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Wikipedia:Proposed deletion of biographies of living people

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Deletion policies

Unsourced biographies of living people (BLPs) are eligible for a special proposed deletion process, BLPPROD. To be eligible for a BLPPROD tag, the entry must be a biography of a living person and contain no sources in any form (as references, external links, etc., reliable or otherwise) supporting any statements made about the person in the biography. Unlike standard proposed deletion, the BLP deletion template may be removed only after the biography contains a reliable source that supports at least one statement made about the person in the article. If the biography remains unsourced after seven days, the biography may be deleted. This proposed deletion mechanism is intended to augment, not supersede, other Wikipedia deletion processes or content policies.

A common source of confusion in application is the different treatment of presence of sources for placement of the tag, versus removal of the tag. The requirements can be summed up as: only add a BLPPROD if there are no sources in any form that support any statement made about the person in the article, but once (properly) placed, it can only be removed if a reliable source is added. This compromise avoids the need for judgement calls about reliability of sources for placement, and limits that issue to the far fewer instances, at the other end, where a source is actually added during the seven-day period.

Note: BLP articles may still be nominated for standard PROD if they do not meet BLPPROD criteria, or even if an article has previously been flagged for BLPPROD and declined.

Scope

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Although policy on biographies of living persons covers all types of biographical material, the use of this deletion procedure applies only to articles that are biographies of living people. This deletion procedure does not apply to such content as lists of people or biographical information contained in other articles. If there is any doubt to the applicability of this procedure, then it is preferable to use another deletion process (e.g. WP:PROD, WP:AFD or others as applicable).

Background

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Per Wikipedia's policy on biographies of living people, all articles are required to include reliable sources for any material about a living person that is contentious. In addition, all quotations and any material challenged or likely to be challenged need a reliable source per our verifiability policy. The more contentious the material, the higher quality the source must be.

All improperly sourced articles about living people may be subject to deletion per the standard deletion processes, but in addition, biographies that do not contain at least one source directly supporting the material may also be proposed for deletion under this process.

Nominating

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To place a BLPPROD tag, the process requires that the article contains no sources in any form (as references, external links, etc.) which support any statements made about the person in the biography. Please note that this is a different criterion than the one used for sources added after the correct placement of the tag.

If you see a biography about a living person without references, you are strongly encouraged to either source or remove any contentious material and look for reliable sources that support the remainder of the biography's content. Nevertheless, a nomination may also be used to involve the article creator or to ensure that a problematic entry is being attended to more swiftly than by tagging it with {{BLP unsourced}}. If, considering all this, you want to use this deletion process, you should:

Before nomination:

  1. Make sure the article contains no sources in any form which support any statements made about the person.
  2. Consider finding reliable sources yourself (See also WP:BEFORE).
  3. Consider using another deletion process if you do not believe the article meets notability guidelines, or What Wikipedia is Not. Also, check to see whether the article meets one of the criteria for speedy deletion, if so, use that instead.
  4. Review the biography's history to confirm that it has not been vandalized especially if sources have been removed, and there is no more suitable referenced version to revert to.
  5. If the unsourced BLP is wholly negative in tone, do not use this process. Add {{db-negublp}} instead to nominate for speedy deletion.
  6. If there are any unsourced negative or contentious statements, remove them.

Nomination:

  1. Add {{subst:prod blp}} to the top of the biography to nominate it.
  2. Provide an edit summary that clearly indicates the biography has been proposed for deletion. Do not mark the edit as minor.
  3. Consider adding the biography to your watchlist.
  4. Notify the biography's creator or other significant contributors by leaving a message at their talk page(s) informing them of the proposed deletion. This can be done by adding the {{subst:PRODwarningBLP|Name of biography}} tag, or other appropriate text. Using Twinkle to tag the article will automatically inform the biography's creator.

If there is any doubt to the applicability of this procedure to the article, then it is preferable to use another deletion process.

