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Wikipedia:Categories for discussion

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"WP:CFD" and "WP:CFR" redirect here. For criteria for deletion, see Wikipedia:Deletion policy § Reasons for deletion. For criteria for redaction, see Wikipedia:Revision deletion § Criteria for redaction.
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Proposed deletion

Categories for discussion (CfD) is the central venue for discussing specific proposals to delete, merge, rename, or split categories and stub types in accordance with the guidelines for categorization, category naming, and stub articles.

For detailed instructions about using CfD, see § How to nominate a category for discussion below. Briefly, nominations are handled through one of two processes:

  1. Speedy renaming and merging, for uncontroversial proposals that meet specified criteria—see § Speedy renaming and merging below.
  2. Full discussion, for all other proposals. Discussions typically remain open for at least seven days and are closed once a rough consensus has formed or no objections to the nomination are raised.

Except in uncontroversial cases such as reverting vandalism, do not amend or depopulate a category once it has been nominated at CfD as this hampers other editors' efforts to evaluate a category and participate in the discussion.

If a discussion on the request closer's talk page doesn't resolve the issue, Move review can be used to contest CfDs limited in scope to renaming and evaluate whether the closure was consistent with the closing instructions. CfDs involving deletion should instead be reviewed at Deletion review.

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XFD backlog
V Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
CfD 0 0 75 51 126
TfD 0 2 26 3 31
MfD 0 0 2 0 2
FfD 0 0 8 1 9
RfD 0 0 21 24 45
AfD 0 0 0 2 2

For general discussion about how to improve the category system, use other appropriate venues such as Wikipedia talk:Categorization, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Categories, and relevant WikiProjects' talk pages.

Current discussions

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Add a new entry

Closing procedure

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Main page: Wikipedia:Deletion process § Closing discussions that have run their full time
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After seven days, an administrator (or possibly a non-admin) will determine if consensus has formed, and close the discussion. If appropriate, the discussion instead may be relisted to allow for more discussion. Editors closing discussions must follow the administrator instructions and implement the result or log it at the Working page to ensure it is implemented. As noted at Wikipedia:Deletion process#Non-administrators closing discussions, non-admins may follow the process at Wikipedia talk:Categories for discussion/Working, and list discussion results there for an admin to review, and to log to the page directly.

Discussions awaiting closure

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How to nominate a category for discussion

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Nomination procedure

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Twinkle

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You may use Twinkle to facilitate CfD nominations. To install Twinkle, go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets and check "Twinkle" in the "Browsing" section. Use the now-installed "XfD" (Start a deletion discussion) tab while viewing the page you want to nominate.

Twinkle only allows you to nominate a single category or stub template. For bundled nominations including multiple categories, see § MassCFD.

MassCFD

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You can use the script User:Qwerfjkl/scripts/massXFD to automatically make mass nominations.

Manual nominations

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I
Preliminary steps.

Before nominating a category:

In the following special cases:

For further information, see Wikipedia:Categorization and Wikipedia:Manual of Style.

II
Edit the category.

Add one of the following templates at the beginning of the category page (not the talk page) of every category to be discussed. For nominations involving large numbers of categories, help adding these templates can be requested here.

Otherwise, if nominating a single category:
If nominating a group of related categories, use a bundled nomination:
  • For deleting, use {{subst:Cfd|CfD section name}}
  • For merging, use {{subst:Cfm|Other category|CfD section name}}
    • For merging to two categories, use {{subst:Cfm-double|Other category 1|Other category 2|CfD section name}}
  • For renaming, use {{subst:Cfr|Proposed name|CfD section name}}
  • For splitting, use {{subst:Cfs|Proposed name 1|Proposed name 2|CfD section name}}
  • For converting the category into a list, {{subst:Cfl|Proposed name|CfD section name}}
  • For other options (containerization, etc.), use {{subst:Cfd|type=nature of proposed discussion|CfD section name}} (see Template:Cfd/doc#Optional parameter)
  • Include "CfD", "CfM", "CfR", "CfS" or "CfL" in the edit summary, and do not mark the edit as minor. Preview before saving.
  • To add the template for previous nomination days, use the "full" version of the template by appending "full" to the template name, i.e. {{cfd full}}, {{cfm full}}, {{cfr full}}, {{cfs full}} and {{cfl full}}. Use the |day=, |month= and |year= parameters to make the banner link to the correct CfD page.
  • Consider adding {{subst:cfd notice|Category name|2025 December 11|CfD section name}} ~~~~ to the talk page of the category's creator.
  • For details about these templates, see each template's documentation.
III
Create the CFD section.

