Wikipedia:What G6 is not
 | 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. |
 | This page in a nutshell: G6 is not WP:IAR. |
| “ | This is for uncontroversial maintenance, including:
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| — Criterion for speedy deletion G6 | ||
G6 is the most broad criterion for speedy deletion, 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. It should rarely be used to delete pages that do not explicitly fall into one of the above bullet points.
Specific misuses
[edit]Each of the following has actually been (wrongly) deleted by G6 by an admin on at least one occasion:
- Articles that were moved to 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 violate our policy on what Wikipedia is not
- Pages that nobody allegedly cares about, or that are asserted to be not or no longer necessary
- Pages being deleted via other processes like Wikipedia:Copyright problems (just mention the other process without referencing G6)
- WP:R4, WP:G14, WP:U1, or WP:G7 cases (the first two of these criteria were split out of G6 years ago)
- Redirects asserted to be implausible that don't technically meet the R3 criteria
- Disambiguation pages that aren't useful but don't technically meet the G14 criteria
- Pages that are not written in English (A2 may apply)
What to do instead
[edit]Consider whether the page really needs to be deleted, as in many cases redirection, normal editing, or tagging as {{historical}} would suffice. If you think deletion really is necessary, nominate the page at the appropriate deletion discussion venue.
Alternatively, Wikipedia does allow for some out-of-process actions. If you are ignoring the rules to delete a page, cite WP:IAR in the deletion rationale. This is both compliant with policy (since IAR is a policy) and honest with people viewing the log.