Delete Metadiscussion

...defined as the practice of deleting any discussion on a page relating to whether or not the page should exist.

rationale: If people really don't think a particular page should exist, they should act with the courage of their convictions and delete the page. Metadiscussion (discussion about the discussion) rarely (if ever) persuades anyone to change their point of view and obscures what useful content (if any) the page under consideration had in the first place. If metadiscussion is really warranted and/or interesting, it should have its own page (whereby it becomes simple discussion, rather than metadiscussion).

I usually agree with DeleteMetadiscussion. A succint DeleteThisPageSoon? on a page I don't feel qualified to axe on my own adds little noise but can be very useful. When editors have conflicting goals, HomePages provide an excellent way to have metadiscussion and still prevent the crudding up of the page in question. That was a major motivation for me to stop being an IP address. -- JoeWeaver

I am giving this a not-too-energetic try. -- AndyPierce

Don't forget that we need to have some pages around to aid the Wikizenry's memory of why pages were deleted, restored, fought over, etc. Not all metadiscussion is bad, useless, or distracting. Eh?

Yes, but if the discussion is on its own page, then it's just "discussion" rather than "metadiscussion". Another approach:

page A:

could have the metadiscussion refactored out to it's own page thusly:

page A:

page JA: (justify the existence of A) This is the same philosophy as creating a "vote to delete page A" page rather than having page A repeatedly blink in and out of existence as various fractured forms of DeleteOnceRestoreOnce are practised by various people.

Related: ContentiousPages

CategoryDelete

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