Wikipedia:User page
If the community lets you know that they would rather you delete some content from your user space, you should consider doing so — such content is only permitted with the consent of the community. Alternatively, you could move the content to another site, and link to it.
If you do not cooperate, inappropriate content will eventually be removed, either by editing the page (if only part of it is inappropriate), or by redirecting it to your main user page (if it is entirely inappropriate).
In extreme cases, your user subpage may be deleted, following a listing on Miscellany for deletion, subject to deletion policy.
What to do if you find someone else's user page being used inappropriately
A user page being used as a personal web page may be nominated for deletion at Miscellany for deletion. A personal image may be nominated for deletion at Images and media for deletion. If you are considering nominating a user page or personal image for deletion because it appears to be used as a personal web page or a blog, please be aware that many editors will consider this a personal attack on themselves, because they may believe they own "my userpage". Be very careful not to scare a newbie away from Wikipedia, and try to assume good faith that they are merely trying to share information about themselves. Try to resolve the issue on the user's talk page first. Also note that a limited amount of personal information (perhaps a short biography) and a freely licensed (never fair use) tasteful personal photograph or two are usually allowed on a user's page in order to show the user's human side, but only if the page complies with other Wikipedia policies. Users with most of their contribution edits outside their user space should be given more leeway in this regard than users whose edits consist solely or mostly of user space edits. And always remember that a user's user page simply being used as a personal web page is not in itself a speedy deletion criterion. User pages that go beyond this into advertising may be tagged for speedy deletion however: most of the speedy deletion criteria apply equally to user space as to main space. The only exceptions are that test edits and the re-creation of deleted material are permitted in user space.
How do I create a user subpage?
In all namespaces except for the article namespace (where articles are created), it is possible to create a subpage of a "parent" page. So if a page is called "PAGE", a subpage of "PAGE" with the name "SUBPAGE" would be located at "PAGE/SUBPAGE".
User:Example/Lipsum is an example of a user subpage for User:Example. Your user page, if it exists yet, is here. If you wanted to create a user subpage called "Sandbox", you would find it here.
New editors and experienced Wikipedians can use subpages to their user page to develop templates and articles, test wikitext markup, and create new articles before moving them to the main Wikipedia space.
There are several common uses for user subpages:
- To place user page-appropriate content on a separate page in order to avoid having a large user page or merely not to conspicuously display it (for example, an awards page).
- To plan large changes to articles, new articles, or allow Wikipedians to draft graphical layout overhauls.
- To delineate views on Wikipedia, its functioning, or behavior of Wikipedians in general.
- To test wikimarkup or LaTeX. User pages and user subpages can be transcluded and substituted, so they behave like templates, and can be tested as such. Pages meant for arbitrary testing are called sandboxes; there is a sandbox for general testing, but not for long-term development.
To link to a user subpage called "Sandbox" from your main user page, place the text
-
[[/Sandbox]]
on your page, or use a piped link with the same source. Make sure to experiment on your user page, not on this page! Do not forget the first forward slash or you will put the page in the main namespace as a regular article and will have to ask for speedy deletion if you save what you write (by tagging the page with {{db-author}}). If your user page does not have a subpage named "Sandbox", the link will appear to be red, indicating that a page has no content, and if you just navigate away without saving any content the page will not be created and there is nothing to delete.
Sandboxes are useful for testing changes to pages, but once you are sure of yourself regarding an edit, you can just click on the "Show preview" button, and proof-read thoroughly. If you need help creating a user subpage, you can get assistance at WP:UPH. You can add an infobox named {{User Sandbox}} to your sandbox. The infobox notes that the sandbox is used to make tests.
How do I delete a user subpage?
You can easily request the deletion of any of your user subpages (or possibly your user page) by adding {{db-userreq}} to the top of page.
Alternatively, you might consider simply making the page redirect to your user page. This is normally sufficient for most people's needs. There may however be a reason for the page to be kept.
Only tag for deletion your own personal pages, and only if you have a genuine reason for requesting a personal subpage of yours be deleted.
Pages which have formerly been in a different namespace and moved to a subpage of the user namespace may not be deleted in this way. These must be listed either at Articles for deletion, or if they were not found originally in the article namespace, at Miscellany for deletion. On the other hand, if you would just like them to be moved back, then by all means ask at Wikipedia:Requested moves.
How do I delete my user pages?
Where there is no significant abuse and no administrative need to retain the personal information, you can request that your own user page and user subpages be deleted.
This is done instead of account deletion because accounts with contributions cannot be deleted as this would allow another user to create the account, and claim authorship of those edits. It is not possible for your edits to be removed entirely; for this reason, removing the account would potentially violate copyrights by allowing for such authorship claims.
Just add to the page: {{db-userreq}}. An administrator will then delete it after checking that the page does not contain evidence of policy violations that may need to be kept. If there has been no disruptive behavior meriting the retention of that personal information, then the administrator can delete the page straight away in order to eliminate general public distribution of the history containing the information. If the deletion occurs immediately, others may request undeletion if they feel there was in fact a need to retain the page. In such a case, the page should be undeleted and listed on Miscellany for deletion for a period of five days following the deletion of the user page. If a user page was deleted because a contributor left, it may be restored by an administrator if the contributor returns, particularly if the history contains evidence of policy violations.
How do I delete my user talk pages?
As a matter of practice user talk pages are generally not deleted, barring legal threats or other grievous violations that have to be removed for legal reasons; however, exceptions to this can be and are made on occasion for good reason (see right to vanish). In addition, nonpublic personal information and potentially libellous information posted to your talk page may be removed by making a request for oversight.
Users who have left Wikipedia may be added to Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians.
What other information is accessible to others from my user page?
In addition to the usual information accessible from an article page such as page history, "Discuss this page" and the like, other users at Wikipedia can also click "User contributions" (in the sidebar or at the bottom of the page) to see what contributions you have made at Wikipedia over time. See MediaWiki User's Guide: User contributions page for more. Please note that having your user page deleted does not delete this list of your contributions.
Visitors to your user page can also click "E-mail this user" if you have opted in your user preferences to be able to send and receive email. See Wikipedia:Emailing users.
See also
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