The editorial community of Wikipedia strives to maintain the accuracy of entries in the online encyclopedia, and this process may lead to the deletion of articles entirely. Although the deletion of an article suggests that it was not written effectively for Wikipedia, this does not necessarily mean that the information is lost forever. Any editor may request a copy of a deleted article to review and revise it, and may attempt to improve and reintroduce it to the site.
A Brief Overview of the Wikipedia Deletion Process
Articles are only suitable for Wikipedia if they cover notable subjects, which are generally limited to those which “have received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject,” including academic works, reputable news outlets, and other published works whose claims may be verified. Articles not satisfying these notability criteria may be deleted by an administrator in one of three circumstances:
- Speedy deletion may be performed upon an article that is blatant advertising, utter nonsense, or is otherwise clearly not appropriate for an encyclopedia.
- Prodding an article is done by placing a notation called a “tag” requesting that notability be established within five days. If uncontested, deletion occurs.
- Nomination for deletion covers all other material. The nominating editor and others debate the merits of the article within the context of Wikipedia's complex policies, attempting to reach a consensus one way or the other, which is then judged by an administrator who was not involved in the debate itself.
Options for Editors of Deleted Articles
Even with a consensus approach, editors often disagree with deletion decisions. Options open to an editor at this point include challenging the deletion decision, obtaining a copy of the deleted article for review, revision, and republication, and incorporating the material into other articles.
- Deletion review is another complex process by which the Wikipedia community judges a challenged deletion decision. In this case, however, the consensus must be on the narrow question of whether or not the administrator closing the deletion discussion followed procedure and made the right call. Articles restored after such debates are often nominated for deletion again; for example, the List of bow tie wearers was nominated for deletion four times from January, 2007 to November, 2008; two of the decisions were later challenged.
- Obtaining copies of deleted articles is usually as easy as contacting an administrator of the site and requesting it. A copy of the article may be modified to better meet Wikipedia standards and then returned to the main encyclopedia space of the site, but at that point will be subject to the same scrutiny as before. If the same article is deleted more than once, the name may be blocked from being created again. This frequently happens when businesses attempt to add information to Wikipedia for promotional reasons.In some cases, particularly when the deleted material slanders a living person, administrators may not be permitted to provide the article. Another option is to check Deletionpedia, which automatically copies and archives articles which have been deleted from Wikipedia for any reason. Articles which cannot be obtained from administrators are very difficult to restore to the online encyclopedia.
- Incorporating material from a deleted article into other entries is a strategy for preserving a small amount of valuable information about any other non-notable topic. If the topic itself is blocked from being recreated, this is the only option for preserving the data on Wikipedia itself.
New editors to Wikipedia, business owners in particular, frequently create articles which are soon deleted for failing to meet the site's many and ever-changing criteria for inclusion. The options laid out here give are intended to make it possible to try again, once a clearer understanding of those complex policies is obtained.
For further reading, see this explanation of notability on Wikipedia.
Terence P Ward - Terence P Ward has a business writing website, but spends a bit too much time writing press releases, blog posts, and thought leadership ...
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