Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion

(Redirected from Wikipedia:MfD)


Miscellany for deletion (MfD) is a place where Wikipedians decide what should be done with problematic pages in the namespaces which aren't covered by other specialized deletion discussion areas. Items sent here are usually discussed for seven days; then they are either deleted by an administrator or kept, based on community consensus as evident from the discussion, consistent with policy, and with careful judgment of the rough consensus if required.

Filtered versions of the page are available at

Information on the process edit

What may be nominated for deletion here:

  • Pages not covered by other XFD venues, including pages in these namespaces: Draft:, Help:, Portal:, MediaWiki:, Wikipedia: (including WikiProjects), User:, TimedText: and the various Talk: namespaces
  • Userboxes (regardless of namespace)
  • Pages in the File namespace that have a local description page but no local file (if there is a local file, Wikipedia:Files for discussion is the right venue)
  • Any other page, that is not in article space, where there is dispute as to the correct XfD venue.

Requests to undelete pages deleted after discussion here, and debate whether discussions here have been properly closed, both take place at Wikipedia:Deletion review, in accordance with Wikipedia's undeletion policy.

Before nominating a page for deletion edit

Before nominating a page for deletion, please consider these guidelines:

Deleting pages in your own userspace
  • If you want to have your own userpage or a draft you created deleted, there is no need to list it here; simply tag it with {{db-userreq}} or {{db-u1}}. If you wish to clear your user talk page or sandbox, just blank it.
Duplications in draftspace?
  • Duplications in draftspace are usually satisfactorily fixed by redirection. If the material is in mainspace, redirect the draft to the article, or a section of the article. If multiple draft pages on the same topic have been created, tag them for merging. See WP:SRE.
Deleting pages in other people's userspace
  • Consider explaining your concerns on the user's talk page with a personal note or by adding {{subst:Uw-userpage}} ~~~~  to their talk page. This step assumes good faith and civility; often the user is simply unaware of the guidelines, and the page can either be fixed or speedily deleted using {{db-userreq}}.
  • Take care not to bite newcomers – sometimes using the {{subst:welcome}} or {{subst:welcomeg}} template and a pointer to WP:UP would be best first.
  • Problematic userspace material is often addressed by the User pages guidelines including in some cases removal by any user or tagging to clarify the content or to prevent external search engine indexing. (Examples include copies of old, deleted, or disputed material, problematic drafts, promotional material, offensive material, inappropriate links, 'spoofing' of the MediaWiki interface, disruptive HTML, invitations or advocacy of disruption, certain kinds of images and image galleries, etc) If your concern relates to these areas consider these approaches as well, or instead of, deletion.
  • User pages about Wikipedia-related matters by established users usually do not qualify for deletion.
  • Articles that were recently deleted at AfD and then moved to userspace are generally not deleted unless they have lingered in userspace for an extended period of time without improvement to address the concerns that resulted in their deletion at AfD, or their content otherwise violates a global content policy such as our policies on Biographies of living persons that applies to any namespace.
Policies, guidelines and process pages
  • Established pages and their sub-pages should not be nominated, as such nominations will probably be considered disruptive, and the ensuing discussions closed early. This is not a forum for modifying or revoking policy. Instead consider tagging the policy as {{historical}} or redirecting it somewhere.
  • Proposals still under discussion generally should not be nominated. If you oppose a proposal, discuss it on the policy page's discussion page. Consider being bold and improving the proposal. Modify the proposal so that it gains consensus. Also note that even if a policy fails to gain consensus, it is often useful to retain it as a historical record, for the benefit of future editors.
WikiProjects and their subpages
  • It is generally preferable that inactive WikiProjects not be deleted, but instead be marked as {{WikiProject status|inactive}}, redirected to a relevant WikiProject, or changed to a task force of a parent WikiProject, unless the WikiProject was incompletely created or is entirely undesirable.
  • WikiProjects that were never very active and which do not have substantial historical discussions (meaning multiple discussions over an extended period of time) on the project talk page should not be tagged as {{historical}}; reserve this tag for historically active projects that have, over time, been replaced by other processes or that contain substantial discussion (as defined above) of the organization of a significant area of Wikipedia. Before deletion of an inactive project with a founder or other formerly active members who are active elsewhere on Wikipedia, consider userfication.
  • Notify the main WikiProject talk page when nominating any WikiProject subpage, in addition to standard notification of the page creator.
Alternatives to deletion
  • Normal editing that doesn't require the use of any administrator tools, such as merging the page into another page or renaming it, can often resolve problems.
  • Pages in the wrong namespace (e.g. an article in Wikipedia namespace), can simply be moved and then tag the redirect for speedy deletion using {{db-g6|rationale= it's a redirect left after a cross-namespace move}}. Notify the author of the original article of the cross-namespace move.
Alternatives to MfD
  • Speedy deletion If the page clearly satisfies a "general" or "user" speedy deletion criterion, tag it with the appropriate template. Be sure to read the entire criterion, as some do not apply in the user space.

