G'day SCZenz,
It has come to my attention lately that the speedy deletion criteria are being applied rather loosely in some cases. Especially unfortunate are articles that are nominated for being "non-notable"; there is no such speedy criterion, there is only the criterion that articles about people/groups may be deleted if they have "no assertion of notability" whatsoever. This is not just process wonkery--it is fundamendal to WP:CSD that the reason for deletion be totally uncontroversial, as the process is almost entirely without review.
I agree entirely.
I have encountered many speedy-tagged articles that, upon a careful look, were either good articles or worthy of further consideration (e.g. through PROD). It is incumbent on administrators who do speedy deletions to take such careful looks at every article; there are enough of us to take the time to do it right. It would also be helpful if those tagging pages would take some care in what they tag, although I do understand that new pages patrol (for example) is a thankless and rushed job which is very important.
It's not people mis-tagging articles that bothers me: I can easily remove the tags. What bothers me is when:
a) an admin unthinkingly deletes it, "it's tagged; who am I to disagree?". Sometimes I've seen a salvageable article while going through the CSD category and been busy rewriting it when another admin thoughtlessly deletes it; that *really* irritates me.
b) I remove the tag, and cop (at best) a polite query or (at worst) unfettered abuse as a result. "It's tagged; who are YOU to remove it?" It seems to be a grave insult to the CVUers and their ilk that an admin would dare to disregard their recommendations. I suspect the only way to make them happy would be to either give them delete buttons themselves, or write a bot that automatically deletes any article that finds its way into the CSD category.
I did newpage patrol (well, I clicked on every orange bar that appeared in CDVF and tagged as appropriate) myself before adminship was thrust upon me like so much <ran out of steam; feel free to insert your own simile/>. I understand the pressures our patrollers are under. I don't begrudge them an improperly tagged article or two.
But those of us who come along and delete articles after they've been tagged need to have our brains engaged before we hit that button. And if, instead of deleting an article, we simply remove the tag, the tagger needs to Learn From The Experience instead of proving himself to lack the maturity required for possession of such a button.
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