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Note: User "P 1 9 9" voted to delete this from Wikipedia user space because <b>fifteen kilobytes</b> be too much to "host indefinitely". Given the topic, this shows it was deleted purely out of spite.

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"'''Deletion Gestapo'''" and "'''Deletion Na[language filter]zi'''" are terms used by frustrated contributors to ''[[Wiki]]''-type websites and [[blog]]s, referring to any (allegedly) overly-exuberant contributor who is quick to delete Wiki articles or blog entries.  

This article focuses on ''[[Wiki]]''s rather than blogs. 

==Origin of the Terms== 
The "'''Deletion Gestapo'''" and "'''Deletion Na[language filter]zi'''" terms (and sometimes "Deletion Police" or "Deletion Mafia") came about largely due to repeated frustration by online encyclopedia and blog contributors who have their entries deleted or flagged for deletion.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite book
| title = Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World
| edition = New Ed edition
| last = Nelson
| first = Thomas 
| coauthors = 
| year = 2006
| publisher = 
| id = ISBN 978-0785288046
| pages = }}</ref><ref name="Cohen">{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author=Cohen, Noam |coauthors= |title="Word for Word: Wikipedia Wars"|url= |format= |work= |publisher=New York Times |id=ISSN 03624331 |pages= |page=4.7 |date=Oct 8, 2006.  |accessdate= |language=English |quote= }}</ref><ref name="mediashift">{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/04/digging_deepermyspace_wikipedi.html|title=Mediashift, ''"MySpace, Wikipedia Cope With Growing Pains"'' by Mark Glaser ["''deletion gestapo''"]}}</ref><ref name="slashdot">{{cite web
| url = http://slashdot.org/articles/05/10/18/2135219.shtml
| title = Wikipedia Founder Sees Serious Quality Problems ["...the 'vote for ''Deletion Na[language filter]zis''"]
| last = | first = | coauthors = | accessdate = }}</ref><ref name="August">{{cite web
| url =http://johnaugust.com/archives/2006/introducing-jawiki
| title = Introducing jaWiki ["''Deletion Na[language filter]zis''"]| last = August | first = John | coauthors = | accessdate = }}</ref><ref>[http://www.pixelmutt.blogspot.com/] Pixelmutt, "Attention: Moron Alert" ["''Deletion Police''"]</ref><ref>[http://forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/printthread;jsessionid=2qkcdnjf86lr0?thread=38493&offset=30]  MVN Forum, "Piratical Parley and Politics," Thread: Wiki Stupidity ["''deletion police''"]</ref><ref>[http://rubechat.kfan.com] Rubechat, "re: Challenge to the admins"</ref>  Also known in more civil terms as "deletionists",<ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deletionist] Wikipedia:Deletionist</ref> some related terms, ''"revert wars"'' and ''"[[Wikipedia:Edit war|edit wars]]''" were coined  referring to situations where contributors fight madly to change articles back and forth.<ref name="Hafner">{{cite news |first= Katie |last= Hafner |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title="Growing Wikipedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy" |url= |format= |work= |publisher= New York Times |id= |pages= |page= |date= June 17, 2006 |accessdate= |language=English |quote= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mzmadmike.livejournal.com/30062.html|title=LiveJournal, "Wikipedia: The Preschool Playground of References" ["''Deletion Mafia''"]}}</ref>   

Academic blogger and [[Vexi|Vexi/XWT]] project originator Adam Megacz uses the term '''Deletion Gestapo''' to refer to people who delete "anything that can’t be validated using the first four hits from a one-word search on Google."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/04/digging_deepermyspace_wikipedi.html|title=Mediashift, ''"MySpace, Wikipedia Cope With Growing Pains"''}}</ref>  He continues: "Kinda sad. I stopped contributing [to Wikipedia] regularly a while ago because keeping up with deletions/alterations by the librarian types got to be too much effort.  These people cause real problems for any sort of material that isn’t taught in high school."  Many Wikipedia contributors feel the same frustration, and simply quit contributing.

