Help:Maintenance template removal
This help page is a how-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus. |
This page in a nutshell: If you have the ability, please boldly assist Wikipedia by fixing the issues flagged by maintenance templates!All problems on Wikipedia are resolved through the efforts of volunteers like you. If you understand the problem that the template highlights, such as by reading the explanatory links it contains or have found guidance through this page – and have reasonably fixed the issues – you may simply remove the maintenance template; it will not be removed automatically. |
Legitimate Wikipedia editors will never offer to remove maintenance templates in exchange for money. See the paid editing scam warning for more information. |
Many Wikipedia pages display maintenance templates that identify problems. You may have arrived at this help page after clicking a link on a maintenance template saying "Learn how and when to remove this template message".
Maintenance templates are added and removed by volunteers. This help page explains the process for examining and removing such templates.
Overview
It is not okay to remove maintenance templates until the issue flagged by the template is remedied first—that is, until the maintenance tag is no longer valid—unless it truly did not belong in the first place. Maintenance templates are not to be used to express your personal opinion.
Wikipedia works because of the efforts of volunteers just like you, making
Addressing the flagged problem
We don't know which maintenance tag brought you to this page, and thus what specific problem needs attention. However, every maintenance template contains links to help pages, policies, guidelines, or other relevant pages that provide information on the problem the template was placed to flag. You will also find guidance on some of the more common templates below.
Many common templates address problems with article citations and references, or their lack – because reliable sourcing is the lifeblood of Wikipedia articles and at the core of all of Wikipedia's content policies and guidelines, such as
Please make sure the issue has been resolved before removing the template. That does require some effort on your part—to understand both the problem and how to solve it.
An example
If the issue flagged by the maintenance template is that the article contains no references, a citation needed template used might be {{Unreferenced}}
– typically placed by the code you would see when wikitext (source) editing: {{Unreferenced|date=October 2024}}
.
It is important to understand that what you see when reading an article, and what you see when editing it, are different unless you're in Visual editing mode. Thus, the above code, only seen when doing source editing, results in the display of the '
This template contains several links, indicated by the words and phrases in blue. Three of these links are to pages that, when explored, provide context and resources for you to understand why the template was placed on the page, and how to address the issue of the article being unreferenced:
- "cite", which links to the content guideline Wikipedia:Citing sources;
- "sources", which links to the policy Wikipedia:Verifiability; and
- "adding citations to reliable sources", which links to a help page providing a how-to guide to the basics of citing references.
Whatever maintenance tag brought you to this help page should likewise contain relevant explanatory links addressed to whatever its issue is. Read these explanatory and contextual pages to learn about the problem and what it is you need to do to take care of it. Again, some of the more common maintenance templates seen are addressed in the specific template guidance section below.
When to remove
Maintenance templates are not meant to be in articles permanently. Any user without a conflict of interest may remove a maintenance template in any of the following circumstances:
- When the issue has been adequately addressed;
- Upon determining that the issue has been resolved (perhaps by someone else);
- If it reasonably appears that the template did not belong when placed or was added in error. Consider first discussing the matter with the original placer of the template (unless this user is no longer active on Wikipedia). In any case, if the issue appears contentious, seek talk page;
- When an article talk page discussion has not been initiated (for templates requesting it);
- When there is consensus on the talk page (or elsewhere) as to how to address the flagged issue, and you are reasonably implementing those changes. (It is good practice to note the location of the consensus in the edit summary accompanying your removal, ideally with a linkto the location);
- When it can reasonably be concluded that the template is no longer relevant, such as a
{{Current}}
template appearing in an article that no longer documents a current event; - If the maintenance template is of a type that requires support but is not fully supported. For example, neutrality-related templates such as
{{
neutral point of view policy) strongly recommend that the tagging editor initiate a discussion (generally on the article's talk page) to support the placement of the tag. If the tagging editor failed to do so, or the discussion is dormant, and there is no other support for the template, it can be removed. Areview.{{notability}}
tag may be removed and may not be re-added if an article has passed an Wikipedia:Articles for deletion - You may remove a template when according to your best judgment the lack of edits and/or talk page discussion should be interpreted as the issue not worth fixing (as a form of "silent consensus"). Please note there is currently no consensus for general age-related removal of maintenance templates – that is, removing a template purely or chiefly because it is old is not considered a sufficient argument. Exception: removing POV-related templates whose discussions have gone dormant is encouraged, as addressed in the bullet point immediately above;
- Lastly, there are times when a person attempting to address a maintenance template that flags some fundamental matter may find that the issue cannot actually be addressed. For example, if an article is flagged as lacking citations to third-parties to the topic, and a user seeing the maintenance templates discovers that such sources appear not to exist, that usually means the article should be deleted. In such cases, it is not so much that the template does not belong and should be removed, but rather that flagging the page for maintenance will never address the more critical issue that the page itself does not belong on Wikipedia at all.