Please familiarize yourself with the following policies edit

How to list pages for deletion edit

Please check the aforementioned list of deletion discussion areas to check that you are in the right area. Then follow these instructions:

Instructions on listing pages for deletion:

To list a page for deletion, follow this three-step process: (replace PageName with the name of the page, including its namespace, to be deleted)

Note: Users must be logged in to complete step II. An unregistered user who wishes to nominate a page for deletion should complete step I and post their reasoning on Wikipedia talk:Miscellany for deletion with a notification to a registered user to complete the process.

I.
Edit PageName:

Enter the following text at the top of the page you are listing for deletion:

{{mfd|1={{subst:FULLPAGENAME}}}}
for a second or subsequent nomination use {{mfdx|2nd}}

or

{{mfd|GroupName}}
if nominating several similar related pages in an umbrella nomination. Choose a suitable name as GroupName and use it on each page.
If the nomination is for a userbox or similarly transcluded page, use {{subst:mfd-inline}} so as to not mess up the formatting for the userbox.
Use {{subst:mfd-inline|GroupName}} for a group nomination of several related userboxes or similarly transcluded pages.
  • Please include in the edit summary the phrase
    Added MfD nomination at [[Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/PageName]]
    replace PageName with the name of the page that is up for deletion.
  • Please don't mark your edit summary as a minor edit.
  • Check the "Watch this page" box if you would like to follow the page in your watchlist. This may help you to notice if your MfD tag is removed by someone.
  • Save the page
II.
Create its MfD subpage.

The resulting MfD box at the top of the page should contain the link "this page's entry"

  • Click that link to open the page's deletion discussion page.
  • Insert this text:
{{subst:mfd2| pg={{subst:#titleparts:{{subst:PAGENAME}}||2}}| text=Reason why the page should be deleted}} ~~~~
replacing Reason... with your reasons why the page should be deleted and sign the page. Do not substitute the pagename, as this will occur automatically.
  • Consider checking "Watch this page" to follow the progress of the debate.
  • Please use an edit summary such as
    Creating deletion discussion page for [[PageName]]

    replacing PageName with the name of the page you are proposing for deletion.
  • Save the page.
III.
Add a line to MfD.

Follow   this edit link   and at the top of the list add a line:

{{subst:mfd3| pg=PageName}}
Put the page's name in place of "PageName".
  • Include the discussion page's name in your edit summary like
    Added [[Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/PageName]]
    replacing PageName with the name of the page you are proposing for deletion.
  • Save the page.
  • If nominating a page that has been nominated before, use the page's name in place of "PageName" and add
{{priorxfd|PageName}}
in the nominated page deletion discussion area to link to the previous discussions and then save the page using an edit summary such as
Added [[Template:priorxfd]] to link to prior discussions.
  • If nominating a page from someone else's userspace, notify them on their main talk page.
    For other pages, while not required, it is generally considered civil to notify the good-faith creator and any main contributors of the miscellany that you are nominating. To find the main contributors, look in the page history or talk page of the page and/or use TDS' Article Contribution Counter or Wikipedia Page History Statistics. For your convenience, you may add

    {{subst:mfd notice|PageName}} ~~~~

    to their talk page in the "edit source" section, replacing PageName with the pagename. Please use an edit summary such as

    Notice of deletion discussion at [[Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/PageName]]

    replacing PageName with the name of the nomination page you are proposing for deletion.
  • If the user has not edited in a while, consider sending the user an email to notify them about the MfD if the MfD concerns their user pages.
  • If you are nominating a WikiProject, please post a notice at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council, in addition to the project's talk page and the talk pages of the founder and active members.

