Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Administrator instructions

Administrator instructions for Miscellany for deletion:

To process a debate listed at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion after 7 days:

1. If a clear consensus has not emerged, consider relisting the discussion:

   To relist a discussion, do the following:

   • Open the discussion for editing. Add your relisting comments, ideally that will refocus the discussion, or note the date of late publicising of the discussion.
   • Add {{subst:mfdr}} directly below the pagelinks template

   • Subsequent relisting timestamps must be placed above the old

   • Add {{subst:relist}} to the very bottom of the discussion
   • Leave an edit summary noting that the discussion is being relisted along with the date it is being relisted at (i.e. the current date)
   • Save the page
   • The bot that manages MfD will be by shortly to finish the process (i.e. move the transclusion of the discussion to the new day)

   In general, discussions should not be relisted more than twice.

2. Some discussions may take significant time to assess the debate and close. Consider first editing the discussion sub-page and adding {{mfdh}} (or {{closing}}) to the top and {{mfdb}} to the bottom, to notify others that a close is in progress.
3. Determine (using the guidelines) what the consensus was, and whether any associated talk or sub-pages should be deleted.
4. Enter the following text at the top and bottom of the MFD discussion sub-page. (This will create a shaded box around the discussion thread confirming that it has been closed. See the example below.) Note that the header template and closing result go above the top section header.

   Do the following:

   {{subst:mfd top}} '''RESULT'''. ~~~~ ← Add this line at the very top of the page, with RESULT in bold.

   === [[Header]] === ← Leave this line alone.

   DISCUSSION ← Body of the discussion stays unchanged

   {{subst:mfd bottom}} ← Add bottom template

   If additional explanation is needed as to why you have closed a deletion discussion as a certain result, add additional comments immediately after '''RESULT'''. on the first line.

5. If the decision is DELETE, then delete the page. (This action will be recorded in the deletion log.) Remember to paste a link to the discussion in the "Reason for deletion" box (ie add [[Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Page]] ). If appropriate, delete the page's talk page or any associated sub-pages first. Also remember to check "what links here" and either delete any redirects or redirect them elsewhere.
6. If the decision is KEEP (including REDIRECT or USERFY), remove the MFD Header from the page (be sure the MFD Category is also removed). Then put a link to the discussion sub-page on the page's talk page (for user pages a personal note is recommended, otherwise use the template {{old mfd}} for this), so add:

   {{old mfd | date = date of nomination | result =result | votepage = PageName }}

   (always include the votepage as it ensures the link will work if the page is later moved, or if it was a talk page that was nominated)

   (the default result is "keep")

   • Fix double-redirects if the page becomes a redirect.
   • If no consensus was reached, then the page is kept by default, but the decision should generally include a reference to the lack of consensus, in order to minimize ambiguity.
   • If the consensus was USERFY a.k.a. USERSPACE, this is usually done without leaving a redirect behind, unless there's well-supported rationale to retain one. Consequently, non-admin closers who do not have the page-mover bit should not normally close an MfD with a result of USERFY, since they are unable to move pages without leaving redirects behind.
     • Material is mostly userfied when it is inappropriate in projectspace, where someone has been "citing" it as if it's WP:P&G material or a community-accepted major essay. So, a redirect would defeat the point of the userspacing. In USERFY cases, the default is to not retain a redirect.
     • Non-admins should not close with USERFY, but leave it to an admin, if the consensus also entails deleting inappropriate WP:FOO shortcuts, an action non-admins cannot perform.
7. If the decision is MERGE:
   • Mark both pages, add {{mfd-mergeto}} and {{mfd-mergefrom}} to the top of their respective pages as follows. For details, see their respective descriptions.

     nominated page: {{mfd-mergeto|destination page|debate name|debate closure date|talk page of destination page}}
     destination page's talk page: {{mfd-mergefrom|nominated page|debate name|debate closure date}}

8. If the MfD involved a Portal, please log the closure and result at portals for deletion at mfd.
9. There is no need to worry about archiving; this is accomplished automatically by User:One bot.