Why was my Wikipedia page deleted?

How do you find out why a Wikipedia page was deleted?

Go to the page's old address. Where an article used to be, Wikipedia now shows the message "This page does not exist" followed by the deletion, protection and move log for that title. The deletion entry gives the date, the administrator who deleted the page and the reason they recorded.

The same information is in the deletion log itself, at Special:Log/delete. Enter the title in the target field exactly as it appeared, because the log matches capital letters and spacing precisely. A page called "Example Holdings Ltd" will not be found under "Example holdings".

The account that created the page may also have a message on its talk page. Editors who tag a page for deletion are expected to notify its creator, and that message often names the criterion or links to the discussion.

Deleted text is hidden from the public, but it is not destroyed. Under the deletion policy, deleted pages and their histories stay in the database and remain visible to administrators, which matters later: an administrator reviewing a request to restore or recreate the page can read exactly what was there.

What if the page was removed but there is no deletion entry?

Then it was almost certainly not deleted. Several other actions make an article vanish from its address, and each leaves a different trace.

A draft that has been moved out of the article space is on a clock. Under speedy deletion criterion G13, drafts not edited by a human for six months can be deleted. Drafts deleted that way can normally be restored on request, but it is better not to let it happen.

Which deletion process removed the page?

The wording of the deletion reason tells you. Wikipedia has three main deletion processes, and each one leaves a recognisable entry in the log.

The difference matters more than anything else in the entry. A page removed without discussion has not been judged by the community, and some of those deletions can be reversed simply by asking. A page deleted after a discussion has been judged, and reversing that takes either evidence of a mistake in the close or a new version that answers the reasons for deletion.

What do the common speedy deletion codes mean?

Each code points to one numbered criterion on Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion. Codes beginning with G are general and can apply to any kind of page, including drafts and user pages. Codes beginning with A apply only to articles in the main article space. These are the ones that most often remove pages about people and organisations.

The administrator who deleted the page agreed with the tag, but the tag was placed by another editor. Both names are in the record, and either can be asked about the decision.

What does a deletion after discussion tell you?

It tells you exactly why the community decided against the page, because the whole debate is archived. Follow the link in the deletion entry to the discussion. At the top is the result and, usually, the closer's explanation. Below it are the nomination and every comment made.

Read it for three things.

1. The ground for deletion. Most discussions about people and companies turn on whether independent, reliable sources have covered the subject in depth. Some turn on promotion, on a narrow event, or on sources that were connected to the subject.
2. Which arguments the closer gave weight to. Discussions are not decided by counting votes. Comments that explained how policy applied, with evidence, count. Bare statements of support do not, and the closer may say so.
3. Whether this was the first discussion. Later nominations are titled "2nd nomination", "3rd nomination" and so on, and each links to the earlier ones. A subject that has been deleted more than once needs a much stronger case.

The closing statement is the most useful document you will find. If it says the sources were press releases and passing mentions, then the question for any return is whether substantial independent coverage now exists. The full process is explained in our guide to Articles for Deletion.

What does a proposed deletion mean for your page?

It means an editor proposed deleting the page, gave a reason, and nobody objected for at least seven days. The proposal was not a judgment by the community. Under the proposed deletion policy, any page deleted this way can be restored on request, and the person asking does not have to win an argument first.

The nominator's reason is still worth reading, because it is usually the reason the page would face at a deletion discussion if it came back unchanged. A page restored after proposed deletion cannot be proposed for deletion a second time, so the next challenge, if there is one, will be a full discussion.

The biography version, used for living people, is narrower: the page was deleted because it contained no sources at all. The cure is a reliable source supporting what the biography says. Both processes are explained in our guide to proposed and speedy deletion.

What is an out-of-process deletion?

It is a deletion that did not follow the deletion policy, for example a speedy deletion where none of the criteria actually applied, or a deletion that rested on a substantial procedural error. The deletion policy uses the phrase "out of process" for these cases, and the deletion review page lists both among the grounds for review.

They are uncommon, and the rules explain why. The speedy deletion policy tells administrators to take care not to speedily delete pages except in the most obvious cases, and says a page that survived its most recent deletion discussion should not normally be speedily deleted. The deletion policy adds that where there is doubt about consensus to delete, administrators will not normally delete. And every deletion is written to a public log with the administrator's name and stated reason, so a deletion with no proper basis is visible to anyone who looks.

Several things that feel unfair are not out of process. Disagreeing with the result of a discussion, a discussion closed a few minutes early, and pointing to other pages that were kept are all listed by deletion review as matters it should not be used for. A page deleted under a criterion that genuinely applied was deleted correctly, even if the subject could qualify for an article written differently.

If you believe a deletion was out of process, the routes are these:

1. Ask the deleting administrator. The deletion policy asks anyone who thinks a page was wrongly deleted to raise it first with the person who deleted it, on their talk page. Quote the log entry and explain, briefly, why the stated criterion did not fit.
2. Another administrator can undo an obvious case. Under the deletion policy, an administrator may undelete a page obviously deleted out of process straight away, informing the one who deleted it. The same policy warns that undeleting without consensus may be seen as disruptive, so this is reserved for clear cases.
3. Requests for undeletion, where it applies. That page restores proposed deletions, soft deletions and a short list of speedy criteria, such as G6, G7, A1 and A3. It does not cover A7, G11 or G12, and it is not a place to dispute a discussion's outcome.
4. Deletion review. If the administrator does not resolve it, deletion review considers speedy deletions done outside the criteria or otherwise disputed, and substantial procedural errors, including sockpuppets taking part in a discussion. Reviews normally run for at least seven days. Where a speedy deletion is reviewed and the result is no consensus, the page should be restored, because the deletion is shown not to have been uncontroversial.

Winning the procedural point does not settle the article's future. The deletion policy notes that a page restored to the main encyclopedia may immediately be nominated at Articles for Deletion, so it is worth checking the sources before asking for it back.

What should you do next?

Match the next step to the reason in the log. The routes below are explained in detail in our guide to restoring a deleted Wikipedia page.

Two steps apply in every case. Do not recreate the page straight away in the same form, because a quick repost is likely to be deleted again and repeated recreation is how titles become create-protected. And read the whole record first. Our guide to what a failed attempt leaves behind covers what that record contains and how reviewers use it.

When can you handle a deletion yourself?

Some deletions are routine to undo. A page removed by proposed deletion or an abandoned draft deleted under G13 can be requested back by anyone, with a short polite note, and the request is normally granted. If you know what the nominator objected to and can fix it with good sources, that is a reasonable thing to do on your own, provided you disclose any connection to the subject on the page and in your request.

The harder cases are the ones where the reason is about the subject or the writing rather than the paperwork: A7, G11, G12, G4 and deletions after discussion. Each of those has been decided against the page once. A second version that falls short gives reviewers a second entry in the log, and two deletions of the same title are often what leads an administrator to protect it against creation. The judgment that decides these cases is whether the sources now available clear the bar the first version missed, and that is the judgment people closest to a subject find hardest to make about themselves.

If you are unsure what the record shows, our free page health check reads the logs, the discussion and the talk page and tells you which route is realistically open. A reply follows within one working day.