[WikiEN-l] My view on deletions

Mon Jan 12 20:27:08 UTC 2004

At least one person has privately expressed to me the opinion that my
position on deletions is that nothing should be deleted.  That's
absolutely not true, and I thought that this misunderstanding might be
widely enough shared that I should speak to it for a moment.

I think that the vast majority of deletions are perfectly fine.
Deletions for vandalism seem to be pretty well not abused.  Borderline
cases, with a fairly open policy, are sent to VfD now, and that almost
always works out just fine.

But I'm unhappy with some deletions (and redirections) that happen on
VfD.  I call the process broken by analogy with hypothetical (and
virtually all real!) criminal justice systems that get the right
answer most of the time, but for various procedural reasons sometimes
do exactly the wrong thing.

But in no way am I saying anything even remotely supportive of the
idea that vandals should be given free hand, nor that deletion or
redirection should always be avoided at all costs.  They are important
tools, but we need to improve how we use them.

--Jimbo