wikiHow:Deletion Policy

1 Deletion Policy
2 Acceptable Reasons for Deletion
3 Process for Deletion
4 Speedy Deletions
5 Deletion vs. Stub
6 Deletion vs. Merge
7 Further Resources

Deletion Policy

wikiHow's goal is to offer instructions on pretty much every how-to topic imaginable. As a result, we are naturally hesitant to delete articles that might evolve into pages which serve our mission. That said, some new articles that get created on wikiHow can be deleted for a variety of reasons.

Acceptable Reasons for Deletion

The table below lists all the reasons which might qualify an article for deletion. Having one of these reasons does not automatically qualify an article for deletion. It only indicates that the article can be nominated for deletion, and then reviewed by the community. Only after a consensus has been reached for deletion, is the article then deleted. As you can see from the table below there are many articles in wikiHow which have some of these reasons, but have not been deleted after surviving NFD nominations and community discussions.

Reason	Code	Explanation	Example deletes	Example keeps
Accuracy issues	acc	Severe accuracy problems that can't be easily edited away. Use {{accuracy}} or edit to fix is always first choice.	Depends on content	Depends on content
Advertising / spam	adv	If the article cannot be edited to meet brand name guidelines, it will be deleted.	Buy Viagra For Cheap!!!!, Send Your Email Address Here to Get a Free Runescape Account	Use iTunes
Below Character Article Standards	cha	Fails to meet the wikiHow character article standards.	Depends on content	Depends on content
Copyright violations		Use {{copyvio\|url}} instead of NFD. Anything that violates copyright policy	Depends on content	Depends on content
Duplicate Article	dup	Per merge policy, articles with almost indistinguishable titles will be merged or deleted.	Be Popular (My Way)	Be Popular
Recreational drug focused	dru		How to Make Meth	Use a Water Bong, Make Caffeine Jello Shots
Extremely Dangerous And Reckless	dan	Must be extremely dangerous, reckless and irrational.	Drive Blindfolded in Heavy Traffic	Fight, Wall Flip, Skydive for the First Time
Hate/racist based	hat		How to Hate Americans	Deal With Relatives You Hate
Universally illegal	ill	Must be banned in almost every country, state, and province.	Rape, Murder, Assault	Cheat on a Test, Hack a Coke Machine, Pick a Lock
Impossible Tasks	imp	Impossible or impractical	Travel to Mars in a Car, Clone a Human in Your House	Survive a Long Fall, Bend a Spoon
Incomplete and not useful	inc	While most incomplete articles are allowed to develop as stubs, some provide no help to readers at all and can be deleted.	Depends on content	Depends on content
Joke topics	jok	When the topic itself is a joke. Don't use on achievable topics that happen to be funny.	Make a Time Travel Machine, Marry Your Dog, Drink Frogs	Be Funny Without Telling Jokes, Do a Prank, Drink Water Upsidedown, Make Yourself Laugh
Mean-spirited	mea	Instructions promoting destructive or mean spirited behavior or activities	Make a Snuff Film, Hit an Innocent Person in the Face	Fight, Toilet Paper a House, Play a Prank
Not a how-to	not	Articles that aren't how-to in nature	John's Diary, Map of NY, Political Opinion	Hide Your Diary, Make a Map, Vote
Potty humor	pot		Take a Poo	Make Fake Diarrhea
Sarcastic / reverse logic	sar	Sarcasm doesn't work in a how-to manual	Go Bankrupt, Fall Off Your Bike	Gain Weight, File Bankruptcy
Sexually explicit or sexually charged material	sex	Articles focused on sex, whether explicitly worded or not	Have Sex, Plan a Threesome	Kiss Passionately, French Kiss
Societal Instructions	soc	Topics only a whole society or its leaders can accomplish. Not possible for one person to follow instructions and achieve desired end.	Ban the Death Penalty	Take Action to Ban the Death Penalty
Vanity pages	van	Instructions that are only valuable to one person or to a select group of insiders	How to Drive to My House, Be Just Like Travis Derouin	Be Like Paris Hilton

Process for Deletion

The easiest way to Nominate an Article for Deletion in wikiHow is by writing {{nfd|Your reason for wanting deletion}} Then wait a week or two for other people to comment on the merits of the deletion. Advanced users can save a few keystrokes by using the 3 letter codes in place of a reason, however if you do this it is recommended to comment on the discussion page describing exactly why the article is a duplicate, joke, etc.

The actual deletion of articles is done by an admin. That admin will make the decision to delete or keep the article based on a combination of comments and votes. The decision is not made strictly democratically and the deleting admin is encouraged to use their best judgment to make the final call. Generally if there is a rough consensus among regular registered users for deletion (as measured by a vote of 60% or more for deletion if the discussion does not reach a true consensus), the page will be deleted. However the admin may decide to not delete the page if an anonymous or registered user makes a compelling case for why the page should be included in wikiHow. Read how to Review NFD List for Final Outcome to learn about the technicalities of how this is done.

Speedy Deletions

While putting an article through the formal deletion process is the preferred outcome, some newly created articles qualify for a speedy (i.e. immediate) deletion. This should typically be reserved for patent nonsense, personal attacks, profanity, or highly offensive articles. Note that speedy deletes should never be done to an old, established article. Non-admins can mark pages for a speedy delete by writing {{speedy}}.

Deletion vs. Stub

When deciding whether to nominate a page for deletion or mark it {{stub}}, consider the following rule of thumb: If you were a reader looking to learn how to do topic x and you found this page would it help you or make you wish you had never landed on the page. If the page provides some level of constructive help to the reader AND has the potential to eventually grow into a full grown, very useful page mark it as {{stub}}. If on the other hand the page is truly useless it should be marked for deletion.

Deletion vs. Merge

Duplicate articles can be merged or marked for deletion in accordance with our WikiHow:Merge Policy. You can mark duplicates for merge by writing {{merge|Name of Article to Merge To}} or mark for deletion by writing {{nfd|dup}} and then saying on the discussion page which article this is a duplicate of. A synopsis of the merge policy is below:

Same goal, different methods - Okay to keep as separate articles

Read the WikiHow:Merge Policy for full details. Two pages on a similar topic describing totally different methods should be labeled appropriate and preserved separately and linked via related wikiHows. For example How to Gut a Fish with a Knife and How to Gut a Fish with a Laser are two articles describing the same goal (gutting the fish) but using different techniques. They should both be allowed to survive. However the pages may need to be renamed so it is clear to the reader what method the page advocates. Alternatively, it is OK to have all the methods on one page. The decision to have both methods on one page or on separate pages will be up to the editors involved.

Same goal, same methods - Article should be merged If there are 2 articles about essentially the same thing using essentially the same method those articles should be merged. In some cases one of the articles can simply be redirected and deleted if it really has nothing to "add" to the other article.