Help:Delete

Deleting information from USApedia is strongly discouraged because there are usually better and more preferable ways to manage the information going forward.

Examples of strategies that should be considered instead of deleting include:

1. Updating the information to be reflective of current reality
2. Merging and redirecting articles.
3. For files,
   • Seek to link them in some way to articles as historic docs. Learn more about files at Help:Files
   • seek to use the process of uploading new versions of files rather than creating new file containers.
   • Create a category of old docs and link them.

General Guideline

• This process only addresses run-of-the-mill deletions.
• Only USApedia sysops can delete articles.
• Deleting pages is a last resort.

Marking a page for delete

If you have an article or file that you believe needs to be deleted, please add the Delete template to the top of the page. Using this approach will bring the article to the attention of the gardeners, make it clear to anyone who lands on the page that a user believes the information should be deleted, and provides all parties a clear indication on why the article has been marked for deletion.

When using visual, follow the steps to adding a template (generally explained below) to add the "Delete" template, Please make sure to add a reason in the "reason" field.

• Click Insert, then
• Select Template and a pop-up box will appear
• In the text box, type Delete
• Save your changes

When editing with the Enhanced editor, add the following format to mark a page for deletion:

{{Delete|reason=<give a reason why you think it should be deleted>}}

This will add the delete template to the top of the page. Using this approach will bring the article to the attention of the gardeners who will determine if it should be deleted.

Reasons for deleting a redirect

You might want to delete a redirect if one or more of the following conditions is met (but note also the exceptions listed below this list):

1. The redirect page makes it unreasonably difficult for users to locate similarly named articles via the search engine.
2. The redirect might cause confusion. For example, if "Adam B. Smith" was redirected to "Andrew B. Smith", because Andrew was accidentally called Adam in one source, this could cause confusion with the article on Adam Smith, so the redirect should be deleted.
3. The redirect is offensive or abusive, such as redirecting "Joe Bloggs is a Loser" to "Joe Bloggs" (unless "Joe Bloggs is a Loser" is discussed in the article), or "Joe Bloggs" to "Loser".
4. The redirect constitutes self-promotion or spam.
5. The redirect makes no sense, such as redirecting "Apple" to "Orange"".
6. If the redirect is broken, meaning it redirects to itself or to an article that does not exist, it can be immediately deleted, though you should check that there is not an alternative place it could be appropriately redirected to first.
7. If the redirect is a novel or very obscure synonym for an article name, it is unlikely to be useful. In particular, redirects from a foreign language title to a page whose subject is unrelated to that language (or a culture that speaks that language) should generally not be created.
8. If the target article needs to be moved to the redirect title, but the redirect has been edited before and has a history of its own, then it needs to be deleted.
9. If the redirect could plausibly be expanded into an article, and the target article contains virtually no information on the subject. In such a case, it is better that the target article contain a redlink than a redirect back to itself.

Articles to be Deleted

See Category:Delete

Related

• Help