Foreword
In order to maintain our standards of quality, pages found to be substandard are deleted. These deletions are, in the vast majority of instances, decided upon by the community through voting and carried out by the administration. There are exceptions for submissions that are found to be in violation of site policy. Below is a concise explanation of standard deletions policy, special deletions policies, and other pertinent information. No matter the reason for deletion, deletions are always announced, with reasons clearly given.
Grace Period
Pages are typically afforded a grace period of 24 hours after posting, during which time they are not eligible either for deletion and cannot be voted on for such, even if their rating falls below the deletion eligibility threshold of -10. There are circumstances in which this grace period is waived, but generally speaking, it’s safe to assume this applies.
Standard Process
When a page’s rating falls to -10, that page becomes eligible for deletion. As noted, pages are afforded a 24 hour grace period to allow the author opportunity to review feedback and make changes as necessary. Following expiration of this grace period, if a page remains at or below -10, a member of Senior Staff will make a post in its discussion thread, titled Staff Post, suggesting deletion. Only members of Staff are to reply to these posts, and generally will do so in one of three ways: concurring, voting against, or suggesting -ARC. A Staff vote against deletion negates one vote for. -ARC entries are explained later in this guide.
When a page reaches four Staff votes for deletion, a fifth will then delete it. The Mod or Admin who carries out the deletion will make a post in the current deletions thread on the announcements forum, stating the deletion has been carried out, typically confirming the number of votes and the page's final rating. Pages may be deleted by Mods or Admins who voted for deletion, but not by whomever fourthed the vote.
If a page’s rating rises above -10, all Staff votes for deletion prior to this are voided. Should it fall again, voting for deletion must begin anew.
If an author requests a stay of deletion to make edits or rewrite a page, these may be granted. Consideration of these requests is on a case-by-case basis, as oftentimes, the best thing is to start again from a clean slate.
Supplementary pages, such as interviews, incidents, experiment logs, and the like, will generally be deleted when their parent article or page is. There is the possibility that these materials could stand on their own. If this is felt to be the case, or if a supplement is missed during deletion of the parent page, then they will be judged separately.
Early Vote
If a page’s rating falls to -25 or lower, Staff may begin a deletion vote prior to the expiry of the 24 hour grace period. However, the page may not be deleted until the grace period expires. Aside from beginning early, this is identical to the standard process.
-ARC
-ARC refers to pages which have been archived instead of deleted outright. Archived pages are appended with -ARC. There are a few reasons for a page to be archived rather than deleted. Most often, it’s because an SCP is old and referenced in Tales, and its wholesale deletion would muddle works which reference it. There are also things that Staff simply want to keep around, albeit off the main list. The process for archiving a page is identical to the process for deletions, with suggestions for -ARC typically occurring after initiation of the deletion vote, save the page is renamed rather than culled.
Plagiarism and Intellectual Theft
If a page is believed to have copied from another work, in part or in whole, from a work on this wiki or elsewhere, or if it conceptually borrows heavily from another work, it may be deleted on the basis of plagiarism or intellectual theft. A member of Staff will recommend deletion for plagiarism/intellectual theft, and indicate how the page in question is in violation. This is done independently of a page’s rating or age. Aside from beginning early and being conducted regardless of a page’s rating, the process is identical to standard deletions procedure, including the affording of a 24 hour grace period prior to which the page in question will not be deleted. Copies may be retained for record-keeping purposes.
Reasons for Deletion Without Grace Period
Trolling
If Staff believe a page was posted with the intent of trolling, they will vote for expedited deletion. Voting for deletion of troll pages may begin without respect of the page's current rating, and the grace period is waived in its entirety. With the agreement of four members of Staff, a fifth will confirm and delete, with posts made in the announcements forum as normal. Copies may be retained for record-keeping purposes.
Reasons for Summary Deletion
Malicious content, such as links to viruses, sexually explicit material, spam, advertising, and illegal content are all grounds for summary deletion. If a member of Staff believes a page to fall into one of these categories, they will bring it up for consideration in the admin chat channel where, after review, if three members agree, the page may be summarily deleted. Copies may be retained for record-keeping purposes.
Other Pertinent Information
Author Request
If an author should request their material be removed, and be able to prove authorship beyond a reasonable doubt, these requests are granted with no further questions asked.
Self-Deletion
Authors have the ability to delete their own work at any time. This is accomplished by clicking “Options” at the bottom of the page, clicking “Delete”, and selecting checkbox for, “Delete Completely.” Be sure to select “Delete Completely,” as a failure to do this does not remove the page, it simply renames it. These deletions should be announced in the current deletions thread in the Announcements forum, just like any other deletion.
If an author attempts self-delete of their work and fails to do so properly, the page will be reverted. As above, if an author requests the page be deleted, Staff will do so. Barring this, or successful self-delete, the page will be handled according to standard policy.
Votes From Deleted Accounts
All votes on a page from deleted accounts are voided; if a page is at -10 with two downvotes from deleted accounts, that page is treated as being at -8, and would not be eligible for deletion. Similarly, if a page were rated -8, with two upvotes from deleted accounts, that page would be eligible.