I agree with Travellingcari The tags serve a useful purpose even after the article is brought to AfD and especially so when they have been on the article for a significant length of time They make it clear to visiting editors that any interested parties have had a fair chance to improve the article and hadn t which is often a point used in support of deletion Conversely if the article isn t tagged it s not clear that interested parties have been given a chance to improve the article which may be used to support a keep argument Removing the tag makes the status either way less clear Yes it s available in the history but why make editors go through the extra work of checking the history In addition an AfD can end without reaching a consensus which means the tag most likely still applies and would have to be restored No the time to remove the tag is after a consensus has been reached at the AfD that the subject does meet the notability guidelines i e after it is closed with result keep or in some cases when the eventual outcome is clear per WP SNOW PS no I m not an admin