Wikipedia:Categories for deletion

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Discussion of user categories, or categories of Wikipedians is at Wikipedia:User categories for discussion.
Discussion of stub categories is at Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion

Administrator instructions

Shortcuts:
WP:CFD
WP:CFM
WP:CFR
Deletion discussions
Deletion policy
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On this page, deletion, merging, and renaming of categories (pages in the Category namespace) is discussed. Categories are used to organize other pages and aid browsing of related articles. See How to use this page for the official rules of this page, guidelines for Speedy Deletion and Speedy Renaming, and how to do cleanup. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) for the policies guiding many renaming decisions, and Wikipedia:Category deletion policy for the policy governing this page.

Unless the change is non-controversial (such as vandalism or a duplicate), please do not remove the category from pages before the community has made a decision.

Categories that have been listed for more than five days are eligible for deletion, renaming or merging when a rough consensus to do so has been reached or no objections to the nomination have been raised.

Deletion of a category may mean that the pages belonging to it (articles, images, etc) are transferred to its parent category, or to another category (newly-made or already existing).

When a category is renamed or merged with another category, it may be helpful to use the {{category redirect}} template at the old category title.

Contents


Current discussions

Discussions awaiting closure

The contents of this section are transcluded from Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working ()

How to use this page

Procedure

To list a category for deletion, merging or renaming, follow this process:

I.
Preliminary steps.

Determine whether the category needs deleting, merging, or renaming.

  1. If it is a red link and has no articles or subcategories, then it is already deleted (more likely, it was never really created in the first place), and does not need to be listed here.
  2. Read and understand Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) before using this page. Nominate categories here that violate policies, or are misspelled, mis-capitalized, redundant, need to be merged, not NPOV, small without potential for growth, or are generally bad ideas.
  3. Please read the Wikipedia:Categorization of people policy when nominating or voting on a people-related category.
  4. In the following four special cases:
    1. If the category in question is a stub category, go to Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion.
    2. If the category in question is a user category, go to Wikipedia:User categories for discussion.
    3. If the category is only populated by a template and both the category and template are being proposed for deletion, go to Wikipedia:Templates for deletion. For a template with the same name use {{catfd}}.
    4. If the category is empty for more than four days, use {{db-catempty}} for a speedy deletion.
II.
Edit the category.

Add one of the following tags at the top of the category text of every category to be deleted or renamed.

If the category is a candidate for speedy renaming, use:
and follow the instructions at Speedy renaming.
If a single category:
  • For deletion, {{subst:cfd}}
  • For a merger, {{subst:cfm|OtherCategory}}
  • For renaming, {{subst:cfr|ProposedName}}
  • For converting the category text into an article, {{subst:cfc|ProposedName}}
If a group of similar categories or a category and its subcategories, use an umbrella nomination (each category must be tagged, for nominations involving large numbers of categories tagging help can be requested at the talk page):
  • For deletion, {{subst:cfd|CfdSectionName}}
  • For a merger, {{subst:cfm|OtherCategory|CfdSectionName}}
  • For renaming, {{subst:cfr|ProposedName|CfdSectionName}}
  • For converting the category text into an article, {{subst:cfc|ProposedName|CfdSectionName}}
  • Please include "cfd", "cfm", "cfr", or "cfc" in the edit summary, and don't mark the edit as minor.
  • Preview before saving. The display will give more precise instructions about the next step.
  • See the talk pages at Cfd, Cfm, Cfr, and Cfc for more specific information.
  • Consider adding {{subst:cfdnotice|Cfd section name|date=yyyy Month d}} to the main article's talk page or to categories that are merge targets to notify users that the category has been nominated for deletion or renaming. Doing so would not only extend an additional courtesy, but possibly also bring in editors who know more about the subject at hand. See the doc page at cfdnotice for more information on how to use this template.
III.
Create the Cfd subsection.

Click on THIS LINK to edit the section of CFD for today's entries.

Follow the instructions in the comments (visible during edit), to copy and paste the template shown. All categories are specified without the Category: prefix.