Objecting

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To be canceled, this process (when correctly initiated) requires the presence of at least one reliable source that supports at least one statement made about the person in the biography. Do not remove the {{prod blp/dated}} until the biography has at least one such source.

If a {{prod blp/dated}} has been removed then:

  1. if no such source has been provided, the tag may be re-added. When practical, revert to the original expiration date;
  2. however, in borderline cases, such as where a source of questionable reliability (rather than an obvious unreliable source) has been added, the biography should be listed instead at Articles for Deletion.
  3. if a relevant and reliable source has been provided but you still believe the biography should be deleted, use one of the regular deletion processes.

In all cases, consider taking the time to highlight and discuss sourcing policy with interested editors as appropriate.

Hybrid articles

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Sometimes redirects and other articles will be edited to change their subject to a BLP of a different person. Such articles can be split as follows and the expanded articles may then be subject to this deletion process.

  1. delete example per {{G6}}
  2. restore the newer edits about the new subject and move it to Example (occupation) without creating a redirect
  3. restore example as it was before it was altered
  4. if Example (occupation) is a new unsourced BLP then either source or tag it with {{blpprod}}
  5. explain to the author of the new version what has happened and where their article is now.

Deleting and undeleting

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Before deletion based on this process, administrators should check the biography and its history to confirm that:

  1. the {{prod blp/dated}} tag has been in place for at least seven days, and there were no supporting sources (regardless of reliability or form) when tagged;
  2. no valid sources have been included in the biography or provided on the talk page;
  3. there is no suitable previous version to revert to.

If you decide to delete the biography, provide an informative deletion reason, such as the standard one provided by the software: 'Expired BLPPROD, concern was: Unsourced BLP'. If you are using an automated script, make sure it leaves an adequate log summary. You may also choose to move the biography to the draft space instead, if appropriate. To ensure independent judgment, a biography should not be deleted by the same person who added the {{subst:prod blp}} tag.

The biography may be undeleted when an editor is prepared to add a reliable source. The undeletion can be requested through an administrator or at Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion. Upon restoration, the {{prod blp/dated}} template should not be removed, but needs to be replaced or resubstituted to reset the expiration date. Where the request has not gone through requests for undeletion, the admin carrying out the undeletion is expected to check that a reliable source has been added.

If you decide not to delete the biography because {{prod blp/dated}} is no longer applicable—that is, a valid source has been provided, or you add one—or if the process wasn't applicable in the first place, then you need only remove the {{prod blp/dated}}. If the biography has a source, but is still partially unsourced, consider tagging the biography with {{BLP sources}}.

Relationship with other policies and processes

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Further information: Wikipedia:BLP § Summary deletion, creation prevention, and courtesy blanking

This method of proposed deletion is an additional tool to be used in the interests of increasing the quality of BLP sourcing on Wikipedia. Nothing in this policy should be understood to affect the core content policies or existing deletion processes. Whether the BLP is subject to deletion or not, contentious material which is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed from the biography immediately and without prior discussion, in accordance with the BLP policy.

  1. {{prod blp/dated}} tagged biographies remain eligible for speedy deletion nomination in the usual way. When tagging a proposed deletion candidate for speedy deletion, the proposed deletion tag should be left in place in case the speedy deletion is rejected. A rejected speedy candidate is still eligible for proposed deletion. The {{prod blp/dated}} tag may be restored if replaced with a speedy deletion tag.
  2. Per this section of the BLP policy, badly written BLPs should be stubbified or deleted. Administrators may have to delete pages if the page's primary content is contentious material that is unsourced or poorly sourced, there is no obvious way to fix it, and there is no previous version of the page that is policy compliant.

BLP articles that do not meet the BLPPROD criteria may still be nominated for standard PROD. Additionally a prior declined BLPPROD nomination does not block an article from being nominated for standard PROD and vice versa.

WikiProject

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons welcomes editors who might help address the backlog of unsourced BLP articles!

See also

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