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The Criteria for speedy deletion (CSD) criteria have been written to tightly define what does and does not qualify for speedy deletion. This is done to ensure that only those articles where clear consensus for deletion exists will be speedily deleted. The criteria are strict because careless or hasty speedy deleters can do just as much, if not more damage to the project than vandals. Poor quality CSD'ers can chase off quality editors by inappropriately deleting their articles. This can be frustrating to a newbie editor and can tarnish Wikipedia's image. Per the policy, Where reasonable doubt exists, discussion using another method under the deletion policy should occur instead.
- Patent nonsense. Pages consisting purely of incoherent text or gibberish with no meaningful content or history. This does not include poor writing, partisan screeds, obscene remarks, vandalism, fictional material, material not in English, poorly translated material, implausible theories, or hoaxes; some of these, however, may be deleted as vandalism in blatant cases.
WP:Nonsense Wikipedia writers and editors contribute a lot of brilliant prose, but occasionally some patent nonsense. This falls into two categories:
- Total nonsense, i.e., text or random characters that have no assignable meaning at all. This includes sequences such as "sdfgdsfkgdshgdkhgdsklhsklgroflmaolololol;;;'dsfgdfg", in which keys of the keyboard have been pressed with no regard for what is typed.
- Content that, while apparently meaningful after a fashion, is so completely and irredeemably confused that no reasonable person can be expected to make any sense of it whatsoever.
Patent nonsense is NOT code for a hoax or vandalism, it is for when the material is so convoluted that you cannot make heads or tails of what the author is saying. If the article is readable and makes sense, even if the idea represented is nonsense, then it doesn't qualify because G1 explicitly excludes implausible theories, vandalism, and hoaxes. In other words, "President Lincoln was born in 2008, but travelled back in time to lead the north to victory over the south." It may be nonsense, but it is not patent nonsense and is explicitly excluded from G1. I reviewed 25 cases of G1 deletions. In 6 (24%) case, the G1 was appropriately applied. In 7 (28%) cases, I felt that the article should have been sent to AFD instead. In 12 (48%) cases, I felt the article should be deleted, but on a different criterion than the one given.