When not to remove
You should not remove maintenance templates if any of the following apply:
- You do not understand the issues raised by the template;
- The issue has not yet been resolved;
- There is ongoing activity or discussion related to the template issue;
- The problem that the maintenance template flags is plainly and unambiguously required for a proper article under Wikipedia's policies and guidelines;
- You have been paid to edit the article or have some other conflict of interest[exceptions apply: see individual template documentation].
Removal
Have you carefully read the help pages and thoroughly fixed the problem? Or have you made a considered decision that the template is not, or is no longer, applicable? Great! Now, to remove the maintenance template:
- Either click on "edit" or "edit source" at the top of the page, or if the maintenance template is not at the top but somewhere in the body of the article, you might instead use a section edit link;
- If you are editing wikitext ("source" editing): Delete the template code. The template code you see in this edit mode will usually be in the following form, as in the example above:
{{Name of template|date=Month Year}}
. If you are editing using VisualEditor: Click on the template (tag), which will then turn blue. Press the "Delete" or backspace key on your keyboard. - Leave a descriptive edit summary, e.g., "Removed [insert the name of template] because I have fixed the issue;"
- Click Publish changes.
That's it. Thank you!
Changing a template
Problems flagged by some templates may imply secondary problems that will still exist after you take care of the main issue. In such cases, it may be more appropriate to switch the template to another applicable one following your edits, rather than just removing it. The reasoning behind the change in templates should be addressed in the edit summary.
A case in point is the {{Unreferenced}} template example used above. It is placed on pages with no references. Thus, adding just one suitable reference renders that maintenance template inapplicable. However, that change does not take care of the overarching issue of poor sourcing. In this example, a change to a different template may be appropriate, depending on the type, quality, depth, and manner of sourcing added to fix the issue, such as {{
Conversely, some templates flag highly discrete issues where there is no need to consider a switch to another template. For example, if an article is "orphaned" – no other articles in the main article namespace link to it – then once that is taken care of (by the addition of links to it from other articles), the issue is gone entirely and the tag's removal is unambiguous.
When a flagged issue has been addressed in parts of an article but remains in discrete sections, clarity may be served by replacing the template with a section variant, or by use of inline cleanup tags, if such versions of the template exist.
In some cases, it may be helpful to request a review of a maintenance template's removal or proposed removal with the editor who initially added it to the article at issue.
Specific template guidance
This section guides you on how to address some of the more common specific templates that may have brought you to this help page. More detailed information about the templates can be found by following the links to the templates themselves.
Click "show" at the right to display the instructions.
{{Multiple issues}}
Some articles will be flagged for multiple discrete problems using a single template: {{Multiple issues}}
. If you take care of one or more problems that it flags but not all, do not remove the template entirely but just those parameters in it that you have fixed. The example below shows three different issues flagged by this template:
{{Multiple issues|
{{Orphan|date=January 2008}}
{{POV|date=June 2009}}
{{One source|date=March 2011}}
}}
If you address the "orphaning" issue, but not the other two, remove just the line that flagged the orphan issue and leave the others intact. Thus, your removal would leave the template in this state.
{{Multiple issues|
{{POV|date=June 2009}}
{{One source|date=March 2011}}
}}
See the sections below for how to address some of the more common problems flagged by templates that may be wrapped into this template.
{{Unreferenced}}
All of Wikipedia's core content policies and guidelines have as a common denominator the need for reliable sourcing. For example, the content of Wikipedia articles must be
{{Unreferenced}}
, typically placed by the code {{Unreferenced|date=October 2024}}
, having redirects such as {{Unsourced}}, {{Unverified}}, {{No references}}, {{No sources}}, and {{Unref}}, and displaying when reading as:
flags the issue of an article containing no references at all. This template no longer applies once a single reference appears in the article, whether placed through the preferred method of
To address the issue, add citations to reliable sources. Because of their importance, Wikipedia contains numerous instruction pages on aspects of referencing. We suggest starting with
<ref> ... </ref>
tags may also help, and appears below.
