Wikipedia:Article Rescue Squadron - Wikipedia


Article Images
To view or contribute to the project's list of content for rescue consideration, please refer to the Article rescue list.
Welcome to WikiProject Article Rescue Squadron, and feel free to join this project! This WikiProject is always in need of additional help; all are welcome to help improve Wikipedia articles and content!

Welcome to the Article rescue squadron WikiProject (ARS). Sometimes Wikipedia articles about notable topics exist in poor form, badly written, unsourced— but should they be automatically removed from the encyclopedia at Articles for Deletion? No! Only articles about non-encyclopedic topics should be deleted, not articles that simply need improvement.

Articles that may be written in poor form, that lack references or need improvement, but whose topics are backed by reliable sources are worthy of existence in Wikipedia, per Wikipedia's notability guidelines. An article being in a poor state is not a sufficient reason for deletion. Some writer may have worked hard on that article. Some reader can use that article. Those writers and readers, if reached out to, can help us preserve worthwhile content in the encyclopedia.

Wikipedia articles are based upon topic notability. Articles that are nominated for deletion may simply need for the topic to be proven as notable and encyclopedic, through the provision of available reliable sources on the AfD page for an article. The addition of reliable sources to articles in the form of inline citations to verify content is always an improvement, and also improves Wikipedia as a whole.

Wikiproject Article rescue squadron's main focus is on Wikipedia articles that are perceived as actually being notable that are going through Articles for deletion (AfD), that may:

We also help rescue content in Wikipedia's main namespace (refer to Wikipedia: Namespace for more information) and other Daily deletion debates (XfD) processes, such as Miscellany for deletion (MfD) and Templates for discussion (TfD).

ARS members may also be interested in rescuing articles listed at Wikipedia: Listing of possible copyright problems. These articles often cover notable topics. Evaluating the extent of such problems can be difficult, but thoroughly rewriting articles with problems identified as foundational has the additional benefit of helping Wikipedia: WikiProject Copyright Cleanup.

A list of content for rescue consideration is located at this project's Rescue list.

See: Tips to help rescue articles and ARS Guide to saving articles

The Article Rescue Squadron WikiProject about editing and improving articles. ARS is no different from any of the hundreds of Wikiprojects in that we collaborate to improve Wikipedia. If everyone who cares about preserving important topics and removing unsuitable content reads one deletion discussion per day (or even one per week), the impact will benefit all of our readers. Moreover, reading through an article nominated for deletion and adding sources and rewriting the text to remove or reword unsuitable content can help other editors decide if the article should be kept or deleted.

Does ARS wants to keep everything?

No. The ARS is not about making policy to ensure that nothing is deleted or casting keep votes in AfD discussions. The ARS ensures that articles that can be written to follow Wikipedia policies do not get deleted when they can be rescued through normal editing, which per WP:AFD means that it was not a good candidate for deletion. The {{So fix it}} and {{Solookitup}} templates are sometimes all that's required for a rescue.

 
Wikipedia articles are based upon topic notability. Sometimes articles that are nominated for deletion simply need for the topic to be proven as notable and encyclopedic through the provision of available reliable sources on the AfD page for the article.

Every time an article is deleted the contributions that were made to it are lost, and then only Wikipedia administrators can access it, but they are not necessarily experts on the article's topic. After deletion, an article's content, value, and appropriateness can no longer be evaluated by the general public. In addition, the contributor who writes a poor article on a notable topic is likely to be inexperienced. If their first efforts are deleted, they may be discouraged and refrain from creating further articles, or even editing. Everyone starts somewhere, and we should encourage better writing and better articles. Good faith efforts to contribute should be met with encouragement to improve.

This makes Articles for Deletion (AfD) a very important place; one that deserves everyone's attention.

A common axiom is that "AFD is not cleanup". Wikipedia is a work in progress, and articles should not be deleted because no one has felt like cleaning them up yet. Remember, Wikipedia has no deadline. If there's good, sourceable content in the article, it should be preserved, developed and improved, not deleted. The Wikipedia policy of trying to correct problems in articles through editing improvements, expansion and adding reliable sources, located at Try to fix problems, is often more appropriate than the entire deletion of articles.