For {{Cfd}}, use:
{{subst:cfd2|ObsoleteCategory|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfm}}, use:
{{subst:cfm2|FromCategory|ToCategory|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed merge. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfr}}, to a definite name use:
{{subst:cfr2|OldCategory|NewCategory|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed rename. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfr}}, to an indefinite name use:
{{subst:cfr2|OldCategory|to be determined by consensus|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed rename. ~~~~}}
For {{Cfc}}, use:
{{subst:cfc2|FromCategory|ToArticle|text= Your reason(s) for the proposed rename. ~~~~}}
For umbrella nominations, the standard templates should build the "Cfd section name" for the 1st nomination, although the 2nd and subsequent nominations must be added manually, like this:
==== Cfd section name ====
  • 1st category
  • 2nd category
  • '''Your vote''': Your reason for nominating the category ~~~~


  • When using these templates, the old and new categories you specify are automatically converted to links: you do not specify them as links yourself.
  • Include delete:, merge: etc. at the start of your reason (after text=) to make it clear what you are recommending.
  • In your reason, please link appropriate articles or categories to help other editors.
  • In your reason, when linking to a category, always add a colon (':') in the link, like [[:Category:Foo]]. This makes a category link that can be seen on the page (and avoids putting this page into the category you are nominating).
  • Preview before saving to ensure all the fields have been properly listed.

Once you have previewed your entry, please make sure to add your signature after your proposal. If nominating a list of entries as a batch below your rationale, it is somewhat neater to place these after the signature (rather than leave the signature dangling at the end of the list, apparently unrelated to your reasons).

Once you have submitted a category here, no further action is necessary on your part. If the nomination is supported, helpful administrators and editors will log the result and ensure that the change is implemented to all affected pages.

Also, consider adding to your watchlist any categories you nominate. This will help ensure that your nomination tag is not mistakenly or deliberately removed.

Users without accounts and users with new accounts

Users without accounts (anonymous users) may nominate and comment on proceedings, just as in Articles for Deletion (AfD).

Redirecting categories

It is our general policy to delete categories that do not have articles in them. Unlike articles, categories are mostly for internal use only. If they don't have any articles, they shouldn't have any links from any articles or any other categories, because they are not useful for navigation and classification.

However, some categories frequently have articles assigned to them accidentally, or are otherwise re-created over and over again. In these cases, we use a form of "soft" redirection.

Categories cannot be redirected using "hard" redirects (#REDIRECT [[target]]) due to limitations in the MediaWiki software. Instead, use {{Category redirect|target}}. Helpful bots patrol these categories and move articles into the redirect targets.

You can see a list of redirected categories in Category:Wikipedia category redirects.

Special notes

Categories relating to stub articles should not be nominated here, but should be taken to Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion. If a group nomination of several similarly-named categories includes a stub category, it may be discussed here, but a note should be placed at Wikipedia talk:Stub types for deletion indicating that discussion on it is taking place.

When nominating a category, it's helpful to add a notice on the talk page of the most-closely related article. Doing so would not only extend an additional courtesy, but possibly also bring in editors who know more about the subject at hand. You can use {{cfd-article}} for this.

Speedy renaming and speedy merging

Shortcut:
WP:CFDS

Categories may be listed here if they fall under the criteria specified at Wikipedia:Category renaming and repeated below. Deletion and de-listing may occur after 48 hours if there are no objections. They must be tagged with {{subst:cfr-speedy|new name}} so that users of the categories are aware of the proposal. This delay is to allow for objections over correct spelling, etc. to be made and to ensure that items are not listed here that do not meet the criteria.

Categories that qualify for speedy deletion (per Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, e.g. "patent nonsense", "recreation", empty categories (that have been empty for four days) can be tagged with the regular speedy tags, such as {{db|reason}}, and no delay is required for these.

Contested requests can be removed from this list after 48 hours. If the nominator wants to continue the process they need to submit the request as a regular CfD using the instructions above.

