Wikipedia:What G6 is not: Difference between revisions

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.

Shortcuts WP:NOTG6 WP:!G6

This page in a nutshell: G6 is not WP:IAR .

“	This is for uncontroversial maintenance, including: Deleting empty dated maintenance categories for dates in the past. Deleting redirects or other pages which prevent page moves. Administrators should be aware of the proper procedures where a redirect or page holding up a page move has a non-trivial page history. An administrator who deletes a page that is blocking a move should ensure that the move is completed after deleting it. Deleting pages unambiguously created in error or in the incorrect namespace. Deleting templates orphaned as the result of a consensus at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion.	”
— Criterion for speedy deletion G6

, providing for the deletion of content in the name of "uncontroversial maintenance" without discussion. However, it also tends to be the most frequently abused criterion.

G6 is for technical maintenance, not a catch-all for pages that one thinks should be deleted without discussion but do not fit another criterion for speedy deletion.

• Articles that were moved from draft space and then cut-and-paste moved back to mainspace.
• Pages that duplicate another page but do not qualify for
  WP:A10
• Pages that create maintenance errors (such as populating Special:WantedTemplates)
• Pages that would be deleted under the
  XfD
• Pages that violate our policy on what Wikipedia is not
• Pages that allegedly cause harm to the encyclopedia, or are wrong in some other way
• Pages that nobody allegedly cares about, or that are asserted to be no longer necessary
• Pages that someone dislikes
• Pages being deleted via other processes like Wikipedia:Copyright problems (just mention the other process without referencing G6)
• WP:G7
  cases (the first two of these criteria were split out of G6 years ago)
• Disambiguation pages that aren't useful but don't technically meet the G14 criteria
• Pages that are not written in English (
  A2
  may apply)

Many of the things listed above should be deleted—just not using G6. Consider whether the page really needs to be deleted, as in many cases redirection, normal editing, or tagging as {{

.

Alternatively, Wikipedia does

to delete a page, cite WP:IAR in the deletion rationale.

• Wikipedia:Field guide to proper speedy deletion § 6. Housekeeping
• Wikipedia:Database reports/Possibly out-of-process deletions § G6 (currently limited to mainspace only)
• Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion/Archive 83 § New taxonomy