Administrator instructions edit

XFD backlog
V Dec Jan Feb Mar Total
CfD 0 0 0 27 27
TfD 0 0 0 12 12
MfD 0 0 1 1 2
FfD 0 0 0 1 1
RfD 0 0 0 55 55
AfD 0 0 0 2 2

Administrator instructions for closing and relisting discussions can be found here.

Archived discussions edit

A list of archived discussions can be located at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Archived debates.

Current discussions edit

Pages currently being considered for deletion are indexed by the day on which they were first listed. Please place new listings at the top of the section for the current day. If no section for the current day is present, please start a new section.

March 27, 2024 edit

Wikipedia:WikiProject Software/participants/retired edit

Wikipedia:WikiProject Software/participants/retired (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​

Unused project page Awesome Aasim 20:03, 27 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Delete per nom. —Alalch E. 21:12, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

March 26, 2024 edit

MediaWiki:Customcssjsprotected edit

MediaWiki:Customcssjsprotected (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​

Superseded by MediaWiki:Customcssprotected, MediaWiki:Customjsprotected, MediaWiki:Customjsonprotected. Awesome Aasim 19:39, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

March 25, 2024 edit

MediaWiki:Dberrortext edit

MediaWiki:Dberrortext (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​

No longer used in MediaWiki see [1] Awesome Aasim 17:00, 25 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

March 23, 2024 edit

Wikipedia:WikiProject Fossorials edit

Wikipedia:WikiProject Fossorials (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​

I warned that creating this one-member project was a bad idea at Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive_1209#Advertisement of WikiProjects, and indeed no one but the creator appears to have joined it. Mach61 18:21, 23 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  • Delete abortive wikiproject.—Alalch E. 19:04, 23 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Im not sure it's "abortive" per this diff: [2]. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 03:53, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I see. I am not opposed to userfication. —Alalch E. 21:34, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Userfy. SmokeyJoe (talk) 21:54, 23 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Userfy. Since the editor is active we should give them the benefit of the doubt. They seem proud of their project, and I'm willing to see where this goes. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 03:49, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Userfy as per last two editors. Robert McClenon (talk) 13:26, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

March 21, 2024 edit

Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Gesalbte/Userboxes/Original Sins
The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellaneous page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the discussion was: delete. plicit 05:59, 29 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

User:Gesalbte/Userboxes/Original Sins edit

User:Gesalbte/Userboxes/Original Sins (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​

I may be jumping in over my head to a religious discussion with nuances that I am not educated on, but I don't think it is a good idea to host or allow deliberate promotion of self harm on this encyclopedia. TNstingray (talk) 22:08, 21 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  • I think I agree with that: delete. It also violates MOS:COLOR. Drmies (talk) 22:09, 21 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • I agree with both points mentioned by Drmies: delete. Bduke (talk) 23:29, 21 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete per nom. I don't see an issue with WP:COLOR as this can always be changed back. [3] I agree however, with the self-harm bit and can't think of any way this could have been misinterpreted. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 21:05, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete - Bad color scheme, and wrong both for the encyclopedia and as theology. Robert McClenon (talk) 13:29, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete I agree this looks inappropriate.Tehonk (talk) 00:11, 28 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

Old business edit


March 17, 2024 edit

Wikipedia:WikiProject Southern African Music & Sound edit

Wikipedia:WikiProject Southern African Music & Sound (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​
(Time stamp for bot to properly relist.) Awesome Aasim 00:52, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

