User:Michel Mapaliey/List of Warning
Wikipedia:Username policy[edit]
The username policy describes accepted practices and behavior in naming and operating a user account on Wikipedia.
You may wish to create an account if you do not already have one. Creating an account provides a number of benefits; in particular, your contributions are attributed to your username. See Help:Logging in for help with logging in to an existing account.
Choosing a username[edit]
Depending on how much anonymity you want to preserve, you may wish to base your username on your real name or a familiar nickname, or use a pseudonym which you do not use elsewhere; see Real names below.
If you choose not to use your real name, you should pick a username that you are comfortable with, but also one that others are comfortable with, and which does not interfere with the project. A controversial name may give a bad impression to other users, and avoiding this is in your own interest.
Your username should not give the impression that your account has permissions which it does not have. Thus it should not contain the terms "administrator", "bureaucrat", "steward", "checkuser", "oversight" or similar terms like "admin", "sysop" or "moderator", or end with "bot", which is used to identify bot accounts.
Wikipedia usernames are case sensitive, and the first letter of all usernames is automatically capitalized. By default, your username appears in your signature on posts to discussion pages; for details on signatures and how to customize them, see Wikipedia:Signatures.
If your username is commonly misspelled, consider adding a redirect from the misspelled username to your actual username (any user page can be created by any contributor, whether an associated account exists or not).
Real names[edit]
Use of a real name allows contributions to be more easily traced to an individual. This may make a contributor more vulnerable to issues such as harassment. You should consider the benefits and drawbacks of making substantial contributions under your real name before doing so. While it is possible to rename accounts (see Changing your username below), a record of the previous name will still exist.
You should not register under any name that would lead others to assume your account is associated with any person other than yourself. If you share the same name as a well known person, or you are a well known person, and you wish to edit under your own name, then your userpage should make it clear whether you actually are the well known person or not. Usernames that appear to violate this policy to the extent of being problematic are likely to be blocked, as a precaution, until it can be confirmed that the user in question is using his or her real name.
If you have been blocked for using your real name, please don't take offense; this procedure is necessary to prevent impersonation. You are welcome to use your real name, but in some cases, you will need to prove you are who you say you are. You can do this by sending an e-mail to info-en@wikimedia.org; be aware that the OTRS system that handles e-mail is operated entirely by volunteers, and an immediate reply may not be possible.
Company/group names[edit]
Use of Wikipedia for promotion of a company or group is not permitted, and accounts that do this will be blocked. Use of a company or group name as a username is not explicitly prohibited, but it is not recommended, and depending on the circumstances may be seen as a problem. Similarly, editing with a possible conflict of interest, such as editing an article about your employer, is not prohibited, but anyone wishing to do so is advised to read the Business' FAQ.
Accounts that represent a group or company are not permitted; see Sharing accounts below.
Non-Latin usernames[edit]
Contributors are welcome to use usernames that are not spelled using the Latin alphabet, but should bear in mind that scripts of non-Latin languages (such as Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese, Greek or Japanese) are illegible to most contributors to the English Wikipedia. To avoid confusion and aid navigation, users with such usernames are encouraged to use Latin characters in their signature.
Similar usernames[edit]
Usernames that are very similar to existing ones can only be created by administrators; if you wish to use such a username, you may request its creation at Wikipedia:Request an account. You should not use a username that could easily be confused with that of an active contributor; a username that is similar only to unused or inactive accounts should not be a problem. Special:ListUsers can be used to check for such usernames. The program is a bit over-sensitive - if the user name is different enough as to prevent other people from confusing the two users, the account should be approved regardless of how active the existing account is.
If your username is similar to that of another contributor or an article, you may wish to provide some form of disambiguation, for example by adding {{thisuser}} to the top of your user page. Linking to user pages within articles is not permitted.
Inappropriate usernames[edit]
- WP:IU redirects here. You may be looking for WP:INUNIVERSE.
Wikipedia does not allow usernames that are misleading, promotional, offensive or disruptive. Domain names and e-mail addresses are likewise prohibited.
- Misleading usernames imply relevant, misleading things about the contributor. For example, misleading points of fact, an impression of undue authority, or the suggestion that the account is operated by a group, project or collective rather than one individual.
- Promotional usernames are used to promote a group or company on Wikipedia.
- Offensive usernames make harmonious editing difficult or impossible.
- Disruptive usernames include outright trolling or personal attacks, impersonation, or otherwise show a clear intent to disrupt Wikipedia.
These criteria apply to both usernames and signatures. Usernames that are inappropriate in another language, or that represent an inappropriate name with misspellings and substitutions, or do so indirectly or by implication, are still considered inappropriate.
The line between acceptable and unacceptable user names is based on the opinions of other editors. If you want to seek approval for a username, you can do so by filing a request at Wikipedia:Request an account.
Dealing with inappropriate usernames[edit]
Usernames which are obviously inappropriate should be reported at Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention, along with an explanation of the issue, and can be blocked on sight by any administrator.
Usernames which are not obviously inappropriate, but which may fit the criteria listed above should not be immediately blocked. The issue should be discussed (possibly with the {{uw-username}} template), with the account's creator, who may not be familiar with the username policy. They should be encouraged to create a new account with a more appropriate name. If this is unsuccessful, a request for comment on the contributor's username may be created, and the contributor may be required to change their username if a consensus to do so is established.
Administrators may issue username blocks under the following circumstances:
- Usernames that are clearly unacceptable for use on Wikipedia, but have no obvious disruptive intent may be blocked indefinitely, but the block should affect only that account (disable autoblocks, and disable "prevent account creation"). If your account has been blocked for this reason, don't take it personally; it is intended to disable the username you chose, not to prevent you from contributing. Please read this page carefully and choose a more appropriate name.