Click THIS LINK to edit the section of CfD for today's entries.

Follow the instructions (visible in edit mode) to copy and paste one of the templates below. When inserting category names into these template's parameters, except the text= parameter, omit the Category: prefix and do not use wikilinks, as the template takes care of this.

If nominating a single category:
  • For deleting, use {{subst:Cfd2|Obsolete category|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion. ~~~~}}
  • For merging, use {{subst:Cfm2|Origin category|Destination category|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed merge. ~~~~}}
    • For merging to two categories, use {{subst:Cfm2|Origin category|Destination category 1|target2=Destination category 2|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed merge. ~~~~}}
  • For renaming, use {{subst:Cfr2|Current category|Proposed name|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed rename. ~~~~}}
  • For splitting, use {{subst:Cfs2|Current category|Proposed category 1|Proposed category 2|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed split. ~~~~}}
  • For converting the category into a list, use {{subst:Cfc2|Current category|Proposed article|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed conversion. ~~~~}}
  • For other options (containerization, etc.), use {{subst:Cfd2|Current category|type=other type|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed conversion. ~~~~}}
For a bundled nomination, use one of the standard templates to build the "Cfd section name" for the first nominated category. After saving that, the second and subsequent nominations must be inserted manually, as follows:
==== Cfd section name ====
* 1st category
* 2nd category [Make clear whether you propose deletion, merging or renaming]
* Your reason for nominating the categories, and signature.
  • If a bundled nomination is too long, consider using {{hidden}} to hide some of the nominated categories.
  • In your reason, use links if mentioning articles or categories. To link to a category, use the colon trick by adding a colon (:) to the beginning of the link, e.g. [[:Category:Foo]].
  • Preview before saving to check that your nomination is formatted correctly, and remember to include your signature at the end of the nomination.

Stub types

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I
Preliminary steps.

In general, a stub type consists of a stub template and a dedicated stub category. Before nominating a stub type for deletion, merging or renaming:

  • Read and understand guidance for creating stub types and stub type naming conventions.
  • Review the list of existing stub types—be advised, this list may not be comprehensive.
  • If you wish to:
    • Create a new stub type—follow the procedure for proposing new stub types.
    • Delete, merge or rename a stub category only, without deleting or renaming the associated stub template—follow the instructions above this section.
    • Delete or rename a stub template—continue to section II.
II
Edit the template.

Add one of the following tags at the beginning of the template to be discussed.

  • For deletion, use {{subst:Sfd-t|Section name}}
  • For renaming, use {{subst:Sfr-t|Proposed name|Section name}}
  • Please include "SFD" or "SFR" in the edit summary, and don't mark the edit as minor. Preview before saving.
  • Consider notifying the template's creator on their talk page. To find the contributor, check the page history of the stub template.
III
Create the CFD section.

Click THIS LINK to edit the section of CfD for today's entries.

Follow the instructions (visible in edit mode) and paste the following text (remember to update the default parameters):

  • For deletion, use {{subst:sfd-t2|TemplateName|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion. ~~~~}}
  • For renaming, use {{subst:sfr-t2|TemplateOldName|TemplateNewName|text=Your reason(s) for the proposed deletion. ~~~~}}
  • In your rationale, mention how many articles currently use the template to help other editors. When linking to a category in your rationale, always add a colon (:) to the beginning of the link, like [[:Category:Foo]]. This makes a category link that can be seen on the page, and avoids putting this page into the category you are nominating.
  • Preview before saving to check that your nomination is formatted correctly, and remember to include your signature at the end of the nomination.

Notifying interested projects and editors

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In addition to the steps listed above, you may choose to invite participation by editors who are likely to be informed about a nominated category. All such efforts must comply with Wikipedia's guideline against biased canvassing. In addition, to help make your messages about the CfD discussion clear, avoid Wikipedia-specific abbreviations, link to relevant policies or guidelines, and link to the discussion itself.

