Volunteer editors of Wikipedia delete articles from the online encyclopedia regularly, following processes that have been formulated by the site's community over time. The most common route is the outright deletion of articles that clearly violate the rules of the website (speedy deletion). Other mechanisms include an intermediate collaborative process that bypasses a complete discussion (proposed deletion or PROD), and a whole debate at the dedicated forum called Articles for deletion (AfD). As a technical action, deletion can only be done by a subset of editors assigned particular specialized privileges by the community, called administrators. An omission that has been carried out can be contested by appeal to the deleting administrator or on another discussion board called Deletion review (DRV).
Occasionally, deletion instances attract public attention, causing controversy or criticism of Wikipedia or other entities. Conventions and practices of deletion have caused a long-lasting controversy within the Wikipedia community, with two schools of thought forming, one generally favoring deletion as a conventional and relatively routine practice (deletionism) and the other proposing broader retention (inclusionism).