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All too often, in deletion debates, people churn out references to policies and guidelines without actually relating them to what's best for the encyclopedia, or thinking about them. All too often, this happens at MfD in debates relating to userspace. For instance, someone's userpage will be put up
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apply to blatant abuses of userspace. For instance, a user who is attempting to use their userspace for obvious advertising purposes (for an individual, business, charity or other organisation), and has already been warned that this is inappropriate, may justifiably have their pages deleted through
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which seem only tangentially related to
Knowledge (XXG), if at all. This may include large amounts of information about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, or political and religious views, or may include various wiki-games or "fun" pages. In general, this is because they are new to Knowledge (XXG) and
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Instead, the approach to take is to tactfully try to encourage them to contribute to the encyclopedia. Keeping surplus pages around for a while does not do any significant harm to the encyclopedia; Knowledge (XXG) needs editors more than it needs webspace (and deletions don't actually free up
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Knowledge (XXG)'s most important resource is its contributors. When considering the value of content in projectspace and userspace, don't just inflexibly apply policies and guidelines; think about the impact of the content on editors' feelings, and whether deleting the content may drive them
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In a deletion debate, don't just use trite policy-based catchphrases like "Knowledge (XXG) is not X". While the core content policies serve as reference points, it's always more helpful to relate an argument to
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must be to recruit and retain good contributors. The encyclopedia simply cannot survive without human beings to build and maintain it. This should be taken into account in making decisions, particularly in
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an argument for keeping, as it makes them more likely to contribute to
Knowledge (XXG). Unless it can be shown that the content is harmful, the presumption should be in favour of keeping it.
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a perfectly valid argument when applied to the
Knowledge (XXG) namespace and to userspace. In general, content in these namespaces should only be removed if it's harm
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harm
Knowledge (XXG) is to drive an active good-faith contributor away by threatening their userpages with deletion. So, if you encounter a new user of this type,
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It contains the advice or opinions of one or more
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process, don't just quote inflexible policies and guidelines, and don't blindly follow those who do. For instance, try not to do this:
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are not familiar with the purpose of userspace. Many are younger users, and should be treated with consideration accordingly; all are
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be right. They fail to consider the fact that deleting someone's userpage will drive that contributor away, which is
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Does the content make an editor happy, or strengthen
Knowledge (XXG)'s sense of community and shared enjoyment?
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From time to time, a good-faith editor who is contributing to the encyclopedia will create pages in their own
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333:(such as articles, templates and images) which does not meet Knowledge (XXG)'s policies and guidelines, it
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When content in someone's userspace, or in the
Knowledge (XXG) namespace, is put up for deletion using the
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Frequently, a well-meaning long-term
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54:. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.
16:"WP:EM" redirects here. For the guideline regarding the use of em dashes (—), see
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go for a deletion nomination as the first step. Instead, be nice to them, don't
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process. Such accounts are unlikely to be used for constructive contribution.
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A lot of editors counter valid arguments to Keep by citing the redirect
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a free webhost"; other contributors will automatically agree, because
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who may be affected by how the
Knowledge (XXG) community treats them.
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Remember that deletions don't actually free up space, and, as per
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Knowledge (XXG):Some observant words regarding editing and people
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is a policy, and they assume that anyone who cites a policy must
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the wrong approach, as it is likely to drive the user away.
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Will deleting the page actually do
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Instead, try to consider the following important questions.
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webspace, as deleted material stays in the archives). What
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