Wikipedia:Deletion of articles on living persons

This is a summary in one place of other policies relating to the deletion of articles on living persons created for convenience. It does not create new policy and in the event of conflict between this page and a policy page, the policy page prevails.

Articles on living persons are those within the scope of the WP:BLP policy.

Speedy deletion

The process for speedy deletion is set out at the WP:CSD. Any editor may request speedy deletion where an article is in one of the narrow CSD categories. This done by adding a {{db}} tag ("delete because") to the page. The article creator can respond with a {{hangon}} tag if they think the article is not in the stated category or if they want to improve the article in a short time and another editor can remove the tag if there is reasonable doubt over whether the criteria are met.

Any administrator may implement a speedy deletion request without discussion.

The main criterion that is specifically relevant to articles on living persons is G10 (Attack Pages) which allows speedy deletion of articles whose sole purpose is to disparage their subject, including "biographical material about a living person that is entirely negative in tone and unsourced, where there is no neutral version in the page history to revert to"

Where there is no indication of importance or significance (a lower criterion than notability or having no sources), an article may also be speedy deleted under A7.

Proposed deletion

The Proposed Deletion system set out at WP:PROD and is used for articles which uncontroversial meet the deletion policies at WP:DP but which don't meet the CSD criteria. Unsourced biographies of living people (BLP) created after March 18th, 2010 can be proposed for deletion using a special "sticky" proposed deletion process. Unlike standard proposed deletion, the BLP deletion template may be removed only after the biography contains a reliable source that supports at least one statement made about the person in the article. If the biography remains unsourced after ten days, the biography may be deleted. The editor who applies the deletion tag to a biography should notify the biography's creator or main contributor. This proposed deletion mechanism is intended to augment, not supersede, other Wikipedia deletion processes or content policies.

For other articles, including those on living persons, any editor may propose deletion by adding the {{prod}} tag with a reason. Any other editor may object by removing the tag if they think the criteria are not met, or a second editor can endorse the proposed deletion using the {{prod-2}} tag. Administrators may delete uncontested proposed deletions after five days.

Articles for deletion

The Articles for deletion process is set out at WP:AFD. Editors who think an article should be deleted under the deletion policies at WP:DP but where there is some discussion required may nominate an article by adding the {{afd}} tag on the page and following the procedure at WP:AFDHOWTO.

After a discussion for at least seven days, an administrator may close the discussion and delete or keep based on the consensus formed and arguments raised.

Any article which breaches WP:BLP at the time the deletion discussion closes may be deleted under WP:DP.