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I moved the wiki page http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Relations to create a page with German title. Due to a typo the page http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Relatioen was created. Realising this I moved this wrong page to the desired page http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Relationen and fixed the redirect page http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=DE:Relations&redirect=no. I couldn't delete the now obsolete redirect page http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Relatioen but changed it at least.

asked 23 Jul '10, 03:54

Willi2006's gravatar image

Willi2006
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edited 27 Jul '10, 22:46

TomH's gravatar image

TomH ♦♦
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The answer is, you can't do it. As an ordinary user you can't delete a page. So the procedure is to remove all content from the page and replace it with {{Delete|reason}}. In this case you're removing the #REDIRECT and replace that with {{Delete|created by mistake}}. You can expect a wiki admin to delete the page fully within a few weeks.

The MediaWiki user help has a section on deleting a page written by some very wise chap :-) As explained on that site, there are often better alternatives to deleting, but in this case the page should be deleted. It's clear-cut.

Note that the Delete label template is intended to be used in cases where the delete is clear-cut and should always replace all content of the page. In a case where you feel that a page should be deleted, but you're not confident enough to delete the content yourself (or disputed / potentially deputed deletes), you should use {{delete proposal}} instead (Template:Delete proposal)

The reason a normal user is not allowed to delete a page, is the principle of reversible change. On a busy wikis which must also be vandal-proof, all user changes must be reversible by other users. In actual fact MediaWiki applies this principle to admin users too, so when an admin 'deletes' a page, this change can still be reversed by other admin users. So it turns out we never save any database space by deleting pages. The only benefit is de-cluttering search results.

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answered 23 Jul '10, 10:58

Harry%20Wood's gravatar image

Harry Wood
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accept rate: 14%

edited 19 Nov '10, 21:26

Tordanik's gravatar image

Tordanik
12.0k15106147

This is weird. I read http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Deleting_a_page/id, the titles are in Catalan and they say why I should remove a page or not but not how. No word of {delete proposal}. Is "proposal" to be replaced by an explanation or to be typed as such and how then do I explain? I have to delete a page for a .PNG file not because, "the contents are entirely inappropriate and do not match the purposes of the Wiki" but because I created a .SVG file. Should I really "delete the contents", loosing the pointers to the images, etc. Fuzzy.

(29 Oct '13, 20:49) Papou

@Papou: just look at the section "About this template" on the the template's page. It explains the use. You just place the text {{delete proposal}} on the File page (in your case) and explain why it should be deleted on the File talk page. You should not yet delete the contents. However, you can already go to use the svg in the wiki text pages instead of the png while it is discussed.

Anyway,do not take it too hard! A {{delete| I created the file as [[:File:newnamehere.svg]]. This is not needed anymore.}} would likely also be okay.

(29 Oct '13, 21:19) aseerel4c26 ♦

It's rather harmless to keep it around. To delete it you'd need administrator privileges.

If you add {{delete|reason}} to the page it will be added to Category:Labelled for deletion and eventually an admin should get to it. I don't know if that will happen.

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answered 23 Jul '10, 04:02

NE2's gravatar image

NE2
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accept rate: 9%

edited 23 Jul '10, 04:02

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question asked: 23 Jul '10, 03:54

question was seen: 35,033 times

last updated: 29 Oct '13, 21:19

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