(06-11-2026, 10:55 AM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: I just noticed that the "delete" page links to an empty or nonexistent page in its warning to the user:
"You are about to delete a page along with all of its history. Please confirm that you intend to do this, that you understand the consequences, and that you are doing this in accordance with the policy." -- where "the policy" is a redlink going to https://allthetropes.org/wiki/All_The_Tropes:Policy.
Now given that page deletion is reserved for the mod team this isn't a terribly big deal, but I went looking and other than a page where we tell people to use the {{delete}} template, we don't actually have a dedicated page about page deletion. We should probably create a relevant policy at some point in our copious free time.
Not only do I agree, I'd like to bring up a related issue. The recent person who asked us to vanish what they consider defamatory information (and that matter is still pending until we get more information) made me realize we need to clarify our policy on that.
Now, the most common solution to this problem involves simply removing the content. However, that does not remove the content entirely. Wikis save prior revisions, and any revision in which content was introduced is still public-facing. Therefore, the next step is to hide those revisions, which makes said revisions invisible to the public.
That said, if the page has hundreds of revisions and the content in question is visible in most of them, even hiding revisions could be a problem. The only step after this that could work is to delete the page, then restore only the latest revision without the problematic content.
I propose we hammer out our policy on that to be a bit more fleshed out for the future. It should be worth noting in said policy that we can do nothing if said content was mirrored elsewhere we do not control, archived via Archival tools, on the Wayback Machine, and so on. Legally, any responsibility we have to remove content deemed legally actionable stops at our wiki.