All information in Wikipedia articles should be verified by citations to reliable sources. Our preferred method of citation is using the "cite.php" form of inline citations, using the <ref></ref> elements. Using this method, each time a particular source is mined for information (don't copy word-for-word!), a footnote is placed in the text ("inline"), that takes one to the detail of the source when clicked, set forth in a references section after the text of the article.In brief, anywhere you want a footnote to appear in a piece of text, you place an opening <ref> tag followed by the text of the citation which you want to appear at the bottom of the article, and close with a </ref> tag. Note the closing slash ("/"). For multiple use of a single reference, the opening ref tag is given a name, like so: <ref name="name"> followed by the citation text and a closing </ref> tag. Each time you want to use that footnote again, you simply use the first element with a slash, like so: <ref name="name" />. For these references to appear, you must tell the software where to display them, using either the code <references/> or, most commonly, the template, {{Reflist}} which can be modified to display the references in columns using {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}. Per our style guidelines, the references should be displayed in a separate section denominated "References" located after the body of the article. | |
Inline citation code; what you type in 'edit mode'
|
What it produces when you save |
Two separate citations.<ref>Citation text. </ref><ref>Citation text2. </ref>
{{Reflist}} |
Two separate citations.[1][2]
|
Templates that can be used between <ref></ref> tags to format references {{Citation}} • {{Cite web}} • {{Cite book}} • {{Cite news}} • {{Cite journal}} • Others • Examples |
As noted higher on this page, unless you thoroughly source a page in response to this template, it may more appropriate to switch this template with a more specific one rather than simply removing it. Depending on the type, quality, depth, and manner of sourcing added to fix the issue, you might replace it with {{
{{Refimprove}}
All of Wikipedia's core content policies and guidelines have as a common denominator the need for reliable sourcing. For example, the content of Wikipedia articles must be
{{
{{Refimprove|date=October 2024}}
, having redirects
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2024) |
flags the issue of an article that has some, but insufficient inline citations to support the material currently in the article. It should not be used for articles with no sources at all ({{
should be used instead). This template no longer applies once an article has been made fairly well-sourced.
{{BLP sources
To address the issue, add additional inline citations to reliable sources for all significant statements in the article. Whether or not an article has been rendered "fairly well sourced" may involve a judgment call, but in any event, the sources used must be
{{No footnotes}}
All of Wikipedia's core content policies and guidelines have a common denominator: the need for reliable sourcing. For example, the content of Wikipedia articles must be
{{No footnotes}}
, typically placed by the code {{No footnotes|date=October 2024}}
, and having redirects such as {{Citations}}, {{No citations}}, {{Inline citations}} and {{No inline citations}}, and displaying when reading as:
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2024) ) |
flags the issue of an article that contains some form of sourcing but lacks the precision of
To address the issue, add inline citations to reliable sources, ideally for all significant statements in the article. Note that at a minimum: all quotations, material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, and contentious material, whether negative, positive, or neutral, about living persons, must include an inline citation that directly supports the material.
There are many instruction pages that directly and indirectly give guidance on adding inline citations. We suggest starting with
<ref> ... </ref>
tags may also help, and appears below.
All information in Wikipedia articles should be verified by citations to reliable sources. Our preferred method of citation is using the "cite.php" form of inline citations, using the <ref></ref> elements. Using this method, each time a particular source is mined for information (don't copy word-for-word!), a footnote is placed in the text ("inline"), that takes one to the detail of the source when clicked, set forth in a references section after the text of the article.In brief, anywhere you want a footnote to appear in a piece of text, you place an opening <ref> tag followed by the text of the citation which you want to appear at the bottom of the article, and close with a </ref> tag. Note the closing slash ("/"). For multiple use of a single reference, the opening ref tag is given a name, like so: <ref name="name"> followed by the citation text and a closing </ref> tag. Each time you want to use that footnote again, you simply use the first element with a slash, like so: <ref name="name" />. For these references to appear, you must tell the software where to display them, using either the code <references/> or, most commonly, the template, {{Reflist}} which can be modified to display the references in columns using {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}. Per our style guidelines, the references should be displayed in a separate section denominated "References" located after the body of the article. | |
Inline citation code; what you type in 'edit mode'
|
What it produces when you save |
Two separate citations.<ref>Citation text. </ref><ref>Citation text2. </ref>
{{Reflist}} |
Two separate citations.[1][2]
|
Templates that can be used between <ref></ref> tags to format references {{Citation}} • {{Cite web}} • {{Cite book}} • {{Cite news}} • {{Cite journal}} • Others • Examples |
{{Primary sources}}
{{Primary sources}}
, typically placed by the code {{Primary sources|date=October 2024}}
, having among other redirects {{Primary}}, and displaying when reading as:
flags the issue of an article that too heavily relies on
To address the issue, add citations predominantly to secondary sources. Often this involves replacing some of the primary sources with secondary sources, and not just adding them alongside existing ones—especially where the primary source is being used for an invalid purpose such as interpretive claims and synthesis.
Finding secondary sources is a large topic but make use of Google Books, News, and Scholar; find local newspaper archives; go to a library; if you have access, use pay/subscription services like JSTOR, Newspaperarchive.com; Ancestry.com, etc.; see our guide on
{{Notability}}
Wikipedia is an
The general notability standard thus presumes that topics are notable if they have "received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject".
