The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Deletion

This page is considered an official policy on TESWiki. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

There are a few, limited, cases where pages may be deleted speedily. Non-admins can ask for an admin to delete such a page simply by adding a {{delete}} tag. A list of pages to be deleted can be found at Category:Deletion Candidates.

When deleting, check the page history first to see if you can revert to an older version instead of deleting the entire page. You can consider turning problematic pages into relevant redirects as an alternative to deletion.

Ideally, when an admin deletes a test page or other page with no useful content, it is a good idea to put a note on the author's talk page explaining things, and preserving the deleted content, pointing them to the sandbox in cases of tests.

Examples of candidates for speedy deletion

1. No meaningful content or history (e.g. random characters).
2. Test pages (e.g., "Can I really create a page here?").
3. Pure vandalism (see also dealing with vandalism).
4. Very short pages with little or no context (e.g., "He is a funny man that has created Factory and the Hacienda. And, by the way, his wife is great.")
5. Reposted content that was already deleted according to policy.
6. Pages that have been moved to another wiki because they were uploaded in the wrong place.
7. Temporarily deleting a page in order to move a page.
8. Broken redirects or ones caused by typos during a page move.
9. Duplicate images.
10. Talk pages of already deleted articles.
11. User talk pages of non-logged in users where the message is no longer relevant. (This is to avoid confusing new users who happen to edit with that same IP address.)
12. Empty categories.
13. User and talk pages on request of the user, where there is no significant abuse, and no administrative need to retain the page.
14. Unnecessary archives, created with either no content in them or with the content having been archived for little reason.
15. Forum content (please leave the user a message with a link to their post in a Pastebin)

Content not necessarily subject to speedy deletion

1. On-topic articles tagged for deletion based on…
   • Notability criteria. An article called "Trees" is probably unnecessary, but deserves a discussion.
   • Not adhering to the style and formatting guide. Users are not expected to have this memorized on day one.
   • Not being against any rules but also not exactly being standard. This always deserves further discussion.
2. Almost anything that the author or uploader put a significant amount of thought and effort into and is on-topic.

If a reasonable argument can be made for a given article or file to remain on the wiki, it is not a candidate for speedy deletion. It is highly recommended for admins to ask for other opinions, either from staff or editors at large, before deleting anything potentially useful to readers. Additionally, administrators must reach out to the author of such content notifying them of its pending deletion. Please wait for a response for at least 24–48 hours. If you have explained the reason for deletion clearly and they have not responded after that period, and if there is a consensus among solicited users in favor of deleting the material, it may be deleted.

Ultimately, admins should go by this rule of thumb: if it's actively harmful, delete it right away. If not, talk about it.