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User:MadeYourReadThis/Article Eradication Squadron

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Welcome to Wikipedia's Article Eradication Squadron

Sometimes, an article about a non-notable topic is tagged for rescue by a well meaning Wikipedia editor who leans towards the inclusionist end of the spectrum. This project is an effort to provide balance to deletion discussions, to ensure that focus isn't just on including articles but also ensuring that those discussions are based around wikipedia's policies and guidelines and keep the focus on meeting wikipedia's notability guidelines, not just "saving" the article. The name for project is tongue in cheek as the goal is not to delete articles but rather to stand up for Wikipedia's policies and protect the it from cruft.

What can one person do?

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A lot. The article rescue tag brings attention to an AFD from editors that would normally have no experience or opinion in the subject area. Their motivation is often solely to see the article kept and Wikipedia's notability guidelines can take a back seat.

Much of the activity that comes from editors participating in article rescue is around searching for sources that mention the topic of the article. You can help the The Article Eradication Squad ensure that those sources meet reliability and verifiability guidelines as well as

But what about biting newcomers?

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Many of the articles that are nominated for deletion were created by new editors and it's important not to scare away these editors. However it is equally important to help them understand Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Some kind guidance on where they went wrong and how to improve it.

If everyone who cares about preserving important topics and removing unsuitable content reads one deletion discussion per day (or even one per week), the impact will benefit all our readers. Moreover, reading through an article nominated for deletion and adding sources and rewriting the text to remove or reword unsuitable content will help other editors decide if the article should be kept or deleted.

So AES wants to delete everything?

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No. The Article Eradication Squadron (AES) is not about casting delete votes or making policy simply to ensure that everything is deleted. The AES ensures that only articles that can be written to follow Wikipedia policies are rescued.

Tips to help eradicate articles

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  • Browse Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion periodically, review the discussion, particularly any references that have been uncovered during the AFD
  • validate
  • Encourage AFD participants to improve the article not just the AFD. Often articles are kept based on references or other items uncovered during the AFD and that's where it stops. Encourage editors to at least add references found to the article's talk page or (better) improve the article based on those references. If editors refuse to do this, do it yourself. Remember we aren't about deleting articles, we are about doing the right thing.

Checklist

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Here's a quick checklist of steps anyone can take for an article that needs rescue (in no particular order of priority):

  1. Add WikiProjects – Look at the article's talk page to see if anyone has added appropriate WikiProject banners to the article. WikiProject banners help draw attention to articles from editors who are interested in the subject. You don't need anyone's permission to add a relevant WikiProject banner to an article talk page.
  2. Solicit WikiProject support – Many articles needing rescue merely need attention from an expert on the subject. A short note on a WikiProject talk page seeking expert attention can bring remarkable results fast.
  3. Positively engage the new editor – When you find that the article has been created by a new editor (maybe their first one) or by inexperienced editors, engage them in a positive, mentoring way. Help them learn how to create and contribute better content. Engage them on their talk pages, encourage and challenge them, and most importantly make them feel welcome. If there are policy or guideline issues on the table, don't just refer them to a policy link, engage them in a discussion to ensure they understand what they need to understand. Even if the article is ultimately lost, this positive engagement will help us all turn new contributors into productive editors.
  4. The article isn't a museum peice while the AFD is underway' - The article can and should be edited while the article is underway.
  5. Eliminate the junk – If there is unsourced or irrelevant content, copyvios, OR or other "junk" in the article, eliminate it ruthlessly, even while the AFD is underway If there is a question about the validity of content, start a discussion on the talk page and tag questionable content as necessary. Don't just ignore the "junk" if its there. Conversely, be sure to preserve appropriate content— as long as any of the facts or ideas added to the article would belong in a "finished" article. For more information, please refer to WP:FIXTHEPROBLEM.
  6. Cull the herd – Wikipedia is only as strong as it's weakest link. Is this article that weak link? If it cant be improved to meet WP:GNG, it needs to go but you need to be prepared to make the right arguments in the AFD to make sure that happens.

Articles currently tagged for deletion

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Articles currently proposed for deletion

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Miscellany for deletion

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Files for deletion

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Files for deletion (FfD) is a listing of images and other media files that are nominated as unneeded in Wikipedia. Files that have been listed at FfD for more than 7 days are eligible for deletion if either a consensus to do so has been reached or no objections to deletion have been raised.

Article alerts

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Restoration of articles

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Access to deleted articles

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Article restoration

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A number of articles have recently been deleted as Biographies that had been flagged for years as unsourced. The admins who deleted them have said they are happy for them to be restored providing any restored articles are then properly sourced and made fully compliant with WP:BLP (Biographies of living persons). These articles that are properly sourced will simply be restored. NB To restoring admins, remove any negative material (it's in the history so it can be readded when sourced) and watchlist the article. If it isn't sourced within 48 hours, please redelete it. Suggest maximum 4 articles per restoration session, please check they were deleted for being unsourced BLPs and don't forget to restore the talkpages as well.

Reasons to avoid article deletion

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  • It can be discouraging for an editor to have their article deleted, especially for new and first-time contributors.
  • Instead of deleting articles altogether, they can be merged with other articles (see Mergism).
  • It can be frustrating for a reader to come to Wikipedia for information and inside find that the relevant article existed at one point but has been deleted. This discourages both Wikipedia readership and authorship.
  • Deleting a well-written, well-sourced article on the basis of what Wikipedia is not can reduce the total information of Wikipedia.

See also

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Essays, etc.

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