Notifying related WikiProjects

WikiProjects consist of groups of editors who are interested in a particular subject. If a nominated category is within the scope of one or more WikiProjects, consider adding a brief, neutral note on their talk page(s) about the nomination. You may use {{subst:cfd notice|Category name|2025 December 11|CfD section name}} ~~~~ or write a personalized message.

Tagging the nominated category's talk page with a relevant WikiProject's banner will include the category in that WikiProject's Article Alerts if they subscribe to the system. For instance, tagging a nominated category with {{WikiProject Physics}} will add the discussion to Wikipedia:WikiProject Physics/Article alerts.

Notifying substantial contributors to the category

While not required, it is generally considered courteous to notify the good-faith creator and main contributors of the category that you are nominating for discussion. To find the creator and main contributors, check the category's page history or talk page. You may use {{Cfd notice}} to inform the category's creator and all other editors.

Notifying other interested editors

It may be helpful to invite other subject-matter experts by posting a message on the talk page of the most closely related article, such as Protein family for Category:Protein families. You may use {{Cfdnotice}} for this.

Speedy renaming and merging

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Speedy renaming or speedy merging of categories may be requested if they meet one of the speedy criteria listed below. To nominate a category:

  1. Determine which speedy criterion applies.
  2. Tag the category page with {{subst:cfr-speedy|New name}} or {{subst:cfm-speedy|Merge target}}.
  3. List the request along with a speedy criteria reason at § New requests.

Speedy requests must state which of the narrowly defined criteria strictly applies. Hence, any other non-speedy criteria, even "common sense" or "obvious", may be suitable points but only at a full discussion at Categories for discussion.

The nomination and its discussion may get moved further down the page purely for organizational convenience. Categories that qualify for speedy deletion can be tagged with the regular speedy tags with no required delay or listing. Renaming under C2E may be processed instantly (at the discretion of an administrator) as it is a variation on G7.

Opposing

Requests generally take about 48 hours to process after listing if there are no objections. This delay allows other users to review the request to ensure that it meets the criteria and raise any objections.

To oppose a speedy request, insert this immediately under the nomination: 

* '''Oppose''': Explain your objection. ~~~~

If you belatedly notice and want to oppose a speedy move that has already been processed, contact one of the admins who process speedy nominations. If your objection seems valid, they may reverse the move, or start a regular CfD discussion. Unless you withdraw your opposition, the nomination may be turned into a regular CfD discussion.

Contested speedy requests become stale and can be untagged and delisted after 7 days of inactivity. Optionally, if the discussion may be useful for future reference, it may be copied to the category talk page, with a section heading and {{Moved from|[[WP:CFDS]]|~~~~}}. If the nominator wants to revive the process, this may be requested at CfD in accordance with its instructions.

Speedy criteria

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The category-specific criteria for speedy renaming or merging are strictly limited to:

C2A: Typographic and spelling fixes

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  • Correction of spelling errors and capitalization fixes. Differences between British and American spelling (e.g. Harbours → Harbors) are not considered errors; however if the convention of the relevant category tree is to use one form over the other then a rename may be appropriate under C2C. If both spellings exist as otherwise-identical category names, they should be merged.
  • Appropriate conversion of hyphens into en dashes or vice versa (e.g. Category:Canada-Russia relations → Category:Canada–Russia relations).
  • Correction of obvious grammatical errors, such as a missing conjunction (e.g. Individual frogs toads → Individual frogs and toads). This includes pluralizing a noun in the name of a set category, but not when disagreement might reasonably be anticipated as to whether the category is a topic or set category.

C2B: Consistency with established Wikipedia naming conventions and practices

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C2C: Consistency with established category tree names

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Bringing a category into line with established naming conventions for that category tree, or into line with the various "x by y", "x of y", or "x in y" categorization conventions specified at Wikipedia:Category names

  • This should be used only where there is no room for doubt that the category in question is being used for the standard purpose instead of being a potential subcategory.
  • This criterion should be applied only when there is no ambiguity or doubt over the existence of a category naming convention. Such a convention must be well defined and must be overwhelmingly used within the tree. If this is not the case then the category in question must be brought forward to a full CfD nomination.
  • This criterion will not apply in cases where the category tree observes distinctions in local usage (e.g. Category:Transportation in the United States and Category:Transport in the United Kingdom).

