Closing instructions for Templates for discussion:

Every day, the TfD discussions more than seven days old should be closed. This relies on the discretion and common sense of the user closing a debate. If you disagree with a decision, please discuss it with that user before contesting the deletion.

Note that by using Wikipedia:XFDcloser the following steps will be semi-automated, but at certain times manually closing a discussion may be necessary. For example, with batch nominations the full list of templates may be hidden or listed on a separate page, at which point XFDcloser may not be able to determine which pages need updating.

1. If it may take significant time to assess the debate and/or do the closing edits, consider first editing the discussion section for the template and adding ((Closing)) just after the section header, to notify others that a close of the particular discussion is in progress. This helps to avoid edit conflicts during the close.
2. Determine whether or not a rough consensus to delete has been reached.
3. After the template's section header, add:

   ((subst:Tfd top|'''Result'''. Reasoning.)) ~~~~

   (where Result is usually either Delete, Merge or Keep)

4. Remove ((Closing)) if you added it earlier.
5. At the end of the template's section, but before the next template's section header, add:

   ((subst:Tfd bottom))

6. Update or delete the related pages according to the relevant subsection below.

Keep, Redirect, or No consensus

If the decision is Keep (including any variant such as Redirect or No Consensus):

1. Add a link on the template's talk page to the discussion sub-page.
   • The template ((Old TfD)) is recommended for this, for example:

   ((Old TfD|disc=section heading (if different than article name)|result=result))

   ((Old TfD|date=date of nomination|result=result))

   ((Old TfD|date=date of nomination))

   (N.B. the date must be in the format: yyyy_Month_dd in other words, the month must be written out, it must be in year month day sequence, and the date must not be wikilinked)

   (the default disc is the template's name, so that parameter may be omitted entirely)

   (the default result is "Keep", so that parameter may be omitted)

   • If the discussion failed to reach consensus, then the template is kept by default, but the decision should generally include a reference to the lack of consensus, in order to minimize ambiguity and future confusion.
2. Remove ((Template for discussion/dated)) or ((Tfm/dated)) from the template
3. If the page becomes a redirect, remember to fix double-redirects. Ensure page protection for the redirect matches that of the template which the page now redirects to, and that page protection for the target template is appropriate for the number of transclusions which may have increased after the redirection.

Delete

If the decision is Delete, the template can be deleted by an administrator after all instances of the template used in pages have been removed.

1. If easily done, remove all calls for the template and delete the template and its subpages. Otherwise,
   1. List the template under the "To orphan" section of Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Holding cell; use ((tfdl|template name|date|section=section heading))
   2. On the to-be-deleted template page, replace ((Tfd)) or ((Tfm/dated)) with <noinclude>((being deleted|YYYY Month D))</noinclude>. For YYYY Month D, use Year, Month, Day date of the nomination (with no leading zero on the day).
   3. Include an edit summary such as "Per close at [[(Link to TfD discussion)]], added ((being deleted))".
2. Look at the categories used by the template. If the template has a matching category that is not used for other purposes (for example, ((cleanup)) and Category:Wikipedia cleanup), delete the category as well.
3. In general, no action is required by the closing user for mere links to a template on a talk page or in project space.

Merge, Review, Convert, or Substitute

If the decision is or includes Merge into another template, or Review, Convert, Substitute, etc.,

1. List the template under the appropriate section of Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Holding cell; use ((tfdl|template name|date|section=section heading))
2. On the to-be-merged template page, replace ((Tfd)) or ((Tfm/dated)) with <noinclude>((being deleted|YYYY Month D))</noinclude>. For YYYY Month D, use Year, Month, Day date of the nomination (with no leading zero on the day)
3. Include an edit summary such as "Per close at [[(Link to TfD discussion)]], added ((being deleted))".
4. If the page becomes a redirect, remember to fix double-redirects. Ensure page protection for the redirect matches that of the template which the page now redirects to, and that page protection for the target template is appropriate for the number of transclusions which may have increased after the redirection.

If after seven days there is no consensus or little participation the closing editor may, at their discretion, choose to relist the discussion. When relisting a discussion:

1. Copy the discussion to the current day's nomination page and add ((subst:relist)) to the end of the discussion
2. Close the old discussion (see § Close above, using Relisted as the result), leaving a link to the new discussion location and then remove or collapse the discussion
3. Update the |link= parameter in the ((Template for discussion/dated)) or ((Tfm/dated)) on the nominated template so that it points to the new location.

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

Template:example template