- Disruptive usernames that have clearly been created only to cause trouble should also be blocked indefinitely, but in such cases it is usually also desirable to block anonymous editing and prevent further accounts being created (enable autoblocks, and enable "prevent account creation"). Such disruptive usernames may contain harassment or personal attacks, or be easily identifiable as a previously banned user or vandal.
- Any block issued as a result of a user's behavior may take their username into account, if it is part of the problem. Such a block may be extended to an indefinite block in order to disallow the username. Behavioural blocks are usually issued for disruption, incivility or personal attacks.
Inappropriate usernames do not need to be reported or blocked if the user has made no contributions; most user accounts that are registered are never used. In cases where there is no evidence that an account was created in bad faith, administrators are expected to explain the exact reason why they have blocked the user in either the block log or in a message on the editor's talk page, pointing to the precise reason from the username policy.
Confusing usernames[edit]
The purpose of a username is to identify contributors. If your username or your signature is unnecessarily confusing, editors may request that you change it. However, confusing usernames are unlike the disallowed usernames above because a confusing username cannot be so inappropriate on its own that it requires an immediate block without at least an attempt at substantive discussion.
Unnecessarily confusing usernames can be a red flag for other problems. An editor with a confusing username or signature may be blocked sooner than usual for other policy violations such as disruption or vandalism, if their confusing username contributes to the disruption. As with all other blocks, admins should use their discretion and common sense.
In the uncommon case that an otherwise good-faith contributor deliberately ignores requests to change their username, and goes on using a name that other editors agree is too confusing, then that username may be blocked to prevent further disruption. (Though the latter practice is considered somewhat controversial).
Changing your username[edit]
Usernames can be changed by bureaucrats; requests should be made at Wikipedia:Changing username. User accounts with few or no edits will not normally be renamed, as it is quicker and easier to simply create a new account.
Once a username has been changed, existing contributions will be listed under the new name in page histories, diffs, logs, and user contributions. Signatures on discussion pages will continue to use the old name; while these can be changed manually, it is not recommended unless a contributor wishes to remove as much information as possible about their previous name for privacy reasons. In such situations the old name will still be available in old versions of discussion pages. Username changes are listed in the user rename log.
Deleting your account[edit]
It is not possible to delete user accounts. One reason for this is the need for all contributions to be assigned to some identifier; either a username or, in the case of anonymous contributions, an IP address. However, you may request that your user page and user talk page be deleted, as explained at Wikipedia:User page, and have your account renamed as described above.
Sharing accounts[edit]
User accounts must only represent individuals. Sharing an account – or the password to an account – with others is not permitted, and doing so will result in the account being blocked.
Exceptions to this rule are limited to accounts that directly represent the Wikimedia Foundation or internal Wikipedia committees, though none are currently active, and bot accounts that are maintained by more than one contributor, provided the existence of such an arrangement is made clear and has consensus.
Using multiple accounts[edit]
It is recommended that contributors do not use multiple accounts without good reason, because the misuse of multiple accounts is a major problem on Wikipedia. Using multiple accounts to give the appearance of popularity to an idea, to avoid scrutiny, or to avoid a block or ban on another account are considered major abuses and are not tolerated on Wikipedia.
There are some legitimate reasons for forming multiple accounts: for example, experienced contributors might create a new account in order to experience how the community functions for new or inexperienced users, and contributors using their real name may wish to use a pseudonymous account for contributions they do not want their real name to be associated with. Contributors operating any sort of automated editing process should do so under an alternative bot account.
It is acceptable to create accounts with a username similar to your own in order to prevent impersonation by others. Such accounts are called doppelgänger accounts. The user page of a doppelgänger account should identify it as such (many editors utilise {{doppelganger}}), or redirect to your user page. Doppelgänger accounts should not be used for editing.
It is recommended but not required that multiple accounts be identified as such on their user pages; templates such as {{User Alternate Acct}} may be used for this purpose.
Wikipedia:User page[edit]
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 | This page documents an English Wikipedia content guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
Wikipedia provides user pages to facilitate communication among participants in its project to build an encyclopedia.
If your username is Example:
- Your user page is the page at User:Example (or Special:Mypage)
- Your user talk page is the page at User talk:Example (or Special:Mytalk)
- Your user subpages are pages of the form User:Example/Lipsum (Special:Mypage/Lipsum) or User talk:Example/Lipsum (Special:Mytalk/Lipsum), and are listed at Special:Prefixindex/User:Example/ and Special:Prefixindex/User talk:Example/.
- Your user space is the collection of all the above.
- Note: "Your" in this context means associated with you, not belonging to you.
The Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk special pages will take each user to her or his own user and user talk pages, respectively. Others will not be able to find your user page using Special:Mypage, they will be able to visit it only by going to User:Example (for the example user).
Details about you generally should not go in the main namespace, which is reserved for encyclopedic content, unless you are notable and someone else writes it.
If you would prefer not to have a user page, then it is recommended that you redirect it to your user talk page for the convenience of other editors.
What may I have on my user page?[edit]
To start with, you might include a userpage notice. The text "{{user page}}" will generate a tag which looks something like the one below. This is by no means a requirement but it can be helpful, especially for viewers new to Wikipedia who might be confused about what a personal page is doing on an encyclopedia.
| This is a Wikipedia user page.