===Opposing Viewpoints===
It has been postulated that psychological reasons for squabbling amongst Wikipedia contributors and recalcitrant viewpoints regarding edits or article "keep/delete" decisions revolve around the concept that "''people love to get power and hate to give it up''".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whorunswikipedia|title=''Raw Thought:'' "Who Runs Wikipedia?"}}</ref>  One group favoring ''deletionism''[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deletionism] is the Association of Deletionist Wikipedians, whose goals are to "outpace rampant inclusionism," and to create "a quality encyclopedia containing as little junk as possible".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Deletionist_Wikipedians|title=Wikimedia, "Association of Deletionist Wikipedians"}}</ref>  The association has been called "a cantankerous collective"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/wiki/|title=IF:Book, A Project of ''The Institute for the Future of the Book'', "Ring entries tagged with wiki"}}</ref>, and a group that has "a bias towards deletion even in light of majority ''Keep'' votes".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiofreeithaca.net/search/Wikipedia:Deletion_review/Log/2006_December|title="Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2006 December"}}</ref> 

On the other side of this philosophy is the Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Inclusionist_Wikipedians|title=Wikimedia, "Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians"}}</ref> who want to focus on making articles as good as possible, and building the body of knowledge rather than focus on deleting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/09/a_fork_in_wikip.php|title=''Rough Type'', "Deletionists, inclusionists and delusionists," September 05, 2006}}</ref>  Wikipedia Founder [[Jimmy Wales]] has publicly expressed the desire to encompass "the full body of human knowledge" made available to the entire world, and in hundreds of languages.<ref>{{cite web|author=Wales, Jimmy|title="Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Replies"|publisher=[[Slashdot]]|url=http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/28/1351230|date=[[2004-07-28]]|accessdate=2006-06-07}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000880.html|title="Jimmy Wales: Steak Knives and Human Knowledge
"}}</ref>

===Neutrality considered===
Holding the middle-ground view is The Association of Mergist Wikipedians who believe "some information is notable and encyclopedic and therefore has a place on Wikipedia, much of it is not notable enough to warrant its own article and is therefore best merged".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Mergist_Wikipedians|title=Wikimedia, "The Association of Mergist Wikipedians"}}</ref>  

==Reasons for Deletion== 
Roughly 4,000 articles are added to Wikipedia each day, and about half that number are deleted that same day.<ref name="Cohen">{{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author=Cohen, Noam |coauthors= |title="Word for Word: Wikipedia Wars"|url= |format= |work= |publisher=New York Times |id=ISSN 03624331 |pages= |page=4.7 |date=Oct 8, 2006.  |accessdate= |language=English |quote= }}</ref>   There are many valid reasons for contributors to flag pages for deletion:

* Obvious reasons -- for instance, [[Wikipedia:Vandalism|Vandalism]] of a page, or [[Flaming (Internet)|flaming]]. Other obvious reasons:<ref>Wikipedia [[Deletion policy]]</ref>
:* Advertising
:* Propaganda or advocacy 
:* Violation of copyright
:* Content, especially negative content, that is not verifiable to a reliable source

* Inappropriate for an encyclopaedia.  From [[Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions|Wikipedia]], "''Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia. This means that lots of things that are useful are excluded because they don't belong in an encyclopaedia. A list of all the phone numbers in New York would be useful, but are not included because Wikipedia is not a directory (we have Yellowikis for that). A page defining the word useful would be useful but is not included because Wikipedia is not a dictionary (we have Wiktionary for that). A guide to the best restaurants in Paris would be useful but is not included because Wikipedia is not a travel guide (there is a Wikitravel for that)''."

* Minimum threshold of notability - contributors may flag such articles for deletion from a Wiki.  For Wikipedia, see [[Wikipedia:Notability]].  