{{Notability}}
, typically placed by the code {{Notability|date=October 2024}}
, having redirects such as {{Notable}}, {{Non-notable}}, {{Nn}} and {{Significance}}, and displaying when reading as:
The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. (October 2024) |
(or some variation linking to one of the subject-specific notability guidelines) questions whether a topic is notable. As stated in the template, addressing the issue requires adding citations to reliable secondary sources. There are several common mistakes seen in addressing this issue:
- Adding citations but to unreliable sources: We are looking for treatment in sources like mainstream newspaper articles, non-vanity books, magazines, scholarly journals, television and radio documentaries, etc. – sources with editorial oversight and a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. This means generally not random personal websites, blogs, forum posts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources.
- Adding citations to connected (non-independent) sources: While third partiesto a topic.
- Adding citations to sources that merely mention the topic: You can cite numerous reliable, secondary, independent sources and it will not help establish notability if they do not treat the topic substantively – think generally two paragraphs of text focused on the topic at issue. Remember: it is much better to cite two good sources that treat a topic in detail, than twenty that just mention it in passing. Moreover, citation overkill to sources containing mere passing mentions of the topic is a badge of a non-notable topic and, if good sources are present in the mix, they will be hidden among these others from those seeking to assess a topic's demonstration of notability.
If insufficient reliable secondary and independent sources exist treating a topic in substantive detail, then Wikipedia should not have an article on the topic. Remember that no amount of editing can overcome a lack of notability.
{{Advert}}
{{Advert}}
, typically placed by the code {{Advert|date=October 2024}}
, and having redirects such as {{Advertisement}}, {{Advertising}}, {{Ad}} and {{Puff}}, and displaying when reading as:
This article contains promotional content. (October 2024) |
flags the issue of an article that reads like an
Advertisements are by no means limited to commercial topics and indeed are often seen for all manner of others, such as "
To address the issue, rewrite the article from a
{{POV}}
{{POV}}
, typically placed by the code {{POV|date=October 2024}}
, and having redirects such as {{NPOV}}, {{POV dispute}}, {{Neutrality}}, {{Neutral}} and {{Not neutral}}, and displaying when reading as:
flags the issue of an article that has been identified as having a serious issue of balance, the lack of a
This template is not meant to be a permanent resident on any article. You may remove this template whenever any one of the following is true:
- There is consensus on the talkpage or the NPOV Noticeboard that the issue has been resolved;
- It is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given;
- In the absence of any discussion, or if the discussion has become dormant.
{{Lead missing}}
{{Lead missing}}
, typically placed by the code {{Lead missing|date=October 2024}}
, and having redirects such as {{No lead}}, {{Nointro}}, {{No lead section}}, {{Lead absent}} and {{Intro needed}}, and displaying when reading as:
This article has no lead section. (October 2024) |
flags the issue of an article that fails to follow Wikipedia's standard
To address the issue, write a lead section. The size of an appropriate lead will depend on the breadth of the article but it should be no more than four well-composed paragraphs, and should generally not contain content that is not already present in the body of the article.
{{Current}}
{{Current}}
, typically placed by the code {{Current|date=October 2024}}
, and displaying when reading as:
This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (October 2024) |
(or a subject-specific variation listed on
The template should generally be removed when the event described is no longer receiving massive editing attention. It is not meant to be a
{{Linkrot}}
{{
, typically placed by the code {{Linkrot|date=October 2024}}
, and displaying when reading as:
flags an article as having bare URLs, URLs that are used as references or external links without contextual information. These bare URLs are particularly vulnerable to link rot, as the record of the reference depends on the hosting website maintaining the current site structure, which is not guaranteed. A change in the underlying URL could make the reference unusable. The full citation format, on the other hand, preserves information (such as title and author) that can be used to restore a version of the reference that is still accessible. In addition, bare URLs can be less visually pleasing if the underlying URL is long.
To address this issue, convert all bare URLs used as references to the appropriate
Researching the tagged issue
As noted previously, most templates contain links to guidance pages. Additionally, many templates have documentation that provides more information about the template's flagged issue, which is displayed when you visit the template page itself.
To access the template and thereby see its documentation, type into the search field Template:, followed by the name of the template, seen when you view its placement in the Edit interface (typically found in the first lines of the article). The first "parameter" is the name of the template.
For example, if you found this in the Edit interface, {{Unreferenced|date=October 2024}}
, then you would visit the template itself by searching for Template:Unreferenced. The accompanying documentation for all maintenance templates, if it exists, can be located in this way.
Still need help?
If you've read through this page and are still confused about what needs to be done to fix an issue on a page and remove a maintenance template, try asking at the
See also
- Wikipedia:Template messages
- Help:Template
- Wikipedia:Tagging pages for problems (WP:TAGGING)
- Wikipedia:Template messages/Disputes
- {{Bare URL inline}} – produces an inline tag (rather than banner) for individual bare URLs