Speedy criteria

Criteria for speedy renaming or speedy merging are strictly limited to:

  1. Typographical errors (such as, Brdiges → Bridges).
    • Note that differences between British and American spelling (for example, Harbours → Harbors) are not considered errors, but if both exist as otherwise-identical category names, they should be merged.
  2. Capitalization fixes (such as, Characters In harry Potter → Characters in Harry Potter)
  3. Conversions from singular to plural, or back (such as, Steamship → Steamships)
  4. Non-conformance with "x by y", "x of y", or "x in y" categorization conventions specified at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories).
    • This should only be used where there is no room for any doubt whatsoever that the category in question is being used for the standard purpose instead of being a potential subcategory. It should not be assumed that an incorrectly formatted "radio stations" category was intended to be a "radio" category, or that an incorrectly formatted "archaeological sites" category was intended to be an "archaeology" category.
  5. Expanding abbreviations for country names: The name of the country should appear as it does in the name of the article about that country (for example, US or U.S. in reference to the United States should be renamed to United States, but this criterion specifically does not apply to renames between the terms "American" and "United States").
  6. Renames to match a disambiguated parent category such as Category:Georgia (country) or Category:Georgia (U.S. state) from an unqualified name are eligible for speedy renames.

When the speedy rename procedure should not be used:

  1. When proposing that the category name should be reformatted in addition to one of the speedy criteria
  2. When proposing that two or more changes should be made, each of which qualifies under the speedy criteria
  3. When proposing to change a country name to an adjective, or vice versa, as in United Kingdom to British, American to United States, Germany to German, Argentine to Argentina, etc.
  4. When proposing a change that is based on a naming convention adopted by a specific WikiProject but does not otherwise meet any of the six speedy criteria listed above
  5. When proposing a change that does not qualify under any of the six criteria above, regardless of whether or not the proposed change will bring the category into conformity with existing categories

Note: If the nominator decides to change a nomination based on comments, simply delete the old nomination and create a new one as long as it still meets the speedy criteria.

Add requests for speedy renaming here

If the category does not match one of the six criteria listed above PRECISELY, do not list it here, but list it in the main section instead. If you are in any doubt as to whether it qualifies, do not list it here. Use the following format:

* [[:Category:OLD Name]] to [[:Category:NEW Name]] ~~~~

Don't forget to tag the category with {{subst:cfr-speedy|new name}}

Please add new entries at the TOP of the list and sign and date stamp your entries with — ~~~~.

A request may be completed if it is more than 48 hours old; that is, the time stamp shown is 05:56, 6 October 2008 (UTC) or earlier.

  • I'm afraid I don't see how these qualify for Speedy, rather than going to full CFD. Cgingold (talk) 03:23, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
Non-conformance with "x of y". Former mistake made by Sean, the latter by me. You want to go to CFD with this? Viriditas (talk) 04:16, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
That is the normal procedure for renames. The "x of y" reasoning only applies to those specifically found here, which I think was Cgingold's point. If you created the category, you can simply make the change yourself and ask that the incorrect one be speedily deleted. Good Ol’factory (talk) 04:21, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
So, you want me to start a new discussion proposing Category:Natural history by country be included in the "Categories by country" convention when it is already a member? Usage is a good indicator of consensus and I see 99% compliance. Viriditas (talk) 04:32, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
I don't "want" you to do anything. If they are standard subcategories of one of those, then they qualifies for speedy, insofar as the "x of y" format is at issue. I think Cgingold was pointing out that this may not be a pure "x of y" formatting issue. You can do what you like, however. I would bet that it would actually get done faster in full CfD, though. Alternately, for the one you created yourself, I was suggesting you just create the new category and make the change, requesting that the old one be deleted. As long as you're the only editor, you can do that. Good Ol’factory (talk) 05:05, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Ready for deletion

Once the renaming has been completed, copy and paste the listing to the Ready for deletion section of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Manual.

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 21 August 2008, at 10:36.

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