This is not an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user to whom this page belongs may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is located at [automatically-generated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:YourName link]. |
Your userpage is for anything that is compatible with the Wikipedia project. It is a mistake to think of it as a homepage: Wikipedia is not a blog, webspace provider, or social networking site. Instead, think of it as a way of organizing the work that you are doing on the articles in Wikipedia, and also a way of helping other editors to understand with whom they are working.
Some people add information about themselves as well, possibly including contact information (email, instant messaging, etc), a photograph, their real name, their location, information about their areas of expertise and interest, likes and dislikes, homepages, and so forth. (If you are concerned with privacy, you may not want to and are by no means required to emulate this.)
You can use your user page to help you to use Wikipedia more effectively: to list "to do" information, works in progress, reminders, useful links, and so forth. It is also good for experimenting with markup (that is, as a personal sandbox).
Another common use is to let people know about your activities on Wikipedia, and your opinions about Wikipedia. So you might include current plans, a journal of recent activities on Wikipedia, and your (constructive) opinions on how certain Wikipedia articles or policies should be changed. If you will not be editing Wikipedia for a while, drop a note on your user page to that effect.
You might want to add quotations that you like, or a picture, or some of your favorite Wikipedia articles or images (freely licensed only – see the What may I not have on my user page? section below), or the like.
Others may also edit your user page, for instance awarding you a barnstar or leaving other images for you. In the event that your editing privileges on Wikipedia are revoked, a notice of this may be placed on your user page.
If you want to dual-license your contributions under an additional license or declare them all public domain, you may put a notice to this effect on your user page. Because of the large templates and long category names, some editors move the license templates to a subpage (see the What about user subpages? section below). Whether you include an explicit license statement or not, however, all of your edits on Wikipedia are also licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Many users include mentions of the languages they know (see Wikipedia:Babel).
You are welcome to include a link to your personal home page, although you should not surround it with any promotional language.
Note: User pages are often reached through user signatures on talk pages.
What about user subpages?[edit]
If you need more pages, you can create subpages. More or less, you can have anything here that you might have on your user or user talk page.
Examples:
- A work in progress, until it is ready to be released. This is typically not necessary, though some people do this especially for WP:COI compliance or drafts of a page whose title is protected. See also: #Copies of other pages
- Archives of user talk
- Tests; for testing a template, make it a separate subpage.
- Sections of your user page that are big enough to require their own page, e.g. a page of awards you have received or pictures you have taken.
What may I not have on my user page?[edit]
Generally, you should avoid substantial content on your user page that is unrelated to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a general hosting service, so your user page is not a personal website. Your page is about you as a Wikipedian. Examples of unrelated content include:
- A weblog recording your non-Wikipedia activities
- Extensive discussion not related to Wikipedia
- Excessive personal information (more than a couple of pages) unrelated to Wikipedia
- Extensive personal opinions on matters unrelated to Wikipedia, wiki philosophy, collaboration, free content, the Creative Commons, etc.
- Personal information of other persons without their consent
- Advertising or promotion of a business or organization unrelated to Wikipedia (such as purely commercial sites or referral links)
- Extensive self-promotional material that is unrelated to your activities as a Wikipedian
- Other non-encyclopedic related material
- Polemical statements unrelated to Wikipedia; in particular, statements attacking or vilifying groups of editors or persons are generally considered divisive and removed, and reintroducing them is often considered disruptive.
- Material that can be viewed as attacking other editors, including the recording of perceived flaws. The compilation of factual evidence (diffs) in user subpages, for purposes such as preparing for a dispute resolution process, is permitted provided the dispute resolution process is started in a timely manner. Users should not maintain in public view negative information on others without very good reason.
- Games, roleplaying sessions, and other things pertaining to "entertainment" rather than "writing an encyclopedia", particularly if they involve people who are not active participants in the project. (cite as WP:UP#Games) (compare Category:Wikipedia games and Category:Wikipedia Word Association.)
- Communications with people uninvolved with the project or related work
- Images which you are not free to use (usually fair use images; see below)
- Categories and templates intended for other usage, in particular those for articles and guidelines
- User talk pages should not redirect unless the user is indefinitely blocked.
In general, if you have material that you do not wish others to edit, or that is otherwise inappropriate for Wikipedia, it should be placed on a personal web site. Many free and low-cost web hosting, email, and weblog services are widely available, and are a proper place for content unrelated to Wikipedia. For wiki-style community collaboration, you can download the MediaWiki software and install it on your own server if you want full control or use one of many online wiki farms.
The Wikipedia community is generally tolerant and offers fairly wide latitude in applying these guidelines to regular participants. Particularly, community-building activities that are not strictly "on topic" may be allowed, especially when initiated by committed Wikipedians with good edit histories. At their best, such activities help us to build the community, and this helps to build the encyclopedia. But at the same time, if user page activity becomes disruptive to the community or gets in the way of the task of building an encyclopedia, it must be modified to prevent disruption.
Do not put your userpage or subpages, including work-in-progress articles, into categories used by Wikipedia articles (example: Category:1990 births). Be careful of templates and stub notices that put a work-in-progress article into categories. You can "quote" categories by adding a colon before "Category", like this: [[:Category:Bridges]]. This turns it into an ordinary link. Templates and stub notices can be turned into links to themselves by putting tl| ("tl" followed by a pipe character) in front of their names, like this: {{tl|stub}} You can also "comment out" a portion of text by placing <!-- in front of it and --> after it; this makes the parser ignore that portion of the page.
Statements of violence[edit]
Statements that encourage, and/or condone, specifically, acts of violence against any person(s) or group(s) are not allowed on user pages. This only includes the mention, or implication, of specific violent acts – for example, murder or rape. It does not, however, include statements that support controversial groups or regimes, that some may interpret as an encouragement of violence.
