Deletionpedia

Deletionpedia

URL	http://deletionpedia.dbatley.com/
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Archive
Registration	None
Available language(s)	English
Current status	as of 29 November 2009 (2009 -11-29)[update]: online, last updated: unknown (Special:Recentchanges has "1 December 2012"); last edit: 2011-03-20;[1] last Wikipedia article logged: 中国 屋顶形制 at 2009-11-29, 14:05:43.06[2]

Deletionpedia is a web site containing articles deleted from English Wikipedia. Its articles preserve most Wikipedia article content and its version of each article includes a header with more information about the deletion such as whether a speedy deletion occurred, where the deletion discussion about the article can be found and which editor deleted the article.

Function

The site is based on MediaWiki and is no longer collecting deleted articles or being updated. Deletionpedia collected 63,424 articles, limited to those deleted from Wikipedia between February and September 2008.^[3] The site functioned as something of a "wikimorgue"; it had been automatically collecting articles deleted from Wikipedia.^[4]

In addition to categories preserved from Wikipedia, Deletionpedia has its own categories for articles, based upon the deletion criteria. Pages are organized by the month in which they were deleted, by the number of editors that had worked on a page and by the length of time the article had existed on Wikipedia - nearly 2000 pages were over 1000 days old before they were deleted.^[5]

Deletionpedia states that it avoids hosting deleted pages that are copyright violations, pages with serious libel problems, pages whose full revision history is still available on Wikipedia's sister sites, and pages which set out to offend others.^[6]

Articles preserved by Deletionpedia have been deleted from Wikipedia for a variety of reasons, from "being uninteresting," to (alleged) "manipulation by political and business interests."^[7] Since the site is read-only, it seeks no donations, suggesting instead that supporters donate to mySociety or to the Wikimedia Foundation.^[8]

The site does not appear to be currently updating; a message appearing since April 5, 2008 states

Sorry about the recent downtime - this was due to high load on the database, so we've improved our database hosting. We're also not uploading new pages for a week or two while we make some other improvements too (although we're still keeping recently deleted pages safe).^[9] Full service will resume ASAP.

—Deletionpedia Main Page, ^[10]

Reactions

The Wall Street Journal cited it as a response to the culture clash that exists on Wikipedia between deletionists and inclusionists.^[11] The Industry Standard calls it “a fine research project for sociology students to study what groupthink does when applied to a community-built compendium of knowledge.”^[12] Shortly thereafter, the Industry Standard again turned its attention to Deletionpedia, reporting that deletion of the article in Wikipedia about Deletionpedia was itself under discussion, suggesting that the article was not being considered for deletion based on “insignificance of the site” but rather “due to perceived criticism of Wikipedia itself.”^[13] Deletionpedia also made news at De Telegraaf, the website for the largest daily morning Dutch language newspaper,^[14] and the The Inquirer, a British technology tabloid website.^[15]

The site has been more fully explored by Ars Technica^[16] in an article that not only describes aspects of the website but mentions the controversy over deleting the Wikipedia article on Deletionpedia.

See also

• Reliability of Wikipedia
• Deletionism and inclusionism in Wikipedia
• Rejecta Mathematica

References

1. ^ "Deletionpedia - Sysop User contributions". deletionpedia.dbatley.com. 2011-03-20. Archived from the original on 2011-06-20. http://www.webcitation.org/5zb74rKx6. Retrieved 2011-06-20. 
2. ^ Deletionpedia latest log of Wikipedia updates
3. ^ Category:Deletionpedia:Pages by deletion date, from the Deletionpedia website
4. ^ Schneider, K.G. (September 26, 2007). "Wikipedia's Awkward Adolescence". CIO Magazine (International Data Group). http://www.cio.com/article/print/141650. Retrieved 2008-09-27. 
5. ^ "Pages on Wikipedia for 1000 or more days". http://deletionpedia.dbatley.com/w/index.php?title=Category:Deletionpedia:Pages_on_Wikipedia_for_1000_or_more_days 
6. ^ Deletionpedia:Archive, from the Deletionpedia website
7. ^ Henning Steier (19 Sep 2008). Friedhof der Wikipedia-Artikel. 20 minuten. http://www.20min.ch/digital/webpage/story/Friedhof-der-Wikipedia-Artikel-23217219 
8. ^ Deletionpedia:Donate, from the Deletionpedia website
9. ^ Deletionpedia:Archive, from the Deletionpedia website saved article log
10. ^ Deletionpedia Main Page
11. ^ Wikipedians Leave Cyberspace, Meet in Egypt, by James Gleick. The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2008
12. ^ Deletionpedia: Where Wikipedia entries go to die, by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira. The Industry Standard, posted September 17, 2008.
13. ^ “A Catch 22 for Wikipedia: Should the Deletionpedia entry be deleted?” by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira. The Industry Standard, posted Sept. 19, 2008.
14. ^ Rustplaats voor afgedankte Wiki-bijdragen (Dutch), a September 2008 article from De Telegraaf
15. ^ Deletionpedia: Gelöschte Wikipedia-Artikel zum Nachschlagen

    This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia., a 18 September 2008 article from The Inquirer.

16. ^ Deletionpedia: where entries too trivial for Wikipedia live on an article from Ars Technica posted Sept. 22, 2008

External links

• Official site