The question on whether a poor but improvable article ought to be deleted is a major point of contention, and has given rise to the wiki-philosophies immediatism and eventualism. The Article Rescue Squadron was highlighted in a July 2007 Wikipedia Signpost, and has grown with many processes to tag, track, and list tagged articles.

Articles proposed for deletion (prod)

Sometimes articles are proposed for deletion (prod, prodded) without being sent to AfD, some of which may actually be notable per Wikipedia's General notability guideline.

See also: ARS Guide to saving articles

Source searches

 
Pen & Earth

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Article Rescue checklist

Here's a quick checklist of 10 steps anyone can take for articles that need rescue:

 
  1. Find and add reliable sources– It is most important that sources demonstrating the notability of a subject are added to articles when they are found. Do it properly, using the correct citation templates.
  2. Add WikiProjects– View article talk pages to see if appropriate WikiProject banners have been added. WikiProject banners help draw attention to articles from editors who are interested in the subject. You don't need anyone's permission to add relevant WikiProject banners to article talk pages.
  3. Solicit WikiProject support– Many articles needing rescue merely need attention from an expert on the subject. A short note on a WikiProject talk page seeking expert attention can bring remarkable results fast.
  4. Take the time to strengthen the Lead section– The lead sets the tone for the rest of an article. Take the time to rewrite or improve the lead so that an article's title and its contents are in sync. Nothing detracts more from an otherwise notable subject than a lead that inadequately conveys what an article is about.
  5. Clean-up articles– If an article about an otherwise notable subject has a bunch of unorganized content on the page, it is best to clean it up on the spot and bring it up to par with the Manual of Style guidelines. Some examples of clean-up include copy editing, wikifying (adding internal links, interwiki links and external links), correcting spelling, grammar and typographical errors, converting poorly formatted references with proper citation templates and adding relevant sections.
  6. Add Infoboxes, Navigation Templates and sidebars– If they are not present in articles and their addition is appropriate, do so and complete their fields as much as possible.
  7. De-orphan articles– Link and cross-reference articles with other articles, lists and categories. Make sure articles have internal links that link to other appropriate, highly related articles, which helps to clarify and expound upon information. If it is difficult to incorporate links within the text of an article, the See also section is an appropriate place to list links for related articles. Look for sources and content in related articles that might enhance orphaned articles. Utilizing the "What links here" feature in the Toolbox pull-down menu in the left column of Wikipedia pages provides a list of pages that link to an article.
  8. Eliminate the junk– If there is unsourced or irrelevant content, copyright violations, or other "junk" in articles, eliminate it ruthlessly. If there is a question about the validity of content, start a discussion on the talk page and tag questionable content with template messages as necessary. Don't just ignore the "junk" if its there. Conversely, it's very important to preserve appropriate content— as long as any of the facts or ideas added to an article would belong in a "finished" article. For more information, please refer to Try to fix problems.
  9. Treat articles as if they was your best achievement– Make changes to articles that will turn them into articles that you would be proud of personally. We know how to do it, we just need to do it.
  10. Positively engage new editors– When you find that an article has been created by a new editor (maybe their first one) or by inexperienced editors, engage them in a positive, mentoring way. Help them learn how to create and contribute better content. Engage them on their talk pages, encourage them, and most importantly make them feel welcome. If there are policy or guideline issues on the table, don't just refer them to a policy link; engage them in a discussion to ensure they better understand how to make quality contributions. Even if an article is ultimately lost, this positive engagement will help us all by encouraging new contributors to make useful, productive edits.

Articles currently tagged for deletion

Articles currently tagged for deletion

Articles currently proposed for deletion

Articles currently proposed for deletion
All articles proposed for deletion

Biographies of living people

Miscellany for deletion

Miscellany for deletion

Files for deletion

Files for deletion (FfD) is for the discussion of images and other media files (such as audio and video files) that are being considered for deletion. Files that have been listed at FfD for more than 7 days are eligible for deletion if either a consensus to do so has been reached or no objections to deletion have been raised.

Categories for discussion

Categories for discussion (Cfd) is where deletion, merging, and renaming of categories is discussed. Categories that have been listed for more than seven days are eligible for deletion, renaming or merging when a rough consensus to do so has been reached or no objections to the nomination have been raised.