==Reasons for Inclusion== 
There are many "inclusionist" arguments from Deletion Gestapo "victims".  Writers often speak of how powerfully liberating their first contribution felt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/technology/17wiki.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=384f0c4e8631b6ce&ex=1177819200|title=New York Times, "Growing Wikipedia Refines Its 'Anyone Can Edit' Policy," June 17, 2006}}</ref>  Similarly, writers can feel frustrated, disempowered, and victimized after creating an article, only to see it disappear, even when sufficiently cited and notable according to official '' 'pedia'' policies.  Writers justify their position by quoting the various policies for ''inclusion'' and ''deletion'': 
<BR>
'''For [[Wikipedia]] policies:'''

* '''Decorum and politeness'''.  Wikipedia urges any contributor to read the ''[[Wikipedia:Deletion]]'' policy before deleting or nominating an article for deletion. It says "When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page."  (Discussing on the talk page before flagging for deletion is rarely done.)

* '''Policies and guidelines'''. Wikipedia encourages contributors to "edit in [[Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith|good faith]]," show civility, seek consensus, and work towards the goal of creating a great encyclopedia<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines|title="Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines"}}</ref>.

* '''Criteria for notability'''.  [[WP:N|Wikipedia policy on notability]] says that "''notable''" is defined as "worthy of being noted" or "attracting notice"; it is not synonymous with "fame" or "importance". This defense is given when the person flagging the deletion claims that an article is "minor" or "isn't needed". (There are no WP criteria for whether an article is "''needed''".)  Notability criteria do not equate to personal or biased considerations, such as: "never heard of this," or "page does not meet the Wikipedia notability requirements" without explaining why.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:N#The_notability_criterion|title="Wikipedia:Notability"}}</ref>
 
* '''Wikipedia goal'''.  [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_Missing_encyclopedic_articles|Wikipedia's goal]] is stated as follows: "The goal of this project is to ensure that Wikipedia has a corresponding article for every article in every other general purpose encyclopedia available...".

'''For [[Wiktionary]] policies:'''

* "'''All words'''" policy.  "As an international dictionary, Wiktionary is intended to include 'all words in all languages'"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/WS:CFI|title="Criteria for inclusion"}}</ref>
 
* "'''Multilingual'''". "Wiktionary is, above all, a multilingual dictionary".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page|title="Wiktionary main page"}}</ref>

Wiktionary criteria for ''exclusion'' cites such things as vandalism, protologisms, "belongs in Wikisaurus", and Wiktionary is "not an encyclopedia", etc.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/WS:CFI#Exclusions|title=Wiktionary, "Exclusions"}}</ref>  

==Other deletionism==
====YouTube links====
Many contributors delete [[YouTube]] links, (incorrectly) citing WP Youtube policy, which was only proposed - and rejected.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links/YouTube|title=Wikipedia: "External links/YouTube"}}</ref>

====Screenshots====
The policy for [[Screenshots]] is clouded by legal issues of copyright.  Screenshots and other art are often deleted from Wiki articles for copyright concerns.  Wikipedia policy may be found at this link: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_use_policy]

==Neutrality==
Maintaining a [[neutral point of view]] in articles can be difficult for any knowledgeable or passionate writer, but is essential.  ''[[WP:NPOV]]'' policy requires views to be represented without bias.  Types of bias include: [[Social class|Class]], [[Corporatism|Commercial advertising]], [[Ethnicity|Ethnic]] or [[racism|racial]]: [[racism]], [[WP:CSB|Geographical]], [[Nationalism|Nationalistic]], [[Gender]], and [[Political]].

==Footnotes==
<references/>

==References==
* [http://www.freethehops.org/board/viewtopic.php?p=6079&sid=b3683aaa02413e8936d483bfd27c25fe] The Hops Community ["...deletion Na[language filter]zi and needs to be put in check."]
* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deletionist]  Deletionist at [[Wiktionary]]
* [http://the-manchester-morgue.blogspot.com/2006/12/morgue-wants-youto-try-and-help-me-out.html]  The Morgue Wants You.....to try and help me out with some requests ["deletion-Na[language filter]zis"]
* [http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/iandouglas/sep2007/wiki-delete.htm] Daily Telegraph (UK) blog article which suggests that over-enthusiastic deletionists are causing Wikipedia to stagnate.

[[Category:Internet culture]]
[[Category:Internet forum terminology]]
[[Category:Wikipedia notability| ]]
[[Category:Wikipedia notability guidelines| ]]