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Extension:DeletePagesForGood
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Description

Hello again!
So, when I created this wiki, originally it was going to be a concept of a project for Bulbapedia (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/), but later I scrapped that idea and turned into a Super Mario wiki (in portuguese).
But until I changed the idea, I have imported various templates and files from Bulbapedia to neobulba and now, even if I delete the articles, they aren't really deleted. Special:Nuke also don't show a lot of them, for some reason. I'd like to delete them (for real) because I don't think anybody wants to find a lot of Pokémon templates on a wiki like this (that doesn't even work the same way anymore)
I found this extension made by Paladox and I'd like to see if it works on my wiki (they said it wasn't updated, but still listed as "stable")

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DeletePagesForGood

thanks :)

Event Timeline

Hispano76 renamed this task from Extension request to Extension:DeletePagesForGood.Apr 30 2020, 20:50
Hispano76 edited projects, added Extensions; removed MediaWiki.

I'm not sure if this will be accepted, nor am I sure that we would even want this. It seems to be a variation of the old and now defunct method of oversight, where instead of simply suppressing information from admins through RevisionDeletion, the information was completely removed without a trace and required a system administrator to restore it server-side if there was a mistake made. It almost seems like this extension would not even allow a sysadmin to undo the action via the database, since the page would be permanently deleted from the database.

Well since Paladox is the author I will ask him if he thinks it's appropriate for Miraheze (since it was created in 2015)

I'm not sure if this will be accepted, nor am I sure that we would even want this. It seems to be a variation of the old and now defunct method of oversight, where instead of simply suppressing information from admins through RevisionDeletion, the information was completely removed without a trace and required a system administrator to restore it server-side if there was a mistake made. It almost seems like this extension would not even allow a sysadmin to undo the action via the database, since the page would be permanently deleted from the database.

That's exactly why I want this extension, at least for my wiki specifically, there's literally over 700 pages I imported and I don't want them anymore and just normally deleting isn't good enough in this case I mentioned.

As with any other extension, a review will be necessary.

even if I delete the articles, they aren't really deleted

I'm not quite sure what this means. I get that you want to delete the actual revisions etc. from the database, but I'm not sure why. Is it because of the message you get when viewing a deleted page? Are you trying to save database space?

I guess I'm asking because really I'd personally not want an extension like this near my own wikis! :-) I mean, I'm sure it's good in some circumstances, but the fact that it's completely deleting pages from the database, and trying to manually clean up everywhere those pages are referenced, makes me worried. What if it doesn't do everything, and leaves things in an incomplete state? That might not matter too much, but it could well break things because most of MediaWiki assumes certain things about page IDs. This feels like a sort of dangerous extension to have on a wiki farm!

@Lakelimbo I would interpret the above comment by Samwilson regarding it being "dangerous" for a wiki farm to be a blocker and therefore a declining factor for this extension. As I noted above, if there is any content in your wiki that even regular administrators should not have access to (grossly inappropriate vandalism, copyright violations, libel or defamation, personal info, etc) you can contact a steward who can suppress the data from regular admins. However, a full and complete purge/expungement of deleted material from the database is a permanent and irreversible action, and is not generally desired.

Reception123 claimed this task.

Per @Samwilson and @AmandaCath 's comments, I believe that this extension is dangerous and not appropriate for us as it messes with the database which is never a good idea. Therefore, since there is an safe alternative (see below) I will decline this for the time being

If you need a lot of pages deleted, you are free to create a Phabricator task and give us a list or a link and we will delete them for you with the deleteBatch.php script.

If for whatever reason that doesn't work for you this can be further discussed.

even if I delete the articles, they aren't really deleted

I'm not quite sure what this means. I get that you want to delete the actual revisions etc. from the database, but I'm not sure why. Is it because of the message you get when viewing a deleted page? Are you trying to save database space?

I guess I'm asking because really I'd personally not want an extension like this near my own wikis! :-) I mean, I'm sure it's good in some circumstances, but the fact that it's completely deleting pages from the database, and trying to manually clean up everywhere those pages are referenced, makes me worried. What if it doesn't do everything, and leaves things in an incomplete state? That might not matter too much, but it could well break things because most of MediaWiki assumes certain things about page IDs. This feels like a sort of dangerous extension to have on a wiki farm!

I already explained why I want to delete them. I shifted totally the focus of my wiki and over 500 templates that I imported originally doesn't have any use now (and also, various of them use the standard mediawiki table syntax, which I don't use).
But considering @Reception123's response (about deleteBatch.php), I'll make a request for that. C:

I shifted totally the focus of my wiki and over 500 templates that I imported originally doesn't have any use now

But you can just delete them, in the normal way. There's no need to eradicate their history is there? If you delete them, no one will be able to see them. (There might be a reason; that's why I was asking.)

I shifted totally the focus of my wiki and over 500 templates that I imported originally doesn't have any use now

But you can just delete them, in the normal way. There's no need to eradicate their history is there? If you delete them, no one will be able to see them. (There might be a reason; that's why I was asking.)

organization is what I want. And also, the pages still show up on Special:Nuke for some reason, even though they're """deleted""", but okay then

the pages still show up on Special:Nuke for some reason, even though they're """deleted"""

Hmm that sounds annoying. Is that this bug? https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T183552

the pages still show up on Special:Nuke for some reason, even though they're """deleted"""

Hmm that sounds annoying. Is that this bug? https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T183552

It's a known bug and that's probably the ticket.