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de•le•tion•ism (dĭ-lē'shən-ĭz'əm) n.
- Devotion to the philosophy of deletion
- Desire to improve Wikipedia through the act of deletion
The terms deletionism and deletionist are, for better or worse, a mainstay of Wikipedian culture. You'll find these words tossed around most often in XfD and DRV discussions, but on occasion will surface in other places. Sometimes it is a title voluntarily applied to oneself for the purpose of factionalization. Sometimes it is an expression of a belief or a philosophy. Sometimes it is an invective levelled against someone in an attempt to color their opinion. As the antonym of inclusionism it is used in exactly the inverse situations - but as the useage of both cover the entire spectrum their uses are also exactly alike.
I dare not try to cover the whole deletionism vs. inclusionism debate here, for that far surpasses my ability or expertise to summarize. Nor will I attempt to crystallize the philosophy and nature of the deletionist camp, as each and every one of us has our own particular and individual idea of what it means to be a deletionist. Here I merely attempt to summarize my own thoughts on the matter.