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User Guide: Deleting Places
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Deleting Places
Wikimapia has a feature to mark places for deletion. When marking them, the user is challenged with the question "Why you want to delete this place?" in the form of a multiple-choice question. Possible responses are listed at User Guide: Deletion criteria.
Sometimes we come across place tags that seem to conflict with the guidelines we use when creating tags. Perhaps they are “my house”, or the rectangle is much too large, or there is abusive language, or the photo(s) are inappropriate, or ... ... . Surely these place tags do not deserve to be in Wikimapia, and they should be deleted immediately, if not sooner? Well, maybe; and maybe not!
In general we should use the same guidelines when deleting places as we do when creating them, but there are some additional things to consider when deleting. For example, the place may have been vandalized (title/description deleted or changed, incorrect or silly stuff added, moved from where it was originally placed, etc. etc.), it may have been added in an incorrect language, there may be other language pages that do not deserve deletion, the possibilities are almost endless.
Golden Rule #1 with deletions is that your first thought should always be to correct the place tag’s information to make it a useful contribution to Wikimapia. So, first rest your mouse cursor over the place tag’s Menu and check some things: Is there an edit history? Is there a resize history? And check the bottom right corner for other languages.
If the place tag contains incorrect information, or maybe a mix of abuse or spam along with some good, then just edit it and put in the correct information. Or if a previous version was vandalized (Many vandals replace good, well described places with single word profanities or other rubbish.) you can restore that one (click on History, Prev, Edit and Save).
If you are 100% sure the location is wrong, just move it. If you can not move it to the right location, create a new tag in the right place, copy the required content from the old (wrongly placed) tag to the new one, and then delete the old one.
If the place tag already contains multiple languages, things can be even more complicated, since you really ought to consider (and do something reasonable with) those contents as well.
Some place tags are written in a language that is different from what it claims to be. Most commonly the English-language page contains non-English text. These are not grounds for deletion, however; you can read about this situation in the Languages section of this User Guide.
What kinds of place tags are most often deleted?
If none of the above considerations are relevant, how do you determine whether to delete a place tag? In my experience the vast majority of deletable place tags fall into one of the following categories:
- “My house”, “I live here” - For personal houses, the thing to remember is that local conditions are different from place to place. In the US and Canada all personal homes are to be deleted, unless they meet the full criteria in the Adding section of this User Guide. In places like India, properly sized homes that have a person's full name and/or instructions on how to find their house are not deleted. [On the other hand, we would delete a place like "Nandini's House" because we assume that there's more than one woman named Nandini in India.]
- Too big – the rectangle is MUCH too large for something that claims to be a single building, and there is no way to tell which specific building inside the rectangle is intended to be the actual described place.
- Duplicates - Two or more tags for the same place. One of them should be edited and improved (if possible) and the other(s) deleted.
- Inappropriate language - Places with offensive or abusive language.
- Advertising or spam.
- Political or religious content that cannot be effectively removed by editing - e.g. the whole tag is a partisan statement.
If there is any other problem with the place tag, don't hesitate to bring it up in the Forum. The forum's Place Deletion Requests thread is a long and ongoing thread about deletion discussions.
Deleting Places Q & A
How do I delete a place?
- If you are an unregistered or very new user (a UL0), you cannot delete a place. UL1s may delete unprotected places, and UL2s may delete protected places.
- To delete a place, please first remove any offensive language in the Title or the Description. If the polygon is disruptive, please change it to be less so, if possible. This prevents the offensive information or disruptive polygon from remaining visible during and shortly after the deletion period and from appearing in search engine results.
- Otherwise the mechanics are quite simple: just select the “Delete place” option from the place tag’s menu, and then click the Ok button.
How many places can I delete per day/week?
That depends on your user level and how long you have been registered. Initially you can only delete a handful per week, but this limit will increase (forum thread 250). So be patient!
I found some places that should be deleted, but I can't delete any more since I am only a level 1 user. What should I do?
If they are in urgent need of deletion, you can bring them to the attention of the Forum. Just post a message in the Correction Support section and tell us exactly why they should be deleted, and please translate non-English tags for us so we can determine for ourselves whether we agree with your assessment. If they are less urgent, you can just change the title to include the phrase “Marked for Deletion”. There are a number of level 2 users who regularly search for places like this and delete them, if warranted.
It is helpful if you center WIKIMAPIA on the place(s) you wish to be deleted, zoom in to an appropriate magnification and then copy the exact URL(s) visible in your browser's navigation window.
If you have a long list of such "please-delete" URLs to submit in the relevant forum, then please submit them grouped together in fives with each group separated by one line.
How long does it take for a Deletion Request to be completed?
When you complete the "How do I ..." steps above, the place is in fact not deleted immediately. It is instead flagged for deletion after a certain time has elapsed. This period of time varies, and depends on the user level of the requestor and on whether the tag is approved or non-approved. Non-approved places will disappear quicker than previously approved places, and requests by more privileged users will be completed more quickly than those of less experienced users. Until the deletion request has been completed it is still possible to cancel the request; afterwards the place will only be visible in the Deleted Places layer (although even from there it is possible to Undelete it).
How long does it take for a "deleted" place to actually disappear entirely?
There is no specific period. Places that have been deleted remain visible in the View->Deleted places layer for a period of time (so they can be undeleted, if the deletion was in error or malicious), and only after that do they disappear entirely.
Someone deleted my place. Is there a way to find out why that happened? Is it possible to register for notifications if someone requests deletion of certain places?
There is no way to be notified. But we can help you by semi-protecting your places. Then they can be deleted only by advanced users. You can undelete them and post their locations in the Vandalism section of the Forum with a request for protection.
How do I know if one of my places has been deleted?
There is no direct way to find out, but if you are a registered user, you can sort though your Created places by pressing the blue number next to it. If you have any deleted creations, then the words "deleted" will appear in red next to the title of the tag you had created. Deleted places still contribute to your “Created places” count.
In China, there are many place tags marked ?????(cn). Should I delete them?
No, you should not delete them. When you see question marks like that, it almost certainly means that it is written in a character set that you do not have loaded on your own computer. And there is an important point to note here: If you do not understand it (you cannot read the language because you do not speak it), then you should not delete it!
