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Speedy renaming and merging, for uncontroversial proposals that meet specified criteria—see §Speedy renaming and merging below.
Full discussion, for all other proposals. Discussions typically remain open for at least seven days and are closed once a rough consensus has formed or no objections to the nomination are raised.
Important:In general, do not depopulate a category when nominating it for CfD. If, during (or just prior to) the discussion, you modify the population of a category, or in other ways edit the category while it is subject to a CfD discussion, note that you did so in the CfD (for transparency), and be prepared to revert your edits upon community request. Such editing can hamper other editors' efforts to evaluate a category and participate in the discussion.
If you have an issue with a CfD closure, and discussion on the CfD closer's talk page does not resolve the issue, the process at Wikipedia:Deletion review is used to ask the community to review a CfD closure (as long as all steps are followed), to determine whether or not the close was reasonable and consistent with the spirit and intent of common practice, policies, and guidelines.
Wikipedia:Move review is used for a CfD closure that is limited in scope to renaming.
You may use Twinkle to facilitate CfD nominations. To install Twinkle, go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets and check "Twinkle" in the "Browsing" section. Use the now-installed "XfD" (Start a deletion discussion) tab while viewing the page you want to nominate.
Twinkle only allows you to nominate a single category or stub template. For bundled nominations including multiple categories, see §MassCFD.
If a category is a red link, then it is already deleted (or was never created in the first place) and does not need to be nominated.
If a category is unpopulated, use {{db-catempty}} to request it be speedily deleted in 7 days. Note that some project categories may be empty as part of their typical process cycle.
Before nominating a project category (even if empty!), check Special:WhatLinksHere, to see if the category is (or has been) populated by a template, and if so (or even if the populating template has been deleted), note the template name(s) in the CfD nomination.
If the category is populated solely by a template, and you are proposing to delete both the category and template, then follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion. If the template is a userbox, follow the process at WP:MfD, instead.
Add one of the following templates at the beginning of the category page (not the talk page) of every category to be discussed. For nominations involving large numbers of categories, help adding these templates can be requested at Wikipedia talk:Categories for discussion.
Include "CfD", "CfM", "CfR", "CfS" or "CfL" in the edit summary, and do not mark the edit as minor. Preview before saving.
To add the template for previous nomination days, use the "full" version of the template by appending "full" to the template name, i.e. {{cfd full}}, {{cfm full}}, {{cfr full}}, {{cfs full}} and {{cfl full}}. Use the |day=, |month= and |year= parameters to make the banner link to the correct CfD page.
Consider adding {{subst:cfd notice|Category name|2026 October 26|CfD section name}}~~~~ to the talk page of the category's creator.
For details about these templates, see each template's documentation.
Follow the instructions (visible in edit mode) to copy and paste one of the templates below. When inserting category names into these template's parameters, except the text= parameter, omit the Category: prefix and do not use wikilinks, as the template takes care of this.
If nominating a single category:
For deleting, use {{subst:Cfd2|Obsoletecategory|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion.~~~~}}
For merging, use {{subst:Cfm2|Origincategory|Destinationcategory|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed merge.~~~~}}
For merging to two categories, use {{subst:Cfm2|Origincategory|Destination category1|target2=Destination category2|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed merge.~~~~}}
For renaming, use {{subst:Cfr2|Currentcategory|Proposedname|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed rename.~~~~}}
For splitting, use {{subst:Cfs2|Currentcategory|Proposedcategory1|Proposedcategory2|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed split.~~~~}}
For converting the category into a list, use {{subst:Cfc2|Currentcategory|Proposedarticle|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed conversion.~~~~}}
For other options (containerization, etc.), use {{subst:Cfd2|Currentcategory|type=other type|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed conversion.~~~~}}
For a bundled nomination, use one of the standard templates to build the "Cfd section name" for the first nominated category. After saving that, the second and subsequent nominations must be inserted manually, as follows:
==== Cfd section name ====
* 1stcategory
* 2ndcategory [Make clear whether you propose deletion, merging or renaming]
* Your reason for nominating the categories, and signature.
If a bundled nomination is too long, consider using {{hidden}} to hide some of the nominated categories.
