Wikidata:Guide to requests for undeletion

At Wikidata, thousands of items get deleted every week for a variety of reasons. Although the administrators try their best, inevitably some items are deleted in error. If you believe that an item was deleted in error, then this essay gives you advice on finding out why the item was deleted and how to go about getting the item restored.

Please don't recreate the item

Wikidata has an ongoing problem with a number of spammers who will continually recreate the same non-notable items again and again. As a result, we monitor item creations closely and, if they appear to be a recreation of a previously-deleted item, we typically delete them immediately. We will also review all contributions by the creating user to determine whether they also need to be deleted. In some cases, the creating user may be blocked for spamming/promotion, abuse of multiple accounts, block evasion, or creation of inappropriate pages.

Why was it deleted?

The first step is to determine the reason for the deletion. All deletions are logged, which will indicate the username of the administrator who deleted it and the reason they gave for deletion.

• First check your user talk page. You may have received a message about the deleted item that gives you a link.
• Second, try this tool. Enter your username and select “Only include deleted pages”.

If you still can't find your deleted page (perhaps because you're editing as an anonymous IP), then are a couple of other things you can try:

• Check the deletion log. Every item deletion will appear here, and the entries often indicate the user who created the item or partial content of the item. You'll find that hundreds of items are deleted every day, so it may take a bit of searching to find yours.
• Look on Wikidata:Requests for deletions and search its archive.

Some of the most common reasons given for item deletion are vandalism, spam/advertising, out of project scope, test page, does not meet the notability policy, and empty item. It may also be flagged as a recreation of deleted items.

When you seek to overturn a deletion, you can often sort things out by having a quiet word with the deleting administrator. In other cases, you may need to make a public “request for undeletion” as described below.

Vandalism and test pages

In this case, the administrator concluded that your item was either vandalism or just a test of the Wikidata user interface. You should contact the Wikidata administrator to request undeletion, explaining what you were attempting to do, and why it was valid.

Empty item

In this case, the item had neither claims nor sitelinks. In some cases an administrator will delete an item as empty if all the claims appear to be nonsense, and all the sitelinks appear to be unrelated. Usually an administrator will wait at least fifteen minutes after the last edit to ensure that the item is not still being edited.

Empty items are not useful to the Wikidata project. In many cases, it appears that new users cannot tell the difference between search and item creation, so they create many items with search terms in the label or description.

If you were just starting to edit an item but got interrupted, you should contact the deleting administrator who will be happy to undelete it so that you can continue your work. Please be sure that you return to it soon, however, or you may find that it has been deleted again.

Spam/advertising, out of project scope, or does not meet the notability policy

This is more difficult, and requires you to be extremely familiar with Wikidata's notability policy. Explaining that policy and how is interpreted in practice is beyond the scope of the document, but any of the following should be an instant win for undeleting a document:

• Having a Wikipedia article it should be linked to.
• Having both strong identifiers and strong references.
  • Generally social media accounts (regardless of verification badge), Everipedia, Google Knowledge Graph, Google Maps are only considered to be weak identifiers. Certain identifiers, however, are considered so strong that they are also considered to act as reference sources.
  • Generally the official website of an entity, press releases, and adverts are only considered to be weak references. Coverage in a major newspaper or magazine is generally strong, but only where there is substantial content about the entity and they are not, say, just an interviewee.
• Having a useful in-link from another item that has unquestionable notability.

If you are in this situation, remember to gather your best evidence of notability before you make any request. Don't make people drag the information out of you.

Recreation of deleted items

This is usually a variation on one of the cases above (typically notability), but the decision to delete has already been made before, possibly several times, often by multiple administrators, and sometimes as a result of a public discussion. Commonly the administrator who deleted the recreation will refer you the original deleting administrator(s) or require you to start a public discussion in order to overturn such a decision.

How to request undeletion

Any undeletion request should explain how the entity passes our notability criteria. There are a number of ways to do this, but most commonly this will involve providing links to reputable news sources that have written articles about the entity. You are expected to do this as part of your appeal. Do not assume that the item will be undeleted so that you can add such sources later.

Contact deleting admin

When you seek to overturn a deletion, you can often sort things out by having a quiet word with the deleting administrator. Post on their talk page, or ping them on your talk page. Make sure you present your best case for establishing the notability of the entity.

Remember that the deleting administrator is human too and is simply doing their job of trying to tidy up the project. They're not out to get you, and they're not deleting things out of any hatred of the subject matter. Patience and politeness will do far more to help your cause than impatience and vitriol. Brevity is also good, and please don't repeat information that is already available, or arguments that have already been responded to.

Final appeal

You can appeal the deleting admin's decision by making a public “request for undeletion”. This involves adding a post to the bottom of the Administrators' noticeboard, following the instructions at the top of the page. Here again, it is very important that you lay out, briefly but clearly, your best evidence. For transparency, you should also link to any prior appeals or related discussions.

You're likely to get responses from many project participants, not all of them administrators, and not all from the same perspective. Some of them may disagree with each other. The conversation may run on for several days. This is a normal part of a healthy discussion here on Wikidata. If you do not provide any new supporting information, it will be assumed that there is none.

You should pay attention to the discussion in order that you can answer any questions that are put to you or make any necessary clarifications. You should absolutely not, however, respond to every single comment, continually post walls of text, or repeat yourself. Keep your temper, don't harangue people, and don't play the victim.

While administrator should always be prepared to explain why they took administrative action such as deleting an item, the onus is generally on you to establish that the item meets our notability criteria, and they may have nothing to add beyond what they have already said. It's generally better to get outside perspectives.

Can't I just recreate the item instead with better information?

No. If you do this, the recreation will be detected, the item will be deleted without substantial review, and associated editors will be warned or blocked. You will find it much harder to request undeletion if this happens.

Clean hands

In cases where notability is marginal or unclear, it is necessary for people to make judgement calls. This means that other information about you may come into play.

• You are less likely to receive the benefit of the doubt if it appears that your sole purpose at Wikidata is to create an item for this specific entity. Established users with a history of helping the project will generally receive far more leeway.
• Similarly, if an item has been serially recreated by multiple user accounts, it is likely to be assumed that you are behind all of them, and hence practising block evasion or abuse of multiple accounts.
• If you have a history of creating non-notable items, even on a variety of topics, this will also count against you, as you may be suspected of paid editing.
• Any other unhelpful behaviour such as repurposing of items, evasive responses, or inconsistent claims will also be viewed with suspicion.
• Removing deletion templates from sitelinks (eg. Wikipedia) to prevent deletion and ensure the item gets recreated

Common mistakes

• Offering identifiers and sources that are clearly weak, as described above.
• Insulting respondents or making wild claims of oppression and bias.
• Claiming the existence of excellent sources that you never provide. This includes citing Google Search as a source.
• Insisting that the existence of this item is necessary for some external reason, such as a Google Knowledge Panel.
• Pointing out other items you view as less notable.
• Promising to establish notability after the item is undeleted.
• Appealing to definitions of “notability” that are not rooted in our project's specific definition of the term.
• Uploading personal photos/logos or create categories on Wikimedia Commons to later use as proof of notability

See also

• User:Bovlb/How to create an item on Wikidata so that it won't get deleted