Templates for discussion

Redirects for discussion

Stub types for deletion

Article Incubator

The article Incubator is a place for holding articles that do not meet Wikipedia's content criteria (WP:NOT, WP:N, WP:OR, WP:NPOV, WP:BLP, and WP:V), but a rationale has been put forward that the article meets the incubation criteria, which means there is an intention that the article can and will be improved. Incubation is intended to be a more centralized alternative to userfication. Articles in incubation are "in limbo" - they have been deleted from article namespace, but are still part of Wikipedia, awaiting a decision to be moved back into the article namespace (mainspace), or be deleted completely from all Wikipedia namespace.

Article alerts

Article alerts for ARS
No Article alerts at this time.

Examples

Access to deleted articles

List of administrators who will provide copies of deleted articles

Article restoration

A number of articles have recently been deleted as Biographies that had been flagged for years as unsourced. The admins who deleted them have said they are happy for them to be restored providing any restored articles are then properly sourced and made fully compliant with WP:BLP (Biographies of living persons). These articles that are properly sourced will simply be restored. NB To restoring admins, remove any negative material (it's in the history so it can be readded when sourced) and watchlist the article. If it isn't sourced within 48 hours, please redelete it. Suggest maximum 4 articles per restoration session, please check they were deleted for being unsourced BLPs and don't forget to restore the talkpages as well.

To volunteer to reference one or more of the articles that have recently been deleted as unreferenced BLPs, see ARS BLP volunteers.

To join, simply add your name to our membership list; feel free to add your ideas to the project discussion page as well.

ARS user page boxes:

– There's an automatically-generated list of members using this banner here.

Once you've rescued an article or two, show your Rescue Squadron pride with

  • {{User:Jclemens/Rescues|n}}

(where n is the number of articles you've helped rescue)

– There's an automatically-generated list list of members using this banner here.

To invite someone:

To invite someone to join the Article Rescue Squadron, you can use our handy invite by pasting {{subst:Article Rescue Squadron invite}} to their userpage.

There are four specific Rescue Barnstars for anyone who has made significant contributions to rescuing articles; it is up to those awarding them to choose which one to use:

Barnstars
Image What to type Description
  {{subst:The Rescue Barnstar|message ~~~~}} The Rescue Barnstar - to be awarded to people who rescue articles from deletion or assist in identifying and rescuing articles. This can be independent of or in cooperation with the Article Rescue Squadron.
  • Recommended for someone who has been involved in multiple rescues.
  {{subst:The Rescue Barnstar 2|message ~~~~}} The Rescue Barnstar 2 - to be awarded to people who rescue articles from deletion or assist in identifying and rescuing articles. This can be independent of or in cooperation with the Article Rescue Squadron.
  • Recommended for someone who has found articles to be saved or otherwise assisted in saving an article from AfD (deletion).
  {{subst:The Rescue Barnstar 3|message ~~~~}} The Rescue Barnstar 3 - to be awarded to people who rescue articles from deletion or assist in identifying and rescuing articles. This can be independent of or in cooperation with the Article Rescue Squadron.
  • Recommended for someone who has saved an article from AfD (deletion).
  {{subst:The Barnstar of Recovery|message ~~~~}} The Barnstar of Recovery

The Barnstar of Recovery is awarded to editors who make BOLD contributions to articles during their deletion reviews, thus saving the article from deletion. It has the international sign for "first aid" as its background.

Designed and introduced by Ryan4314 on January 7, 2008.

Hall of fame:

See Wikipedia: Article Rescue Squadron– Templates for ARS templates.

  • It can be discouraging for an editor to have their article deleted, especially for new and first-time contributors. An alternative is Userfication, in which articles for deletion can be placed into a user's namespace, providing an option to improve an article to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines.
  • Instead of deleting articles altogether, sometimes they can be merged with other articles (see Mergism).
  • It can be frustrating for a reader to come to Wikipedia for information and inside find that the relevant article existed at one point but has been deleted. This may discourage both Wikipedia readership and authorship.
  • Deleting a well-written, well-sourced article on the basis of what Wikipedia is not can reduce the total information of Wikipedia.

Essays, etc.