Copies of other pages[edit]
While userpages and subpages can be used as a development ground for generating new content, this space is not intended to indefinitely archive your preferred version of disputed or previously deleted content or indefinitely archive permanent content that is meant to be part of the encyclopedia. In other words, Wikipedia is not a free web host. Private copies of pages that are being used solely for long-term archival purposes may be subject to deletion.
Similarly, pages kept in userspace should not be designed to functionally substitute for articles or Wikipedia space pages. If you find that your user subpage has become as useful as a normal article or project page, consider moving it into the appropriate namespace or merging it with other similar pages already existing there. One should never create links from a mainspace article to any userpage, nor should a userspace essay be used as the primary documentation for any Wikipedia policy, guideline, practice, or concept.
Images on user pages[edit]
Do not include non-free images (copyrighted images lacking a free content license) on your user page or on any subpage thereof (this is official policy and the usual wide user page latitude does not apply, see Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria for details). Non-free images found on a user page (including user talk pages) will be removed (preferably by replacing it with a link to the image) from that page without warning (and, if not used in a Wikipedia article, deleted entirely).
There is broad consensus that you should not have any image on your userpage that would bring the project into disrepute (per Jimbo Wales), and you may be asked to remove such images.
Simulated MediaWiki interfaces[edit]
The Wikipedia community generally frowns upon simulating the MediaWiki interface, and it should be avoided except when necessary for testing purposes.
Inappropriate content[edit]
- See also the policy section Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Non-article space.
- Regarding images see #Images on user pages
There is broad agreement that you may not include in your user space material that is likely to bring the project into disrepute, or which is likely to give widespread offense (e.g. pro-pedophilia advocacy) – whether serious or trolling, it's not what user pages are for. "Wikipedia is not a soapbox" is usually interpreted as applying to user space as well as the encyclopedia itself. You do have more latitude in user space than elsewhere, but don't be inconsiderate. Extremely offensive material may be removed on sight by any editor.
Ownership and editing of pages in the user space[edit]
As a tradition, Wikipedia offers wide latitude to users to manage their user space as they see fit. However, pages in user space still do belong to the community:
- Contributions must be licensed under the GFDL, just as articles are.
- Other users and bots may edit pages in your user space, though by convention your user page will usually not be edited by others.
- Community policies, including Wikipedia:No personal attacks, apply to your user space, just as they do elsewhere. Article content policies such as WP:Original Research generally do not, though would apply should the material be moved into the namespace.
- In some cases, material that does not somehow further the goals of the project may be removed (see below), as might as edits from banned users.
In general it is considered polite to avoid substantially editing another's user page without their permission. Some users are fine with their user pages being edited, and may even have a note to that effect. Other users may object and ask you not to edit their user pages, and it is probably sensible to respect their requests. The best option is to draw their attention to the matter on their talk page and let them edit their user page themselves if they agree on a need to do so. In some cases a more experienced editor may make a non-trivial edit to your userpage, in which case that editor should leave a note on your talk page explaining why this was done. This should not be done for trivial reasons.
Removal of comments, warnings[edit]
Policy does not prohibit users, including both registered and anonymous users, from removing comments from their own talk pages, although archiving is preferred. The removal of a warning is taken as evidence that the warning has been read by the user. Deleted warnings can still be found in the page history. Repeatedly restoring warnings does nothing but antagonize users, and can encourage further disruption; removal of template warnings is rarely an urgent or important matter, and it is often best to simply let the matter rest if other disruption stops.
Important exceptions may include declined unblock requests and confirmed sockpuppetry notices (while blocks are still in effect), or for anonymous editors, shared IP header templates. In these cases it may be legitimate in order to keep a user from gaming the system. Such templates are intended not only to communicate with the user in question, but to share important information about blocks and sockpuppetry with other users.
Users should note that restoring talk page warnings is not a listed exception to the three-revert rule.
Use of page protection for user pages[edit]
As with article pages, user pages are occasionally the targets of vandalism, or, more rarely, edit wars. When edit wars or vandalism persist, the affected page should be protected from editing.
Most user page vandalism occurs in retaliation for a contributor's efforts to deal with vandalism. Administrators may protect their own user pages when appropriate, and are permitted to edit protected pages in user space. Sometimes a non-administrator's user page may be the target of vandalism. Such pages should be listed at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection and may then be protected by an administrator.
Note that repeatedly inserting copyrighted content on your own user page after being notified that doing so violates our policy is also considered disruptive, and may result in it being protected.
Vandalism of talk pages is less common. Usually such vandalism should merely be reverted. Blocks should be used for repeated vandalism of talk pages, where policy permits. In rare cases, protection may be used but is considered a last resort given the importance of talk page discussions to the project.
Removal of inappropriate content[edit]
If the community lets you know that they would rather you delete some content from your user space, you should consider doing so – such content is only permitted with the consent of the community. Alternatively, you could move the content to another site, and link to it.
If you do not cooperate, inappropriate content will eventually be removed, either by editing the page (if only part of it is inappropriate), or by redirecting it to your main user page (if it is entirely inappropriate).
In extreme cases, your user subpage may be deleted, following a listing on Miscellany for deletion, subject to deletion policy.
What to do if you find someone else's user page being used inappropriately[edit]
A user page being used as a personal web page may be nominated for deletion at Miscellany for deletion. A personal image may be nominated for deletion at Images and media for deletion. If you are considering nominating a user page or personal image for deletion because it appears to be used as a personal web page or a blog, please be aware that many editors will consider this a personal attack on themselves, because they may believe they own "my userpage". Be very careful not to scare a newbie away from Wikipedia, and try to assume good faith that they are merely trying to share information about themselves. Try to resolve the issue on the user's talk page first. Also note that a limited amount of personal information (perhaps a short biography) and a freely licensed (never fair use) tasteful personal photograph or two are usually allowed on a user's page in order to show the user's human side, but only if the page complies with other Wikipedia policies.
