Administrator instructions for Categories for discussion:

Normally, only close discussions if they have been open to participation for more than a week. However, if speedy criteria for categories apply and the nomination is unopposed, the discussion can be closed after 48 hours.

Consider adding ((closing)) just after the section header to indicate that a close is in progress if you expect it to take significant time.

Check that the nominated category pages were tagged. If a listed category was not tagged, your close (in respect of that category) should be "procedural close" as an invalid nomination, after which no action is required. Alternatively, tag the category pages and relist the discussion on the current day's CfD log.

Determine whether consensus to delete or rename has been reached. See: Deletion guidelines for administrators.

A nomination may result in any outcome, e.g. a proposed renaming may end in consensus to delete.

The decision to keep or delete a category is to be implemented only after the discussion for that category has been closed.

For discussions where the result is Keep or No consensus or Procedural close, you can just use XFDcloser, which should handle all required actions. However, please check that the action is correctly recorded in the ((Old CfD)) template, as it is sometimes omitted.

For discussions where the result is Delete, you can use XFDCloser to close the discussion, and then list the name of the category at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working#Empty then delete in the format specified in comments on that page. For some categories additional manual actions are necessary, but nothing will go wrong if the category sits there and you let one of the people who watch that page do the manual work.

Merge results follow the same procedure (with the same caveat), except the section to use is Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working#Merge then delete

Rename results can be done following a similar procedure (using Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working#Move).

The Merge or Rename options in XFDcloser prompt the closer to enter the target category in each case, but currently make no use of this information. It is therefore recommended to use the Custom option instead for merges and renames, followed by "No automated actions". The Custom option can also be used for splits and other outcomes.

Closing the discussion at the CfD log page

After the category's section header, add: ((subst:cfd top|'''result''')) ~~~~ You may state a rationale after the result if desired.

(result should usually be Delete, Merge, Rename, Keep or No consensus)

At the end of the category's section, but before the next category's section header, add: ((subst:cfd bottom))

After closing the discussion, the section will look like this:

Category:Example category

Rarely, CFD discussions are arranged at multiple levels on the daily CFD log page. To avoid confusing AnomieBOT, which automatically updates the count of open discussions at WP:CFDAC, use ((cfd top)) at the top of a (4th-, 5th-, or 6th-level) section to close it and all its subsections, and ((cfd-bottom)) at the bottom of the section as a whole to wrap all the subsections. Alternatively, if a section will not be closed because its subsections will be closed individually, enter <!-- CFDClerk: This section heading isn't a discussion --> at the top of that section.

Implementing a keep, no consensus or procedural close

WP:CFD/W#Retain may be used to automate this task if multiple pages were nominated simultaneously. Otherwise proceed manually as outlined below.

Add a link on the category's talk page to the discussion sub-page, preferably using ((Old CfD)):

((old cfd | section heading | date = date of nomination | action = action proposed by nominator | result = result ))

• the default section heading is the category name, so that parameter can often be omitted
• date should be added in the same format as on CfD daily subpages, i.e., Year Month Day
• the default action is "delete", but it can also be "merge", "rename" or something else
• the default result is "Keep", so that parameter may be omitted, but it can also be "No consensus" or "Procedural close" or something else

Edit the category page and remove the script that was inserted when the ((cfd)) or other Cfd template was substituted.

If the category page becomes a redirect, fix double redirects.

Implementing a rename, merge or delete

NOTE: If the decision or decisions affect a large number of articles (thousands), don't list the close in the normal sections. Instead, list them at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Large. The bot will process these separately.

Otherwise proceed as follows:

• List it under the appropriate section of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working. Include the link to the CFD day page above the listing.
• Go to the old category and check "what links here". If there are links or redirects to it, update them. Start with any navbox templates; also update category pages, articles, and manually-edited pages such as sub-pages of portals and active WikiProjects, but ignore "article alert" subpages, user pages and talk pages. If you cannot detect where the link comes from it is probably from a template transcluded on the page, and if you have updated the template then the link on the page will be updated automatically after a while, so you can safely ignore the link; you can test this by making a null edit to force the update.
• To Rename:
  1. Move the category page to the new name and enter a link to the discussion in the log, including brackets [[ ]]. The "move" command has a few options, one of which leaves a ((category redirect)) at the old name; un-tick this if the redirect will not be useful (most cases). The option to move the category talk page to the new name should usually be ticked. After moving the page, edit the new category page to remove the CFD template and make any other necessary changes including sort keys. Then go back to the old category name, and update each of the member pages or sub-categories.
  2. Renaming over an existing redirect: check the page history at the new name, and decide if it is significant. If the page history is not worth keeping, manually move the current category page to the new name and delete the existing redirect. Otherwise, manually update the pages, then update the Wikidata link (see below).
  3. Where the old name was ambiguous: check whether categories exist for other meanings, and if so use ((category disambiguation)) at the old page.
• To Merge:
  1. Consider moving page content from the nominated category to the target category e.g. explanations, portals and other navigation links, and especially – if appropriate – additional parent categories. In addition, merge any relevant content from the old talk page to the target talk page. The old category page will have to be manually deleted after the contents have been moved, unless it should be redirected.
  2. With a downmerge (when a category is merged to its own sub-category), the bot transfers the parent categories incorrectly. So before the merger, at the page of the target subcategory, replace the nominated category by the parent categories of the nominated category.
  3. Where the category page is moved, bots automatically update interwiki links to corresponding categories in Commons and other language Wikipedias via Wikidata. For merges, consider if this should apply. If "Wikidata item" appears in the "Tools" menu on the old category page, use it to update the enwiki link and English title at Wikidata. If both old and new pages have Wikidata items, consider merging them.
• To Delete:
  1. After links have been fixed, delete the category and/or remove it from the Working page.

Some special cases populated by templates

• Eponymous or Works categories for musicians are automatically populated if they exist by Albums and Songs sub-categories. Therefore, first delete the category page, then perform null edits on the albums & songs subcat pages.
• Chronology categories e.g. (dis)establishments, years & decades generally use templates such as ((EstcatCountry)) that automatically generate parent categories. Sometimes these parent categories would only contain a few sub-cats, so it may be undesirable to create them. Instead, create a category redirect at that page to an appropriate target, e.g. using the succeeding country name; in most cases the templates will then resolve the redirect, i.e. they will populate the target category instead.
• Categories for redirects from fictional elements, e.g. Category:Police Woman episode redirects to lists, will likewise resolve category redirects. So will various templates used on image file pages, such as ((Non-free logo)). Just leave a redirect at the old category name, and there will be no need to edit the member pages.
• Military award categories may be partly populated using ((MilAward)). In this case, remove the category name from Module:MilAward/data.
• Categories of Wikipedians by ethnicity and nationality and Wikipedians by interest in a region are often populated by intricate templates that call ((User in region)). Follow the instructions in the templates very carefully, or list such cases at WP:CFD/W/M to be manually implemented by an experienced admin.

Implementing a split

It is recommended to rename the nominated category into one of the two (or three) target categories. For the procedure for renaming see above (whether or not using XFDCloser). If there are interwiki links, check at the end that the most appropriate category is linked at Wikidata.

Before that happens, the other target category/categories need to be created and populated manually.

Alternatively the closer may ask the nominator to implement the split, and/or the closer may list the nomination at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Manual#Split and tag the category with ((Cfd manual)). In the latter case any editor can implement the split at a later date.

Non-admin closures

Non-admins are not able to use the WP:CFD/W page which is regularly referred to above, because that page is protected. Therefore they cannot close discussions that require any actions unless they are prepared to manually implement those actions, or to get help from an admin e.g. by listing the close at WT:CFDW. User:Qwerfjkl/scripts/CFDlister is frequently used for this purpose. Manual implementation requires recategorizing articles in the category in case of a rename, merge or delete closure; it is important to include a link to the CFD discussion in every edit summary.

To request deletion of a category manually emptied for a merge/delete result by a non-admin, tag the page with ((db-xfd|votepage=Log/year_month_day)), e.g. ((db-xfd|votepage=Log/2022_July_10)). Do not use this for renaming, as the page should generally be moved to preserve the page history.

Stub types

In general, a stub type consists of a stub template and a dedicated stub category. Before closing a discussion about a stub type:

• 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.

When documenting the close, add:

((subst:cfd top|stub=yes)) '''result'''. ~~~~

(where result is usually either Delete, Merge, Rename, Keep or No consensus)

At the end of the discussion, but before the next section header, add:

((subst:cfd bottom|stub=yes))

If the decision affects:

• A stub category—follow the instructions above for the category.
• A stub template, and the decision is:
  • Keep or No consensus—remove the ((sfd-t)) or ((sfr-t)) notice from the template.
  • Delete—replace all transclusions of the template with more appropriate stub types, and then delete the template.
  • Rename—move the template to its new name (leaving a redirect) and remove ((sfr-t)). Check incoming links to the old page, and update links from WikiProject and index pages (ignore links from talk pages and discussions). Tag the newly created redirect using ((R to stub template)) (unless you decide to update all the pages that transclude it, in which case you can delete it).

• Wikipedia:Category redirects that should be kept (essay)