CZ:Article Deletion Policy

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.

Only Sysops have the technical rights to delete articles but, unless there is an obvious exception (see below) like duplication or a hoax, the proposal to delete must first be raised for approval. The article may then be deleted after a suitable period if no one favours its retention. If anyone objects to a deletion, the proposer may withdraw the nomination or discussion may take place on the article's talk page pending a final decision.

Articles that Moderators can delete on their own recognizance

An article may (and in some cases should) be deleted 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 since, 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; does not apply to lemmas;
• it is for some reason obviously worthless, as in the case of vandalism;
• it is obvious and uncontroversial to constables that it is not an encyclopedia article: see what Citizendium articles are not;
• it is obvious and uncontroversial to constables that the article is merely an instance of self-promotion: see Policy on Self-Promotion; or
• it is primarily the result of a copyright violation; or
• there is prima facie evidence that some or all of the content may be libellous, plagiarized or could otherwise form the basis of legal action against Citizendium.

Authors may help mark articles to delete: see below.

Articles deletable only after editor instruction

Deletion requires editor instruction if the 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;
• the topic or the contents of the article constitutes original research; or
• the article is unduly near in subject matter to another article (so one of the two "must go").

Procedures for deletion marking and deletion

For articles deletable by constables acting on their own recognizance, any author or editor may place the {{speedydelete}} template. Please add a REASON for your request and sign it like this:

<noinclude>{{speedydelete|REASON|~~~~}}</noinclude> .

Be sure that this template is the very first item on the page, with the <noinclude> ... </noinclude> around it. The latter is necessary for the case a page is transcluded by another page. Alternatively, you can use

<{{subst:fast del|REASON|~~~~}}>

to the same end.

Deletion templates should be placed on the article page itself. This will then construct a list of articles to delete viewable at Category:Speedy Deletion Requests.

If you have marked a talk page for speedy deletion, then put the following template on the very first line of the corresponding main page:

<{{subst:DelTalk|~~~~}}>

because marked talk pages are often difficult to find.

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

Alternatives

There are two alternatives to deleting articles. We may move them to Cold Storage, and we may move them to the talk page. Articles that are not rescuable, and which are neither plagiarized nor libelous, should be put in Cold Storage. Articles that are 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.