Users with most of their contribution edits outside their user space should be given more leeway in this regard than users whose edits consist solely or mostly of user space edits. And always remember that a user's user page simply being used as a personal web page is not in itself a speedy deletion criterion. User pages that go beyond this into advertising may be tagged for speedy deletion however: most of the speedy deletion criteria apply equally to user space as to main space. The only exceptions are that test edits and the re-creation of deleted material (within limits) are permitted in user space. A user's contributions that consist solely of a lone edit to their user page, per our requirements to assume good faith, should not normally be deleted unless it consists solely of spam or other inappropriate material. A user may have simply created their page as their first edit, and could return at any time. Such pages should be sent to MfD, and not speedily deleted.
How do I create a user subpage?[edit]
In most namespaces it is possible to create a subpage of a "parent" page. So if a page is called "PAGE", a subpage of "PAGE" with the name "SUBPAGE" would be located at "PAGE/SUBPAGE". It is not possible to create subpages in mainspace (where articles are located), in the Image namespace, in the Help namespace, and in a few others shown here.
User:Example/Lipsum is an example of a user subpage for User:Example. Your user page, if it exists yet, is here. If you wanted to create a user subpage called "Sandbox", you would find it here.
New editors and experienced Wikipedians can use subpages to their user page to develop templates and articles, test wikitext markup, and create new articles before moving them to the main Wikipedia space.
There are several common uses for user subpages:
- To place user page-appropriate content on a separate page in order to avoid having a large user page or merely not to conspicuously display it (for example, an awards page).
- To plan large changes to articles, new articles, or allow Wikipedians to draft graphical layout overhauls.
- To delineate views on Wikipedia, its functioning, or behavior of Wikipedians in general.
- To test wikimarkup or LaTeX. User pages and user subpages can be transcluded and substituted, so they behave like templates, and can be tested as such. Pages meant for arbitrary testing are called sandboxes; there is a sandbox for general testing, but not for long-term development.
To link to a user subpage called "Sandbox" from your main user page, place the text
[[/Sandbox]]
on your page, or use a piped link with the same source. Make sure to experiment on your user page, not on this page! Do not forget the first forward slash or you will put the page in the main namespace as a regular article and will have to ask for speedy deletion if you save what you write (by tagging the page with {{db-author}}). If your user page does not have a subpage named "Sandbox", the link will appear to be red, indicating that a page has no content, and if you just navigate away without saving any content the page will not be created and there is nothing to delete.
Sandboxes are useful for testing changes to pages, but once you are sure of yourself regarding an edit, you can just click on the "Show preview" button, and proof-read thoroughly. If you need help creating a user subpage, you can get assistance at WP:UPH. You can add an infobox named {{User Sandbox}} to your sandbox. The infobox notes that the sandbox is used to make tests.
How do I delete a user subpage?[edit]
You can easily request the deletion of any of your user subpages (or possibly your user page) by adding {{db-userreq}} to the top of the page.
Alternatively, you might consider simply making the page redirect to your user page. This is normally sufficient for most people's needs. There may however be a reason for the page to be kept.
Only tag for deletion your own personal pages, and only if you have a genuine reason for requesting a personal subpage of yours be deleted.
Pages which have formerly been in a different namespace and moved to a subpage of the user namespace may not be deleted in this way. These must be listed either at Articles for deletion, or if they were not found originally in the article namespace, at Miscellany for deletion. On the other hand, if you would just like them to be moved back, then by all means ask at Wikipedia:Requested moves.
Blanking of user subpages is interpreted by some as a deletion request. If you are blanking one of your user subpages and wish the page history to be kept, it is best to leave a note to that effect on the blank page (eg. "blanked to page history - please do not delete"). If you want a user subpage deleted, it is best to use {{db-userreq}} to specifically request it, rather than blanking the page.
Note that subpages of user talk pages may be subject to different requirements. See the section on deleting user talk pages, below.
How do I delete my user pages?[edit]
Where there is no significant abuse and no administrative need to retain the personal information, you can request that your own user page and user subpages be deleted.
This is done instead of account deletion because accounts with contributions cannot be deleted as this would allow another user to create the account, and claim authorship of those edits. It is not possible for your edits to be removed entirely; for this reason, removing the account would potentially violate copyrights by allowing for such authorship claims.
Just add to the page: {{db-userreq}}. An administrator will then delete it after checking that the page does not contain evidence of policy violations that may need to be kept. If there has been no disruptive behavior meriting the retention of that personal information, then the administrator can delete the page straight away in order to eliminate general public distribution of the history containing the information. If the deletion occurs immediately, others may request undeletion if they feel there was in fact a need to retain the page. In such a case, the page should be undeleted and listed on Miscellany for deletion for a period of five days following the deletion of the user page. If a user page was deleted because a contributor left, it may be restored by an administrator if the contributor returns, particularly if the history contains evidence of policy violations.
How do I delete my user talk pages?[edit]
As a matter of practice, user talk pages are generally not deleted, barring legal threats or other grievous violations that have to be removed for legal reasons; however, exceptions to this can be and are made on occasion for good reason (see right to vanish). Archives of user talk pages created by using page moves are also generally not deleted. In addition, nonpublic personal information and potentially libelous information posted to your talk page may be removed by making a request for oversight.
Users who have left Wikipedia may be added to Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians.