In your reason, use links if mentioning articles or categories. To link to a category, use the colon trick by adding a colon (:) to the beginning of the link, e.g. [[:Category:Foo]].
Preview before saving to check that your nomination is formatted correctly, and remember to include your signature at the end of the nomination.
Stub types
I
Preliminary steps.
In general, a stub type consists of a stub template and a dedicated stub category. Before nominating a stub type for deletion, merging or renaming:
Follow the instructions (visible in edit mode) and paste the following text (remember to update the default parameters):
For deletion, use {{subst:sfd-t2|TemplateName|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion.~~~~}}
For renaming, use {{subst:sfr-t2|TemplateOldName|TemplateNewName|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion.~~~~}}
In your rationale, mention how many articles currently use the template to help other editors. When linking to a category in your rationale, always add a colon (:) to the beginning of the link, like [[:Category:Foo]]. This makes a category link that can be seen on the page, and avoids putting this page into the category you are nominating.
Preview before saving to check that your nomination is formatted correctly, and remember to include your signature at the end of the nomination.
Notifying interested projects and editors
In addition to the steps listed above, you may choose to invite participation by editors who are likely to be informed about a nominated category. All such efforts must comply with Wikipedia's guideline against biased canvassing. In addition, to help make your messages about the CfD discussion clear, avoid Wikipedia-specific abbreviations, link to relevant policies or guidelines, and link to the discussion itself.
Notifying related WikiProjects
WikiProjects consist of groups of editors who are interested in a particular subject. If a nominated category is within the scope of one or more WikiProjects, consider adding a brief, neutral note on their talk page(s) about the nomination. You may use {{subst:cfd notice|Category name|2026 October 26|CfD section name}}~~~~ or write a personalized message.
Notifying substantial contributors to the category
While not required, it is generally considered courteous to notify the good-faith creator and main contributors of the category that you are nominating for discussion. To find the creator and main contributors, check the category's page history or talk page. You may use {{Cfd notice}} to inform the category's creator and all other editors.
Notifying other interested editors
It may be helpful to invite other subject-matter experts by posting a message on the talk page of the most closely related article, such as Protein family for Category:Protein families. You may use {{Cfdnotice}} for this.
Speedy requests must state which of the narrowly defined criteria strictly applies. Hence, any other non-speedy criteria, even "common sense" or "obvious", may be suitable points but only at a full discussion at Categories for discussion.
The nomination and its discussion may get moved further down the page purely for organizational convenience. Categories that qualify for speedy deletion can be tagged with the regular speedy tags with no required delay or listing. Renaming under C2E may be processed instantly (at the discretion of an administrator) as it is a variation on G7.
Opposing
Requests generally take about 48 hours to process after listing if there are no objections. This delay allows other users to review the request to ensure that it meets the criteria and raise any objections.
To oppose a speedy request, insert this immediately under the nomination:
*'''Oppose''': Explain your objection. ~~~~
If you belatedly notice and want to oppose a speedy move that has already been processed, contact one of the admins who process speedy nominations. If your objection seems valid, they may reverse the move, or start a regular CfD discussion. Unless you withdraw your opposition, the nomination may be turned into a regular CfD discussion.
Contested speedy requests become stale and can be untagged and delisted after 7 days of inactivity. Optionally, if the discussion may be useful for future reference, it may be copied to the category talk page, with a section heading and {{Moved from|[[WP:CFDS]]|~~~~}}. If the nominator wants to revive the process, this may be requested at CfD in accordance with its instructions.
Correction of spelling errors and capitalization fixes. Differences between American and British spelling (e.g. Harbours → Harbors) are not considered errors; however, if the convention of the relevant category tree is to use one form over the other, then a rename may be appropriate under C2C. If both spellings exist as otherwise-identical category names, they should be merged.
Appropriate conversion of hyphens into en dashes or vice versa (e.g. Category:Canada-Russia relations → Category:Canada–Russia relations).
Correction of obvious grammatical errors, such as a missing conjunction (e.g. Individual frogs toads → Individual frogs and toads). This includes pluralizing a noun in the name of a set category, but not when disagreement might reasonably be anticipated as to whether the category is a topic or set category.
