User:Gwen Gale/CSD

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Don't be forlorn, little kitty! Have a look at this page and you'll be writing wonderful articles in no time!

If you're reading this it's likely because I deleted your page as part of the speedy deletion process and you came by my user page or talk page to leave me a message asking why I deleted your page.

First please let me say that while I was indeed the one who sent your hard work to the digital dustbin, the deletion was done in line with established practice as one of the many tasks I carry out as an administrator. The deletion had nothing to do with whether or not I liked your article. Simply put, if it wasn't me who pushed the button, it would have been someone else and truth be told, I like some of the articles I delete!

That being said, you came here looking for answers, so let's see if I can't help you out!

[edit] So why did you delete my article?

Articles are always being created and deleted on Wikipedia, sometimes more than one each second. This is one of the great things about working on a living encyclopedia and serves to illustrate the power of collaboration. Although this is a user-made encyclopedia, Wikipedia has established standards for inclusion which have grown out of our core principles and the speedy deletion process was implemented to handle those articles which clearly do not belong. More to the pith, the process has two steps: Unsuitable articles are first reviewed and tagged by an uninvolved editor, then the tag is reviewed by an uninvolved administrator (like me). If the tag is wrong, the administrator removes it. If the tag fits, the administrator deletes the article. Simple, yes?

There are more or less four reasons why a new article would get tagged and deleted: It is non-encyclopedic, it is a copyright violation, it is an advertisement or spam or it is an attack page or other form of vandalism.

[edit] Non-encyclopedic pages

The root standard for inclusion in Wikipedia is notability, which is to say, whether or not the subject has received attention from the press. Wikipedia is not a place to establish one's notability, so things like the band you started with your friends, the shop down the street that sells good donuts or the awesomeness of your best friend don't belong in Wikipedia unless they've been written about elsewhere.

If your subject has been written about elsewhere, you have to say why. Writing an article that only says "Paul is a really wonderful cook" doesn't give other editors much to build on. Who is Paul? What kind of food does he cook? Who says he's wonderful? How do we find out more about him? Now, an article that says "Paul Prudhomme is a world-class cajun chef who hosts the show Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking! on PBS" ...that gives you something to sink your teeth into!

Lastly, stuff that can't become an article, such as random text or no content at all get cleaned up here as well. Hint: Try using the {{inuse}} template straight off when you begin an article, so it won't get deleted for being empty within a few seconds (this happens sometimes)!

[edit] Copyright violations

Sadly, all the notability in the world can't save a copyright violation. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia and as such we must use free content (with a couple of fair-use exceptions). If you copied most or all of your article from another website, chances are it's going to be deleted. After all, with only a handful of exceptions that text is copyrighted by the website you took it from and its unauthorized use can land Wikipedia in a heap of trouble. You can write an article using the website as a source, but straight copying is a big no-no.

[edit] Advertisements or spam

Wikipedia is not an advertising service and the community is very sensitive to being treated as one. If you wrote an article that reads like advertising copy, say if it extolls the helpful features of your product, uses marketing terms like "dynamic" and "capable" to describe your company, boasts about how your website is "the fastest growing ceramic-troll related forum on the internet," it's likely going to get deleted.

Startlingly enough, this can happen with companies you may not be associated with. An overenthusiastic analysis of a company by a true fan can be mistaken for something drafted by that company's marketing department (after all, it's not that difficult to fake). If this is what happened to you, you'll only need to tone it down next time. It's not hard to do.

Lastly, this criteria doesn't only apply to companies. Articles about products, bands, schools and even individuals that are written (or seem to have been written) mostly to promote their subject fall into this category as well.

[edit] Attack pages or other forms of vandalism

Writing an article saying "Becky is great" is one thing. Writing an article which likens her backside to a bowl of week-old clam chowder is another tale altogether. Wikipedia does not tolerate personal attacks of any kind, be they against editors online or people you know offline. While it's only natural to want to blow off steam every now and then, Wikipedia is simply not your punching bag and the same goes for pages made to vandalize or otherwise disrupt the project.

[edit] So now what?

If you think you can write up a new article so that it satisfies all of the requirements above, go for it! But please be sure you're putting something different up: Reposting the same unhelpful content over and over again is most often not a good idea.

If you want your original article back to work on, feel free to leave a polite note on my talk page and I'll be glad to help you out if I can (which is to say, I'd gladly provide a page deleted because notability was not established, but I'm not so willing to provide copies of attack pages or straight copyright violations). If I decline your request and you believe your article was deleted against procedure, you can list it for review at Wikipedia deletion review although, please believe me, your time and energy would more likely be more happily spent writing a new and stronger version.

I hope this helped answer some of your questions. I know this is likely all new to you so if you're still a bit muddled about what to do or want to leave a comment, feel free to leave me a message by clicking here. Don't forget to sign your post with four tildes (~~~~) so I know who you are! I'll answer soon as can be at the bottom of my talk page. Cheers! Gwen Gale