New "WikiProject", arbitrarily created by one user within the past few days with absolutely no discernible evidence of any consensus that there was any need for it. As always, WikiProjects are not free for just one user to create on a whim, and need some kind of broad consensus for their creation and use -- but although it was technically "proposed" by the creator per Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Southern African Music and Sound, its proposal generated absolutely no discussion whatsoever, and then the creator just proceeded to create it themselves anyway despite the lack of any discussion, and there's no evidence of any actual participation beyond the creator. They've also created a bunch of empty project categories without filing anything in any of them, which is not standard process either -- and even if such a project were warranted, "music & sound" isn't the name that would be expected for it anyway, since it would be a subproject of "WikiProject Music", not "WikiProject Music & Sound". A WikiProject is a group of editors, not a group of articles, so there would need to be evidence that numerous editors are participating in it, which I can't find. Bearcat (talk) 01:36, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are relevant discussions about the proposals process at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council; I invite any interested editors to join them. The bottom line is that we are in the process of re-writing the proposals system. This was the last proposal made under the "old" rules.
I do not suggest deleting these pages. Userification would be preferable. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:29, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Userfy. Deletion is overkill, especially if they were following the instructions. SmokeyJoe (talk) 11:35, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Nomination seems unnecesarilly cantankerous, especially as creator made an effort to follow the established process at the time. Agree with userfy — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:01, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The established process still requires discussion on the proposal to establish a consensus, and can't just be bypassed by creating it yourself without discussion. Bearcat (talk) 19:19, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Relaying a comment made by Viljowf at the WikiProject’s talk page:

Hi there, this project is externally funded and I am in the process of having a group of editors sign up. I am happy to answer any questions, but please give it until the end of March? Viljowf (talk) 14:45, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

(FYI, Viljowf, further comments regarding this WikiProject’s deletion nomination should be made on this page; so as not to unintentionally split the discussion.) All the best. ‍—‍a smart kitten[meow] 15:23, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for letting me know. I'll respond to any further discussions here. I have created a campaign for editor sign-up here: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/SADiLaR/WikiProject_Southern_African_Music_and_Sound?enroll=iqjgzoyb Viljowf (talk) 15:28, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Here's the correct link, apologies: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/SADiLaR/New_Editor_Onboarding_Sprint_(March_2024)?enroll=wydrpisx Viljowf (talk) 05:24, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Bearcat, please see my comment above. About the "Music & Sound": this is to keep up with developments in musicology branching into sound studies. Viljowf (talk) 15:31, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Awesome Aasim 00:52, 26 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

February 22, 2024 edit

Wikipedia:Brion Vibber Interviews edit

Wikipedia:Brion Vibber Interviews (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) – (View MfD)​