What other information is accessible to others from my user page?[edit]
In addition to the usual information accessible from an article page such as page history, "Discuss this page" and the like, other users at Wikipedia can also click "User contributions" (in the sidebar or at the bottom of the page) to see what contributions you have made at Wikipedia over time. See MediaWiki User's Guide: User contributions page for more. Please note that having your user page deleted does not delete this list of your contributions.
Visitors to your user page can also click "E-mail this user" if you have opted in your user preferences to be able to send and receive email. See Wikipedia:Emailing users.
Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion[edit]
Criteria[edit]
Abbreviations are sometimes used to refer to these criteria. For example, "G12" refers to criterion 12 under general (copyright infringement) and "U1" refers to criterion 1 under user (user request). These abbreviations can be confusing to new editors, or anyone else unfamiliar with this page; in many situations a plain-English explanation of why a specific article was deleted is preferable.
A table listing the template(s) for each of these criteria is provided below.
General[edit]
These criteria apply to all namespaces, and are in addition to namespace-specific criteria in following sections.
- Patent nonsense. Pages consisting purely of incoherent text or gibberish with no meaningful content or history. This does not include poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, poorly translated material, implausible theories, or hoaxes; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases.
- Test pages. This criterion does not apply to the sandbox or to users' own user space.
- Pure vandalism. This includes blatant and obvious misinformation, and redirects created by cleanup from page-move vandalism.
- Recreation of deleted material. A copy, by any title, of a page deleted via a deletion discussion, provided the copy is substantially identical to the deleted version and that any changes in the recreated page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted. This does not apply to content that has been undeleted via deletion review, deleted via proposed deletion, or to speedy deletions (although in that case, the previous speedy criterion, or other speedy criteria, may apply). Also, content moved to user space for explicit improvement is excluded, although material moved or copied to circumvent Wikipedia's deletion policy is not.
- Banned user. Pages created by banned users in violation of their ban, with no substantial edits by others.
- Technical deletions. Non-controversial maintenance, such as temporarily deleting a page to merge page histories, deleting dated maintenance categories, or performing uncontroversial page moves. If no special tag like {{db-move}} can be used and the reason for deletion is not self-evident, a reason for deletion should be supplied, for example on the talk page or in the edit summary.
- Author requests deletion, if requested in good faith, and provided the page's only substantial content was added by its author. (For redirects created as a result of a pagemove, the mover must also have been the only substantive contributor to the page prior to the move.) If the author blanks the page (outside user space), this can be taken as a deletion request.
- Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page, such as talk pages with no corresponding subject page; subpages with no parent page; image pages without a corresponding image; redirects to invalid targets, such as nonexistent targets, redirect loops, and bad titles; or categories populated by deleted or retargeted templates. This excludes any page that is useful to the project, and in particular: deletion discussions that are not logged elsewhere, user and user talk pages, talk page archives, plausible redirects that can be changed to valid targets, and image pages or talk pages for images that exist on Wikimedia Commons.
- Office actions. The Wikimedia Foundation office reserves the right to speedily delete a page temporarily in cases of exceptional circumstances. Deletions of this type should not be reversed without permission from the Foundation.
- Pages that serve no purpose but to disparage or threaten their subject or some other entity. These are sometimes called "attack pages". This includes legal threats, and biographical material about a living person that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced, where there is no neutral version in the page history to revert to. Both the page title and page content may be taken into account in assessing an attack. Articles about living people deleted under this criterion should not be restored or recreated by any editor until the biographical article standards are met.
- Unambiguous advertising or promotion. Pages that exclusively promote some entity and that would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic. Note that simply having a company or product as its subject does not qualify an article for this criterion.
- Unambiguous copyright infringement. Text pages that contain copyrighted material with no credible assertion of public domain, fair use, or a free license, where there is no non-infringing content on the page worth saving. Only if the history is unsalvageably corrupted should it be deleted in its entirety; earlier versions without infringement should be retained. For equivocal cases (such as where there is a dubious assertion of permission, or where free-content edits overlie the infringement), please consult Wikipedia:Copyright violations.
Remember to check that the suspected source of the copyright violation is not itself a Wikipedia mirror, and to notify the page's creator when tagging a page for deletion under this criterion; the template
{{nothanks-sd}}is available for this. For images and media, see the equivalent criterion in the "Files" section below, which has more specific instructions.
Articles[edit]
For any articles that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Articles for deletion or Wikipedia:Proposed deletion. Note that all these criteria apply to Portals as well.
- No context. Articles lacking sufficient context to identify the subject of the article. Example: "He is a funny man with a red car. He makes people laugh." This applies only to very short articles. Context is different from content, treated in A3, below.
- Foreign language articles that exist on another Wikimedia project. If the article does not exist on another project, use the template
{{notenglish}}instead, and list the page at Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English for review and possible translation. - No content. Any article (other than disambiguation pages, redirects, or soft redirects) consisting only of external links, category tags and "see also" sections, a rephrasing of the title, attempts to correspond with the person or group named by its title, chat-like comments, template tags and/or images. However, a very short article may be a valid stub if it has context, in which case it is not eligible for deletion under this criterion. Similarly, this criterion doesn't cover a page with an infobox with non-trivial information.
- Deprecated – merged with "No content" above.
- Transwikied articles. Any article that consists only of a dictionary definition that has already been transwikied (e.g., to Wiktionary), a primary source that has already been transwikied (e.g., to Wikisource), or an article on any subject that has been discussed at articles for deletion with an outcome to move it to another wiki, after it has been properly moved and the author information recorded.
- Deprecated – superseded by "Attack pages" above.
