Delete Angel

This is a special type of WikiGnome, one who goes around cleaning up wiki by deleting test pages, orphan pages, duplicate pages, etc. These good creatures are not malicious and are not WikiGremlins or WikiTroll?s, and do not get involved with deletion wars and EditWars. They delete purely to make WikiWikiWeb a better and generally neater place for all.

Unlike the WikiGnomes or WikiFaeries, the DeleteAngel is less concerned with refactoring and editing content as such and tends only to be concerned with removing unnecessary or inappropriate pages to improve the overall content of WikiWikiWeb.

A good DeleteAngel adheres to the DeleteOnceRestoreOnce rule and avoids acting like a DeleteVulture.

Actually it's every WikiZens raison d'etre to improve the overall content of WikiWikiWeb; it is called FixYourWiki, however, the distinction we're making here is the difference in characteristics of those WikiZens who perform WikiMaintenance as their main contribution.

An aspiring DeleteAngel might take a look at IsThisOffTopicPageOk, then try to remove pages that have no defending arguments and have been listed there for two months or more.

Page deletion has been a touchy subject here on the C2 for over a decade and probby won't become any less volatile any time soon. It is perhaps a bit of a stretch to refer to anyone who deletes Wiki content as an "angel" of any stripe; nonetheless, there persists a real need to delete content that has outlived its usefulness and has no remaining value -- not even historical.

To that end there are a flock of WikiGnomes floating about in cyberland trolling through Wiki's shallow waters and plucking out the dead fish found therein. No Wikizen who deletes content without doing all -- and I mean, all -- of the work surrounding a proper deletion can be called anything like an "angel." Just the fact that folk delete content without fixing all of the backlinks first is a serious breech of protocol.

Additionally, the very fact of backlinks indicates that some content should stay. Perhaps this old, moldy, worn-out content should be marked as DeletionCandidate for a while before the ambitious WikiGnome attempts to wipe it out. Don't know. Different every case, probby. Your Mileage May Vary. Void Where Prohibited By Law. Seek Professional Help. Do Not Take Internally.

CategoryWikiUser, CategoryWikiMaintenance