Before You Delete No Content

There is a second interpretation of the words 'delete no content' which is an admonishment for WikiGnomes to double-check their work before deleting something from Wiki. Have you checked your BackLinks? Have you followed HyperLinks to make sure they really are OffTopic? Sometimes the linkages themselves are the content.

If you want to remove a page which itself contains no meaningful content but which has BackLinks, consider replacing the links with links to a similar page instead of just removing them altogether. E.g. If HamBurgers has no content but FastFood does, consider replacing links to HamBurgers with links to FastFood (if it will still make sense given the surrounding text) before deleting the HamBurgers page. Also consider leaving the page alone.

Also consider that a no-content topic that sounds good and BackLinks to several older pages might have just had existing good content which was clobbered - perhaps even double-clobbered - by an aspiring WikiZen replacing the existing content with test content. Rather than removing the topic straightaway, check EditCopy and perhaps RecentEditHistory first.

Why? It's better to have a dangling link (so readers see there is no content) than a virtually empty page.

CategoryDelete CategoryWikiMaintenance