Wikipedia:Drafts
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This is not the page to create a new draft. For that, please see #Creating and editing drafts below. |
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This information page describes the editing community's consensus on some aspect or aspects of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. |
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Subject namespaces | Talk namespaces | ||
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0 | (Main/Article) | Talk | 1 |
2 | User | User talk | 3 |
4 | Wikipedia | Wikipedia talk | 5 |
6 | File | File talk | 7 |
8 | MediaWiki | MediaWiki talk | 9 |
10 | Template | Template talk | 11 |
12 | Help | Help talk | 13 |
14 | Category | Category talk | 15 |
100 | Portal | Portal talk | 101 |
108 | Book | Book talk | 109 |
118 | Draft | Draft talk | 119 |
446 | Education Program | Education Program talk | 447 |
710 | TimedText | TimedText talk | 711 |
828 | Module | Module talk | 829 |
2300 | Gadget | Gadget talk | 2301 |
2302 | Gadget definition | Gadget definition talk | 2303 |
-1 | Special | ||
-2 | Media |
Drafts are administration pages in the Draft namespace where new articles may be stored. They help facilitate new articles to develop and receive feedback before being moved to Wikipedia's mainspace. If you are logged in, creating a draft before directly publishing the article is optional. Editors may instead choose to create draft pages in their userspace, or directly into mainspace, if they prefer.
How drafts work[edit]
Finding drafts[edit]
Drafts are not indexed by most search engines including Google,[note 1] meaning most readers will not find them. Anyone may search and view drafts on Wikipedia directly using Wikipedia's built-in search engine: simply choose "Advanced", then tick "Draft" or "Draft talk" on the list of options (i.e. in this manner). The list of all Draft pages is at Special:AllPages or Special:PrefixIndex. You may also view recent Draft changes to the namespace, newly created drafts or visit a random draft.
Creating and editing drafts[edit]
Anyone, including users who are not logged in, may create and edit drafts. Drafts in the namespace have "Draft:" before their normal title, and also have an associated draft talk page. Users who have VisualEditor enabled will be able to use VisualEditor just like on articles. Registered editors may also move a userspace draft in to the Draft namespace if they choose.
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Incubation[edit]
Incubation was previously done at the Wikipedia:Article incubator. Once in draftspace, incubated articles have the same status as other drafts.
- Articles are incubated as a result of i) a deletion discussion, ii) an undeletion request, or iii) userfication
- An editor moves the article or userfication into draftspace. For example: [[Foo article]] is moved to [[Draft:Foo article]], and [[Talk:Foo article]] is moved to [[Draft talk:Foo article]]. The redirects left at [[Foo article]] and [[Talk:Foo article]] must be tagged for speedy deletion as a cross-namespace redirect using
{{db-r2}}
. - It would be helpful to link to the original deletion discussion and the decision to move the article into draftspace.
Preparing drafts[edit]
- Add the template Draft article, {{Draft article}}, at the top of the draft (not the talk page).
- Disable any categories by inserting a colon before the word "Category". Example: change
[[Category:Living people]]
to[[:Category:Living people]]
Publishing a draft[edit]
Publishing a draft will (for now) require an editor to use the page move function to move it in the Main (article) namespace. This means that anonymous editors, or registered editors not autoconfirmed, will need to request publication by inserting into their drafts the relevant template for page move. Editors may also optionally submit drafts for review via the articles for creation process.
An article created in draftspace does not belong to the editor who created it, and any other registered user can decide that it is done and can be published. Editors who do not want that to happen should use their sandbox or talk page subsections.
Deleting a draft[edit]
Drafts are meant to be works in progress, and most will not meet Wikipedia's standards for quality at first.
Speedy deletion[edit]
The general section of the criteria for speedy deletion may be applied to drafts. Drafts that are copyright violations, vandalism, BLP violations, or blatant advertising or promotion will be speedily deleted. No special deletion policy for drafts has been decided.
Miscellany for deletion[edit]
Drafts are not subject to article deletion criteria like "no context" or no indication of notability. Drafts may be nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion, but not on a primary concern of notability.[note 2]
Deletion of old AfC drafts[edit]
Drafts that were created through the articles for creation process and include the {{AFC submission}} template may be deleted under criterion for speedy deletion G13. Most G13 deletions are listed for deletion by bots, which may also warn and inform the draft creator. Pages deleted under G13 may be restored upon request at WP:REFUND (see Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/G13).
Redirects from drafts moved to mainspace[edit]
Redirects that are a result of page moves from the draft namespace to the main namespace should be retained.[note 3]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Search engines or mirrors that do not respect the robots.txt convention may still index drafts.
- ^ It was determined that the community consensus in this RfC regarding the applicability of Wikipedia:Notability to drafts in the userspace or draftspace amounted to "notability guidelines do not apply to userspace and draftspace drafts".
- ^ It was determined that the community consensus in this RfC regarding draft namespace redirects amounted to "There is a clear consensus against deletion of draft namespace redirects. There is a rough consensus against the alternative proposal to delete draft namespace redirects after six months."
See also[edit]
- Request for Comment for the new namespace on the Village pump (proposals)
- Wikipedia:Namespaces
Learn more[edit]
- See the technical requirements and future development ideas on MediaWiki.org