a second opinion or to turn a speedy delete into a RfD discussion. It is better to get community input than indiscriminate deleting on the part of administrators.
4. Give contributors time to move meaningful contents outside Wikibooks' scope before deleting or email them a copy of the work.
5. Simply deleting a page does not automatically delete its talk page, any subpages or redirects. Please delete these pages too.
6. Books may also have templates and categories that may also need to be deleted. Please delete these too.
7. 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.