This is an
essay on the
deletion policy. 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. |
This page in a nutshell: Typically Wikipedia keeps articles which meet its WP:NOTABILITY criterial. This essay reviews reasons why sometimes the wiki community deletes articles meeting that standard. |
Removal of Wikipedia articles on notable topics is an occurrence in which Wikipedia reviewers judge a topic to be WP:Notable and then find consensus to remove the Wikipedia article covering that topic.
"Notability" is a concept in Wikipedia which describes whether a topic merits a Wikipedia article. All topics which are "notable" merit Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia reviewers may delete any topic which is "not notable" by evaluating it in a WP:deletion process.
The removal of Wikipedia articles covering notable topics can seem surprising.
Wikipedia articles must have the following elements:
Typically the Wikipedia community only evaluates whether an article meets notability criteria. Almost always, an article which passes notability review also has enough content to be a stub, and almost always cites some sources.
If an editor establishes that a topic is notable but fails to submit enough content to Wikipedia to present the topic as a WP:STUB, or short article, then the Wikipedia review process might delete it.
If an editor establishes that a topic is notable, and makes claims in the article, but cites no sources whatsoever, then the article might be deleted. Alternatively, it might not be! Although as time passes the overall quality of Wikipedia and its standards are rising, there is no hard line here.
Sometimes Wiki community reviews make a subjective judgement that a Wikipedia article covers a topic which is too specific. "Overly specific" is not an established rationale for deletion or removal. Other assessments, like backing up to challenge notability or making a claim of lack of content, might be applicable arguments.
"Notable article, AFD, Merge, UNDUE, recreate" is a recurring cycle of errors in the Wikipedia community review process which results in the loss of good content which Wikipedia should keep. It happens in this way:
The challenge of observing this cycle of content removal is that it often happens over a period of months or years. Various editors execute parts of the process, typically with no one person seeing all of this.
In the following case, an article meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline but then failed to pass the Articles for Deletion process.