Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

Alternatives to Deletion

If you find a problem with an article, consider some alternatives that might make the author of the article feel better, while protecting the quality of Wikipedia. These alternatives also have the advantage of not requiring an administrator’s help:

• If there’s nothing on the page worth keeping, try to identify a related page that’s useful to readers, and create a redirect (For Old Names and Bad Spellers: Redirects). Redirects work particularly well when the editor who created the page has lost interest and stopped editing, and that would be the only person objecting.

• Move the page to a new subpage in the user space of the editor who created it. This approach (called userification) is particularly good for articles where it’s unclear that notability can ever be established. It challenges the editor to find sources, or let the page languish. Make sure that you put a note on the user talk page about what you’ve done, with a link to the new subpage, and offer to help explain policies and guidelines further if the editor would like. (For further information, see Wikipedia:Userfication, shortcut WP:UFY.)

  Note

  Userificiation is excellent for a page that’s well-meant but has little hope of ever becoming a valid article. After you move the page to userspace, your note should also mention that there are other places where the writing might really belong (WikiInfo.org and WP:TRY are particularly good things to include). Also ask that the editor delete the contents ...