Memory Alpha:Deletion guidelines for administrators

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This page describes one of Memory Alpha's policies and guidelines.
Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

This page is addressed primarily towards administrators of Memory Alpha.

Administrators should use the pages and files for deletion when they find something that they think should be deleted. There are a few limited exceptions – see the criteria for immediate deletion. Every administrator should review the deletion policy as a matter of course.

When to delete

1. Decide whether a "rough consensus" has been achieved (see below).
2. Adhere to the judgments and sentiments of the Memory Alpha community! (Translation: Don't delete if the consensus doesn't approve of deletion.)
3. Generally, don't delete pages or files you nominate for deletion if there are a number comments in favor of keeping it.
4. When in doubt, don't delete!

Rough consensus

A rough consensus is when the reasons for keeping a page or file have been mitigated or a relatively large majority of members who choose to participate in the deletion discussion agree to support a course of action.

The reason that there is no formal debate system (and indeed, can never be) is simply a side effect of the wiki system. Since anyone is allowed to join the community and participate in the discussion, there's no reliable way that anyone can count the number of comments that should be cast. Furthermore, there's no requirement that anyone participate in the discussion, therefore a "rough consensus" only applies to those people who choose to participate in the process.

In all cases, of course, administrators should use their best judgment and be as impartial as possible.

Basic guidelines

Here are some guidelines administrators should follow in making the decision to delete a page or not, when considering entries on pages for deletion.

1. The talk page and any sub-pages are deleted separately from the main article itself. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to save the talk page, or delete it as well. (Cases for keeping the talk page include preserving any pre-PfD/FfD debate or saving the page in case another article on the same subject is going to be created.)
2. When you delete a page or file, close the discussion and update the category on the PfD or FfD discussion page.
3. Use your best judgment to determine whether any article is a good-faith attempt to write an article, or whether it is simply vandalism.
4. Follow the copyrights policy.
5. Don't delete pages unless you know how to restore them as well!

See also

• Memory Alpha:Deletion policy
• Memory Alpha:Restoration policy