- An article about a real person, an organization (e.g. band, club, company, etc., except schools), or web content that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant. This is distinct from verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability. This criterion applies only to articles about web content and to articles about people and organizations themselves, not to articles about their books, albums, software and so on. The criterion does not apply to any article that makes any credible claim of significance or importance even if the claim is not supported by a reliable source. If the claim's credibility is unclear, you can improve the article yourself, propose deletion, or list the article at articles for deletion.
- Deprecated – superseded by "Unambiguous copyright infringement" above.
- An article about a musical recording that does not indicate why its subject is important or significant and where the artist's article has never existed or has been deleted. This is distinct from questions of verifiability and reliability of sources, and is a lower standard than notability. This criterion does not apply to other forms of creative media, products, or any other types of articles.
Redirects[edit]
For any redirects, including soft redirects, that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion. Redirect pages that have useful page history should never be speedy deleted. In some cases it may be possible to make a useful redirect by changing the target instead of deleting it. Redirects that do not work due to software limitations, such as redirects to special pages or to pages on other wikis, may be converted to soft redirects if they have a non-trivial history or other valid uses.
- Deprecated – superseded by "Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page" above.
- Redirects from the article namespace to any other namespace except the Category:, Template:, Wikipedia:, Help: and Portal: namespaces. If the redirect was the result of a page move, consider waiting a day or two before deleting the redirect. See also Wikipedia:Cross-namespace redirects.
- Recently created redirects from implausible typos or misnomers. However, redirects from common misspellings or misnomers are generally useful, as are redirects in other languages.
For reversal of redirects, use {{db-move}}, a special case of {{db-g6}}
Files[edit]
For any images and other media that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Files for deletion.
- Redundant. Any unused media file that is a copy, in the same file format and same or lower quality/resolution, of another file on Wikipedia. This does not apply to images duplicated on Wikimedia Commons, because of license issues; instead see "Images available as identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons" below.
- Corrupt or empty image. Before deleting this type of image, verify that the MediaWiki engine cannot read it by previewing a resized thumbnail of it. Even if it renders, if it contains superfluous information that cannot be accounted for as metadata directly relating to the image data, it may be deleted. It is always possible for the uploader to correct the problem by uploading an image that contains only a good image plus acceptable metadata.
- Improper license. Media licensed as "for non-commercial use only" (including non-commercial Creative Commons licenses), "no derivative use" or "used with permission" may be deleted, unless they comply with the limited standards for the use of non-free content.
- Lack of licensing information. Media files which lack the necessary licensing information, may be deleted after being identified as such for seven days if the information is not added. Be aware that editors sometimes specify their source in the upload summary.
- Unused unfree images. Images and other media that are not under a free license or in the public domain, that are not used in any article, may be deleted after being identified as such for more than seven days. Reasonable exceptions may be made for images uploaded for an upcoming article.
- Missing non-free use rationale. Non-free files claiming fair use but without a use rationale may be deleted after being identified as such for seven days. The boilerplate copyright tags setting out fair use criteria do not constitute a rationale. This criterion does not apply to situations where a use rationale is provided but is disputed.
- Invalid fair-use claim.
- Non-free images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a
{{Non-free logo}}tag on a photograph of a mascot) may be deleted immediately. - Non-free images or media that have been identified as being replaceable by a free image and tagged with
{{subst:rfu}}may be deleted after two days, if no justification is given for the claim of irreplaceability. - Invalid fair-use claims tagged with
{{subst:dfu}}may be deleted seven days after they are tagged, if a full and valid fair-use use rationale is not added.
- Non-free images or media with a clearly invalid fair-use tag (such as a
- Images available as identical copies on the Wikimedia Commons, provided the following conditions are met:
- The Commons version is in the same file format and is of the same or higher quality/resolution.
- The image's license and source status is beyond reasonable doubt, and the license is undoubtedly accepted at Commons.
- All image revisions that meet the first condition have been transferred to Commons as revisions of the Commons copy and properly marked as such.
- The image is not marked as
{{do not move to Commons}}.
- All information on the image description page is present on the Commons image description page, including the complete upload history with links to the uploader's local user pages (the upload history is not necessary if the image is in the public domain, although it is still recommended).
- If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the image description page (like
{{FeaturedPicture}}), the image description page must be undeleted after the file deletion.
- If there is any information not relevant to any other project on the image description page (like
- If the image is available on Commons under a different name than locally, all local references to the image must be updated to point to the title used at Commons.
- The image is not protected. DO NOT DELETE PROTECTED IMAGES, even if there is an identical copy on Commons. They are usually locally uploaded and protected here since they are used in the interface or in some widely used high-risk template.
{{c-uploaded}}images may be speedily deleted as soon as they are off the Main Page.
- Unambiguous copyright infringement. Images that are claimed by the uploader to be images with free licenses when this is obviously not the case. A URL or other indication of where the image originated should be mentioned. This does not include images used under a claim of fair use, nor does it include images with a credible claim that the owner has released them under a Wikipedia-compatible free license. This includes most images from stock photo libraries such as Getty Images or Corbis. Blatant infringements should be tagged with the
{{db-imgcopyvio}}template. Non-blatant copyright infringements should be discussed at Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images. - Useless media files. Files uploaded that are neither image, sound, nor video files (e.g. .doc, .pdf, or .xls files) that are not used in any article and have no foreseeable encyclopedic use.