Ancient junk from 2006 of no actual historical value. If kept rename to Wikipedia:Brooke Vibber interviews. * Pppery * it has begun... 20:41, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Keep. Not junk. Historical and valuable. No issue with moving or renaming. SmokeyJoe (talk) 22:13, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. Delete. I finished the transcription at the subpage: Wikipedia:Brion Vibber Interviews/MySQL Conference April 26th 2006.—Alalch E. 02:56, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Pppery: Move the transcript to Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people/MySQL Conference April 26th 2006, add Vibber to Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people#Notable contributors (see WP:BROOKEDAY for context), add the link to the transcript to that line, and delete the here nominated one-entry index?—Alalch E. 13:36, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I moved the subpage to Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people/2006 Citizen Valley interview of Brooke Vibber.
Wikipedia:Brion Vibber Interviews can be deleted.—Alalch E. 19:19, 24 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Mark Historical if of little or no current value. There is no harm from keeping if useless, and there is possible harm to deleting if useful. This is more likely to be useful than a lot of the historical cruft in Wikipedia space, but it should all be kept if there is no actual need to delete. Robert McClenon (talk) 13:09, 24 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @Robert McClenon The page nominated for deletion is just a page with a link to Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people/2006 Citizen Valley interview of Brooke Vibber. It has no content and no real incoming links. The content about Wikipedia history (which is not the same as historical content) is at the page containing the interview transcript. —Alalch E. 15:48, 26 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep. As has been noted, this page just contains a link to a separate page. However, this on its own does not mean that it should be deleted, or that its existence is not helpful/valuable. Because it seems to be (in effect) a soft redirect page, I have assessed it based on the Redirect guideline.
    • This page has existed since 2006. This strongly engages WP:R#K4, which states that [l]inks that have existed for a significant length of time...should be left alone. The interview transcript is indeed at a different page, but I can't see a reason to prevent this long-standing link from continuing to point to it, especially in the absence of reasons it may cause harm.
    • As far as I can tell, none of the reasons under WP:R#DELETE are engaged in this instance. Redirects are cheap, and I can't see how the continued existence of this page would be harmful. Per Robert McClenon, [t]here is no harm from keeping if useless, and there is possible harm to deleting if useful.
    Similar to SmokeyJoe, I have no issue with moving or renaming. All the best, ‍—‍a smart kitten[meow] 01:55, 27 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    As was already pointed out by the nominator, the name of the nominated page MOS:DEADNAMEs. The current name must be a red link for this reason and this MfD can not have an outcome preventing this name from becoming a red link. In a hypothetical scenario that the page is moved without leaving a redirect, if construing the current page as a soft redirect, which it is not, because while any page with no content and only a single link superficially resembles a redirect, for that page to be a soft redirect it would need to be a replacement for the usual "hard" redirect and is used where the destination is a Wikimedia sister project (see Wikipedia:Wikimedia sister projects § Soft redirects from Wikipedia to a sister project), another language Wikimedia site, or in rare cases another website (e.g. meatball: targets). They may also be used for local targets in some cases (e.g. WP:AN/K). This is not a replacement for the usual, "hard", redirect, because there is no such ostensible hard redirect that could be seen as having been replaced, because what is indicated by "Wikipedia:Brion Vibber Interviews" does not correspond to "Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people/2006 Citizen Valley interview of Brooke Vibber" to the degree where having such a redirect is not nonsense, because it speaks of multiple interviews and it links to one interview, and multiple interviews really do exist, making this putative redirection a confusing nonsense. Redirecting from plural denoting a set of different things to one of those things also resembles WP:XY. So this can not be seen as a plausible and appropriate redirect. Further, the destination is not a Wikimedia sister project, not an another language Wikimedia site, and not another website. The destination is a local target, but there is nothing to indicate that in this case the local target as the destination should be the destination, or that anything should be the "destination" as this page really does not function as a redirect, does not have the quality of a redirect, and so this is not a case where this page should be used as or understood to be a soft redirect to Wikipedia:History of Wikipedian processes and people/2006 Citizen Valley interview of Brooke Vibber. But if seeing it as a soft redirect after all, which I disagree with, moving it would mean "renaming a redirect" which barely makes any sense, and boils down to creating a new redirect. The page under the new name would have to be treated as a new redirect, and so (again, if seeing this as a soft redirect, which it is not) WP:R#K4 would no longer have any bearing. For example, that reason not to delete is about not "breaking incoming or internal links" and in the esoteric scenario of this page being kept, moved, and treated as a redirect, links would be broken, so from the vantage point of that outcome as the consequence of applying RKEEP #4, when RKEEP #4 is thus applied it negates itself. —Alalch E. 02:45, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    And when SmokeyJoe !voted to keep, circumstances were different, and surely his !vote was about the actual transcript which was at that time a subpage of the nominated page, and deleting the page would also automatically lead to deleting the subpage unless something was done in the meantime (something was indeed done). So it is understandable that he would want to preserve this historically valuable document, and, surely, what he referred to by "historical and valuable" is not the text "These are transcriptions of Brion Vibber's interviews" and a single link, but what is linked to, as the subpage. —Alalch E. 02:49, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Yes. If you have taken care to preserve the history, I support. Thank you for sorting it out. SmokeyJoe (talk) 06:51, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete per nom and Alalch E. — Sundostund mppria (talk / contribs) 19:22, 28 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep - Redirects are cheap. There isn't any other project or page that needs that title, it is a reasonable search term for a redirect. We can't say it will or won't have future importance. We can say it was during an important time, when there were less than a handful of employees and not a lot of interviews going on, but it doesn't matter, if anyone wants to find the information, that is a very likely search term. The main sniff test for me is, is the encyclopedia more or less useful with the redirect? It is ever so slightly useful with it. Also, the age of the redirect does influence the decision to keep as well, because we aren't sure how many outside links to that page exist. Dennis Brown - 14:07, 8 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Closed discussions edit

Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Archived debates