Robert Dodier wrote:

It turns out that VfD is used as a general forum to determine what to do with an article. Deletion is an option but redirect, cleanup, & copyvio are used as well. So I suggest renaming "Votes for deletion" to "Triage".

The VfD header message can be changed accordingly --

"This article has been listed on Wikipedia:Triage because someone decided it would be a good idea to get some more eyeballs on it."

I'm thinking such a message is more accurate, and also gentler on new contributors, whose articles end up on VfD out of proportion to their numbers.

The message would be too gentle, I'm afraid. Not that I oppose being gentle with new contributors, but if article deletion is to remain an option, we need to give people fair warning of that. Many people take umbrage even at having a few words deleted from articles, let alone having an entire article deleted. Since deletion is such a serious step, we need to make some effort to let people know about the possibility.

That being said, I certainly agree that people discussing potential deletions should be more aware of other alternatives.

--Michael Snow