CZ:Article Deletion Policy

The general rule about article deletion is that articles should be deleted if their continued existence would create more work and frustration, in the long run, for either contributors or users, than deleting them.

Currently, the only group that has technical rights to delete articles are constables. Constables may, without consulting an editor, delete articles that fit a certain objective description; but editor permission is required for deletion of other articles. Constables are responsible for studying and understanding the difference between these classes of articles.

Articles deletable by constables acting on their own recognizance

In general, an article may (and in some cases should) be deleted by a constable, acting on his or her own recognizance, if:

• it was copied from Wikipedia or some other online source (where it can still be read) over one week earlier, and no one has made any substantive revisions to it then or since then, regardless of whether it was marked "CZ Live" or not;
• it was drafted solely by a contributor and then blanked by that contributor;
• it consists of two sentences or less, or 50 words or less, which have been left on the wiki for more than two hours;
• it is for some reason evidently worthless, as in the case of vandalism;
• it would be obvious and uncontroversial to virtually all constables that it is not an encyclopedia article: see what Citizendium articles are not;
• it would be obvious and uncontroversial to virtually all constables that the article is merely an instance of self-promotion: see Policy on Self-Promotion; or
• it is primarily (and thus presumably could be entirely) the result of a copyright violation.

Note that authors may help mark articles to delete: see below.

Exceptions. There are a couple of sets of articles that are--at least for now--exceptions. There are the articles, mostly under "A", uploaded by Ori Redler from Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities; then there are the many snake (viper) related articles uploaded and maintained by Jaap Winius; finally, an engineering editor may soon be uploading large numbers of aerospace-related articles, which he will be helping to maintain.

Articles deletable only after editor instruction

While at present only constables have the system permissions to delete articles, deletion of articles on certain other grounds requires an instruction from an editor or from the relevant discipline workgroup.

Deletion requires specific workgroup (or, barring that, editor) instruction if the proposed grounds for deletion include:

• the article is of such low quality (in terms of inaccuracy, bias, poor writing, or whatever) that it would be more efficient to start over than to try to clean up the current one (this also can be achieved by blanking, if one does in fact wish to start over);
• there is another entire article, of higher quality, that should replace the current one (note, this also can be achieved simply by pasting the new article over the old one); or

(Note that deletion in both of the above cases is not strictly necessary, except to delete the page history and to make links to the article turn red.)

• the article is not maintainable;
• either the topic or the contents of the article constitutes original research; or
• the article is unduly near in subject matter to another related article (so that one of the two articles "must go").

Procedures for deletion marking and deletion

Editors, and only editors, should use the {{delete}} template to indicate that an article should be deleted.

For articles deletable by constables acting on their own recognizance, any author or editor may help by placing the {{speedydelete}} template.

Deletion templates should be placed directly on the article page itself. This is a rare exception to the rule that contributor-aimed templates are not to be placed on articles; we want to make it very clear to readers that the article on a page is not worth looking at. This will then construct a list of articles to delete viewable at Category:Speedy Deletion Requests.

If an author or editor has recently put {{speedydelete}} templates on very many articles, or notices that there are more than, say, 25, please e-mail constables@citizendium.org and a constable should soon clear out the backlog.

Note that deliberate misuse of the {{speedydelete}} template will lead to a contributor's ejection from the project.

Alternatives to deletion

Both constables and editors should bear in mind that there are, by our practice, two alternatives to deleting articles outright. We may move them to Cold Storage, and we may move them to the talk page. Generally, articles that are not rescuable, and which are neither plagiarized nor libelous, should be put in Cold Storage. Articles that are simply too embarrassing, too incendiary, or otherwise too problematic to include in the article space, but which might be improved, may be moved to the talk page.

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