C2B: Consistency with established Wikipedia naming conventions and practices
Bringing a category into line with established naming conventions for that category tree, or into line with the various "X by Y", "X of Y", or "X in Y" categorization conventions specified at Wikipedia:Category names.
This should be used only where there is no room for doubt that the category in question is being used for the standard purpose instead of being a potential subcategory.
This criterion should be applied only when there is no ambiguity or doubt over the existence of a category naming convention. Such a convention must be well defined and must be overwhelmingly used within the tree. If this is not the case, then the category in question must be brought forward to a full CfD nomination.
This applies only if the related page's current name (and, by extension, the proposed name for the category) is:
unambiguous (so it generally does not apply to proposals to remove a disambiguator from the category name, even when the main article is the primary topic of its name, i.e. it does not contain a disambiguator); and
uncontroversial, either because of longstanding stability at that particular name, or because the page was just moved (i) after a page move discussion resulted in explicit consensus to rename, or (ii) unilaterally to reflect an official renaming which is verified by one or more citations (provided in the nomination).
C2D does not apply if the result would be contrary to guidelines at WP:CATNAME, or there is any ongoing discussion about the name of the page or category, or there has been a recent discussion concerning any of the pages that resulted in a no consensus result, or it is controversial in some other way.
This criterion may also be used to rename a set category in the same circumstances, where the set is defined by a renamed topic; e.g. players for a sports team, or places in a district.
Before nominating a category to be renamed per C2D, consider whether it makes more sense to move the article instead of the category.
Just disagreeing with the article title is not enough reason to oppose a C2D request. Instead, if someone disagrees with the article title, they can start a WP:RM procedure on the article talk page and they can request the CFDS discussion be put on hold while the RM discussion is running. However, arguing that it is desirable to have the article and the category at different titles may be an adequate reason to oppose C2D.
This criterion applies only if the author of a category requests or agrees to renaming within six months of creating the category.
The criterion does not apply if other editors have populated or changed the category since it was created. "Other editors" includes bots that populated the category, but excludes an editor working with the author on the renaming.
This criterion applies if the category contains only an eponymous article, list, template or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories, where applicable.
Nominations should use {{subst:cfm-speedy}} (speedy merger) linking to a suitable parent category, or to another appropriate category (e.g. one that is currently on the article). When listing the nomination at WP:CFDS, you must manually add all the appropriate parent categories as targets if the member page is not already in them.
Admin instructions
Administrators and page movers: Do not use the "Move" tab to move categories listed here!Categories are processed following the 48-hour waiting period and are moved by a bot.
When handling the listings:
Make sure that the listing meets one of the above criteria.
With the exception of C2E, make sure that it was both listed and tagged at least 48 hours previously.
Make sure that there is no opposition to the listing; if there is a discussion, check if the opposing user(s) ended up withdrawing their opposition.
A nomination to merge or rename, brought forward as a full CfD, may be speedily closed if the closing administrator is satisfied that:
The nomination clearly falls within the scope of one of the criteria listed here, and
No objections have been made within 48 hours of the initial nomination.
The closure will be regarded as having been a result of a speedy nomination. If any objections have been raised, then the CfD nomination will remain in place for the usual 7-day discussion period, to be decided in accordance with expressed consensus.
If the category does not match one of the above criteria or you are not sure it qualifies, do not list it here. Instead, use the main CfD process. Requests may be completed if more than 48 hours old; i.e., if the nomination was created before 18:50, 24 October 2026 (UTC). Currently, there are 8,749 open requests(refresh).
To list it here, use the following format on a new line at the beginning of the list:
*[[:Category:old name]] to [[:Category:new name]] – Reason ~~~~
Oppose burial sites, those are usually by dynasty instead of by country. Marcocapelle (talk) 15:49, 17 October 2026 (UTC)
On hold pending other discussion
None currently.
Moved to full discussion
None currently
Empty categories awaiting deletion
The categories listed below have been identified as empty using {{db-catempty}}, and will be speedily deleted after 7 days unless populated. (Note: Due to technical limitations, all contents of the category may not be displayed; view the category directly to see all contents.)
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see the Community portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see the Dashboard.
