 | This is an essay on the deletion policy. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: WP:G5 does not mean that administrators must delete pages just because they were created by a blocked or banned user (new pages that are obviously helpful can be allowed to stand), but the presumption in ambiguous cases should be to delete. |
Like all rules on Wikipedia, G5 is not a firm rule. Section G5 of the criteria for speedy deletion allows administrators to delete unilaterally pages created by banned or blocked users in violation of their ban or block, and that have no substantial edits by others
. Administrators often use this criterion to combat sockpuppetry and block evasion: if an editor is blocked on one account and then creates a second account to continuing editing in spite of that block, then any page that that blocked editor creates with their second account would be eligible for speedy deletion under G5 as long as no one else has made substantial contributions to it. Importantly, the page must be created while the user is blocked on one of their accounts—it does not apply to any page that the user might have created before they were blocked.
G5 does not mean that administrators must delete all pages created by blocked or banned users; rather, G5 allows administrators to use their discretion to apply the policy in cases where there is sufficient doubt as to whether a particular page is helpful to the encyclopedia. For example, a common use case for G5 is to respond to users who create many sockpuppet accounts to try to create articles about non-notable or borderline-notable subjects. Ordinarily, deletion nominations for lack of notability have to go through a seven-day deletion discussion, but G5 allows us to save time on this process at our discretion if the creator was evading a block or ban—which makes sense because blocked editors should not be editing anyway.
Administrators do sometimes make mistakes and delete pages that are genuinely helpful to the encyclopedia, but such cases are more the exception than the norm. If you believe that an administrator has erred in this way, you can respond either by asking the administrator to restore the content or by recreating the page yourself under your own name.