Wikipedia:What isn't grounds for article deletion

This is an essay on notability.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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This page in a nutshell:

An article should only be deleted if the topic is not appropriate for Wikipedia. If the article is not well-written and doesn't conform to Wikipedia guidelines, it should be revised, not deleted.
Essays are not grounds for the deletion of an article. Wikipedia guidelines are. Saying that an article should be deleted "under an essay" is ridiculous.

Part 1[edit]

There have been a number of AfD nominations in recent months suggesting that articles should be deleted, for example, due to "lack of sources" or being "badly written." As long as the topic of the article is appropriate for Wikipedia, the article should never, ever, ever be deleted. Even if the whole article is a copyright violation, remove the violation and turn it back into a stub. If there are no sources, add citation requests to the article and work on finding sources. If it is badly written, rewrite it!

Part 2[edit]

Another issue is the use of essays like this one as grounds for the deletion of an article. Many Wikipedians have made statements such as "Delete per WP:Fancruft." This is, of course, ridiculous: Fancruft is an essay, not a guideline. Wikipedia does have guidelines for how various sorts of "cruft" should be treated, and thus citing an essay (falsely) as a Wikipedia rule is unnecessary.