- No evidence of permission: If an uploader has specified a license and has named a third party as the source/copyright holder without providing evidence that this third party has in fact agreed, the item may be deleted seven days after notification of the uploader. Acceptable evidence of licensing normally consists of either a link to the source website where the license is stated, or a statement by the copyright holder e-mailed or forwarded to permissions-en@wikimedia.org. Such a confirmation is also required if the source is an organization that the uploader claims to represent, or a web publication that the uploader claims to be their own. Instances of obvious copyright violations where the uploader would have no reasonable expectation of obtaining permission (e.g. major studio movie posters, TV screenshots) should be speedily deleted per "Unambiguous copyright infringement" above.
Categories[edit]
Also listed at Wikipedia:Category deletion policy#Speedy delete policy. For any categories that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Categories for discussion or Wikipedia:User categories for discussion. Due to technical restrictions, renaming or merging a category effectively deletes the original category.
- Unpopulated categories that have been unpopulated for at least four days. This does not apply to disambiguation categories, category redirects, featured topics categories, categories under discussion at Wikipedia:Categories for Discussion (or other such discussions), or project categories that by their nature may become empty on occasion (e.g. Category:Wikipedians looking for help).
- Speedy renaming.
- Typographic fixes (e.g., Brdiges → Bridges), but not changes between British and American spelling.
- Capitalization fixes (e.g., Heads Of State → Heads of state).
- Conversions from singular to plural, or vice versa (e.g., Steamship → Steamships).
- Non-conformance with "x by y", "x of y", or "x in y" categorization conventions specified at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories).
- Expanding abbreviated country names (e.g., U.S. → United States).
- Disambiguation fixes from an unqualified name (e.g., Category:Georgia → Category:Georgia (country) or Category:Georgia (U.S. state)).
- Deprecated – superseded by "Pages dependent on a non-existent or deleted page" above.
User pages[edit]
For any user pages that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
- User request. Personal user pages and subpages (but not user talk pages) upon request by their user. In some rare cases there may be administrative need to retain the page.
- Nonexistent user. User pages of users that do not exist (check Special:Listusers), not including IP addresses.
- Non-free galleries. Galleries in the userspace that consist mostly or entirely of "fair use" or non-free images. Wikipedia's non-free content policy prohibits the use of non-free content in userspace, even content that the user has uploaded; use of content in the public domain or under a free license is acceptable.
Templates[edit]
For any templates that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Templates for deletion.
- Deprecated – criterion repealed; "Attack pages" above may be applicable; otherwise use Wikipedia:Templates for deletion.
- Templates that are unambiguous misrepresentations of established policy. This includes "speedy deletion" templates for issues that are not speedy deletion criteria and disclaimer templates intended to be used in articles.
- Templates that are not employed in any useful fashion, and are either: substantial duplications of another template, or hardcoded instances of another template where the same functionality could be provided by that other template, may be deleted after being tagged for seven days.
Portals[edit]
For any portals that are not speedy deletion candidates, use Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion.
- Any topic that would be subject to speedy deletion as an article.
- Underpopulated portal. Any portal based on a topic for which there is only a stub header article or fewer than three non-stub articles detailing subject matter that would be appropriate to present under the title of that portal.
Non-criteria[edit]
The following are not by themselves sufficient to justify speedy deletion.
- Reasons derived from Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Wikipedia is not: "a dictionary", "an indiscriminate collection of information", "a crystal ball", etc.
- Hoaxes. If even remotely plausible, a suspected hoax article should be subjected to further scrutiny in a wider forum. Note that "blatant and obvious hoaxes and misinformation" are subject to speedy deletion as vandalism.
- Original research. It is not always easy to tell whether an article consists of material that violates the policy against novel theories or interpretations or is simply unsourced.
- Neologisms. If not obviously ridiculous, new specialized terms should have a wider hearing.
- Notability. Articles that seem to have obviously non-notable subjects are eligible for speedy deletion only if the article does not give a reasonable indication of why the subject might be important or significant.
- Failure to assert importance but not an A7 or A9 category. There is no consensus to speedily delete articles of types not specifically listed in A7 or A9 under those criteria.
- Author deletion requests made in bad faith. Author deletion requests made in bad faith, out of frustration, or in an attempt to revoke their GFDL contributions are not granted. However, anyone may request deletion of pages in their userspace.
- Author deletion requests after others have contributed substantially. If other editors have substantially edited an article (i.e. more than just minor corrections or maintenance tagging), the original author may not request deletion under G7 because the work of others is involved.
- Very short articles. Short articles with sufficient content and context to qualify as stubs may not be speedily deleted under criteria A1 and A3; other criteria may still apply.
- Copies that are not copyright violations. If content appears both here and somewhere else (possibly in modified form), consider the possibility that Wikipedia's is the original version and the other site copied from us. Alternately, the same author may have written both versions, or the original may be free content.
- PNGs/GIFs replaced by JPEGs. JPEG encoding discards information that may be important later. Do not delete the original PNG/GIF files.
- Questionable material that is not vandalism. Earnest efforts are never vandalism, so to assume good faith, do not delete as vandalism unless reasonably certain.
- User pages of IP addresses. Although users are encouraged to create Wikipedia accounts, unregistered users are still allowed to edit Wikipedia, and are identified by their IP addresses. If an unregistered user has a static IP address, it may have a user page and/or user talk page associated with it.
- Reasons based on essays. Wikipedia:Listcruft, Wikipedia:Obscure topics, Wikipedia:Deny recognition etc. are not valid reasons for speedy deletion.
Marking an article for speedy deletion[edit]
In order to alert administrators that a page meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion, place one of the following relevant templates at the top of the page (within <noinclude>…</noinclude> for templates). Please be sure to supply an edit summary that mentions that the article is being nominated for speedy deletion. All the following templates are named "db-X" with "db" standing for "delete because".
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