C2D: Consistency with main article's name

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  • Renaming a topic category to match its eponymous page (e.g. Category:The Beatles and The Beatles).
  • This applies only if the related page's current name (and by extension, the proposed name for the category) is:
    • unambiguous (so it generally does not apply to proposals to remove a disambiguator from the category name, even when the main article is the primary topic of its name, i.e. it does not contain a disambiguator); and
    • uncontroversial, either because of longstanding stability at that particular name, or because the page was just moved (i) after a page move discussion resulted in explicit consensus to rename, or (ii) unilaterally to reflect an official renaming which is verified by one or more citations (provided in the nomination). C2D does not apply if the result would be contrary to guidelines at WP:CATNAME, or there is any ongoing discussion about the name of the page or category, or there has been a recent discussion concerning any of the pages that resulted in a no consensus result, or it is controversial in some other way.
  • This criterion may also be used to rename a set category in the same circumstances, where the set is defined by a renamed topic; e.g. players for a sports team, or places in a district.
  • Before nominating a category to be renamed per C2D, consider whether it makes more sense to move the article instead of the category.

C2E: Author request

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  • This criterion applies only if the author of a category requests or agrees to renaming within six months of creating the category.
  • The criterion does not apply if other editors have populated or changed the category since it was created. "Other editors" includes bots that populated the category, but excludes an editor working with the author on the renaming.

C2F: One eponymous page

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  • This criterion applies if the category contains only an eponymous article, list, template or media file, provided that the category has not otherwise been emptied shortly before the nomination. The default outcome is an upmerge to the parent categories, where applicable.
  • Nominations should use {{subst:cfm-speedy}} (speedy merger) linking to a suitable parent category, or to another appropriate category (e.g. one that is currently on the article). When listing the nomination at WP:CFDS, you must manually add all the appropriate parent categories as targets if the member page is not already in them.
Admin instructions

When handling the listings:

  1. Make sure that the listing meets one of the above criteria.
  2. With the exception of C2E, make sure that it was both listed and tagged at least 48 hours previously.
  3. Make sure that there is no opposition to the listing; if there is a discussion, check if the opposing user(s) ended up withdrawing their opposition.

If the listing meets these criteria, simply have the category renamed or merged – follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Administrator instructions, in the section "If the decision is to Rename, Merge, or Delete"; to list it for the bots, use the Speedy moves section.

A nomination to merge or rename, brought forward as a full CfD, may be speedily closed if the closing administrator is satisfied that:

  • The nomination clearly falls within the scope of one of the criteria listed here, and
  • No objections have been made within 48 hours of the initial nomination.

The closure will be regarded as having been a result of a speedy nomination. If any objections have been raised, then the CfD nomination will remain in place for the usual 7-day discussion period, to be decided in accordance with expressed consensus.

For out of process deletions, check Category:Empty categories awaiting deletion. In some cases, these will need to be nominated for discussion and the editor who emptied the category informed that they should follow the CfD process. After renaming, copy and paste the listing to Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Manual.

Current requests

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If the category does not match one of the above criteria or you are not sure it qualifies, do not list it here. Instead, use the main CfD process. Requests may be completed if more than 48 hours old; i.e., if the nomination was created before 13:24, 9 December 2025 (UTC). Currently, there are 252 open requests (refresh).

To list it here, use the following format on a new line at the beginning of the list: 

* [[:Category:old name]] to [[:Category:new name]] – Reason ~~~~

If the current name should be redirected rather than deleted, use: 

* REDIRECT [[:Category:old name]] to [[:Category:new name]] – Reason ~~~~

If human action is required, e.g. updating templates that populate the category, use: 

* NO BOTS [[:Category:old name]] to [[:Category:new name]] – Reason ~~~~

Remember to tag the category page with: {{subst:cfr-speedy|New name}}

New requests

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Opposed requests

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Yes hyphen, my bad. "Seafood head" is used here as a compound adjective, so I thought it might warrant a hyphen. But like "fish head curry", I see from the web "seafood head soup" is also rarely hyphenated, so perhaps the hyphen is unnecessary. — Epipelagic (talk) 01:14, 5 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
I also would have thought it might need a hyphen but for some reason food phrases like this rarely are hyphenated. The current name isn't hyphenated. Mclay1 (talk) 03:33, 6 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It seems not. I haven't contested a category before, and I assumed the logical consequences that follow from "fish are seafood" could only indicate a speedy rename. Should I start an opposed request? — Epipelagic (talk) 04:50, 7 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Probably best to take it to a full CfD, along with Category:Fish and seafood soups. Mclay1 (talk) 23:20, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]


On hold pending other discussion
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Moved to full discussion
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Empty categories awaiting deletion

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The categories listed below have been identified as empty using {{db-catempty}}, and will be speedily deleted after 7 days unless populated. (Note: Due to technical limitations, all contents of the category may not be displayed; view the category directly to see all contents.)

Empty categories awaiting deletion
Sport in Daman and Diu
Cabinets of Kazakhstan
Communes of Binh Thuan province
1919 establishments in Cyprus
1919 in Cyprus
Malaysian people of East Timorese descent
Blondfire albums
2020 in Bulgarian women's sport
Self storage companies of South Africa
Video games set in Lesotho
Video games set in Eritrea
2026–27 in Iranian football
2026–27 in Egyptian football
2026–27 in Qatari football
2026–27 in Moroccan football
2026–27 in Dutch football
Industries in Vijayawada
Industry in Tibet
1945 in Bolivian sport
1946 in Bolivian sport
1945 in Colombian football
1917 in Chilean sport
1945 in Colombian sport
1916 in Chilean sport
1919 in Chilean sport
Sport in Greece by regional unit
Sports clubs and teams in Greece by regional unit
Sri Lankan chicken dishes
Online employment auction websites
Basketball teams in South Africa by province
Populated places in Nam Định province
Seasons in South American international football
Al-Muzahimiyyah Club players
Atlanta Quicksilver players
Paintings in the York Art Gallery
Acid jazz remix albums
Xavier Rudd songs
Congressional delegations from Guam navigational boxes
Congressional delegations from United States Virgin Islands navigational boxes
Congressional delegations from American Samoa navigational boxes
Congressional delegations from the District of Columbia navigational boxes
2026–27 in Scottish football
2026–27 in Belgian football
2026–27 in Australian men's soccer
2021 in Serbian women's sport
2027 in Dutch sport
Robberies in 2025
Side by Side (band) albums
Tayma FC players
Establishments in Guadeloupe by year
Ministers of the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)
Socialist Republican Party (Bolivia) politicians
Vertebrate paleontologists by country
Vertebrate paleontologists by nationality
Railway stations in Spain opened in the 1840s
People from Providence Township, Rowan County, North Carolina
French Christian Zionists
Augustana (Illinois) Vikings wrestling
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin wrestling
Adrian Bulldogs wrestling
Albany Great Danes wrestling
Alabama Crimson Tide wrestling
Arkansas State Red Wolves wrestling
Yale Bulldogs women's lacrosse
Military equipment of the People's Republic of China
501(c)(5) nonprofit organizations
The Hardy Boys characters
Mountain States Conference basketball
People from Le Locle District
People from Neuchâtel District
AFC U-23 Championship finals
Communes of Hai Duong province
Communes of Thanh Ha District, Hai Duong province
Wikipedia featured topics Seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender good content
Wikipedia featured topics Seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender
Works by Peter Pinney
Wikipedia featured topics Seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender featured content
People from La Chaux-de-Fonds District
People from Val-de-Travers District
People from Val-de-Ruz District
Drury Panthers basketball
People from Boudry District
United States Virgin Islands producers
People's Republic of China
Hussein Mussa Muafa
Think tanks established in 1960
Indian chocolate companies
Zimbabwean parliaments
Unwritten Law compilation albums
1846 disestablishments in South America
Wikipedia featured topics 30 Rock (season 4) good content
Wikipedia featured topics Family Guy (season 1) featured content
Wikipedia featured topics 30 Rock (season 4)
Communes of Bắc Giang province
1952 in North American football by country
1953 in North American football by country
1954 in North American football by country
1955 in North American football by country
1956 in North American football by country
1957 in North American football by country
1958 in North American football by country
1960 in North American football by country
1961 in CONCACAF football
1901 establishments in Peru
Fictional drummers
Decorative arts museums in Turkey
Design museums in Turkey
Letter writers in French
Alumni of Yemeni medical schools
Clinical educators
Yemeni medical researchers
General surgeons
1519 disestablishments in Colombia
Halloween in China
São Tomé and Príncipe Roman Catholic bishops
2011 in Finnish women's sport
Boxing matches in the United Arab Emirates
Former chiefdoms in North America
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