Wikipedia talk:Drafts

Contesting draftification?

WP:DRAFTIFY currently states "If an editor raises an objection, move the page back to mainspace and list at AfD." That makes very little sense because the point of nominating an article for deletion is to provide a rationale for why an article should be deleted. This page as it's phrased leads to nominations like this, where no argument for deletion is advanced, which is technically an invalid deletion nomination. Something should probably be changed somewhere to clarify; I'd propose rephrasing it to be like contesting a PROD nomination where users provide an explanation and the user who DRAFTIFIED the article can take it to AfD where they could advance a rationale for deletion. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 00:16, 14 June 2020 (UTC)

• Agree it should be changed. Suggest "If an editor raises an objection, move the page back to mainspace and if it does not meet the notability criteria then list at AFD." Its not worth mentioning prod because the objection to draftifying is a clear challenge to deletion. Also articles about notable subjects are often moved to draftspace because they are unreferenced, badly referenced or one-line stubs, whether that is correct procedure or not, imv Atlantic306 (talk) 18:47, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Appropriate use of namespace

Is this draft of a proposed new en-Wikipedia dispute resolution procedure a proper use of the Draft namespace since it's not an article? I'd like to comment on it, but am not interested in doing so if this is the wrong place for it. This seems more like something for the entire community to comment upon rather than just a single reviewer in the draft review process. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 21:43, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

@TransporterMan: I admit and agree that the draft isn’t an article nor will ever be an article, but the only viable alternative is to create it directly into the Wikipedia (WP) namespace and add a message saying that the page is currently undergoing edits. This isn’t ideal because it’s not fully ready yet and could cause confusion. As well, I wholeheartedly agree that it is vital to receive comments and establish strong consensus before creating a new method of dispute resolution. I created a section on the draft talk page with a link to the original Village Pump proposal. Also, as far as I know, using the draft space for non-article pages isn’t specifically prohibited anywhere, though you may prove me wrong if you would like with the appropriate policy/guideline/information page. You are free and welcome to leave comments on the draft, I don’t see anyone having a problem with it. As a precaution, I have added a notice to the draft to clarify its intended purpose. MrSwagger21 (talk) 00:07, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

I don't know the answer, that's why I asked here. But drafting things like this in the Wikipedia namespace, appropriately marked as a proposal using the {{proposal}} template, has been the practice in the past. I just thought things might have changed with the advent of the Draft namespace. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 16:57, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

It can be in draft but the boxes to submit it for AFC consideration should be removed and noted that it will go in as policy upon a separate approval process. Another option is to move it to someone's userspace sandbox where it can be worked on. AngusWOOF (bark • sniff) 18:33, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

Categories

In Wikipedia:Drafts#Preparing_drafts, the second items says to "Disable any categories by inserting a colon before the word 'Category'". There are now several categories that are intended to be used with drafts (see Category:Draft articles). Should the instructions be modified to say something like: "Disable any main space categories by inserting a colon before the word 'Category'"? BOVINEBOY2008 16:48, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

Launching a completed draft when a mainspace redirect is in the way

Please see the discussion at WP:VPT. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 10:01, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

LINK to DRAFT?

I am working on a page of a notable person, and he is referenced many places in Wikipedia. Can I go to those pages and [[ ]] link him to the page I'm working on, or must it be accepted for publication after review? The page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Claude_Douglas_Sterner_(Doug_Sterner) and Douglas Sterner appears many places in WP.

Thanks Pabobfin (talk) 18:45, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

• It must be published in mainspace first as redirects from mainspace to draftspace are not permitted, regards Atlantic306 (talk) 19:00, 1 August 2020 (UTC)
• The reason draft space articles are there is that they aren't (yet) suitable for presentation to the public as Wikipedia's offerings on their topics. Sending readers to articles that aren't suitable to be presented to them would defeat the purpose of holding them apart in draft space and isn't what we want to do. Largoplazo (talk) 21:14, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Sandbox history from 2019 showing up in current draft

I've been working on this song draft for a month and a half now and realized recently that my sandbox history appears in the page history (I started on the draft June 30, 2020). I don't know what I can do to change this (if it can be fixed) or what I was supposed to have done before creating a new draft. Help would be appreciated. Also my apologies if this is not the correct place to ask, but this is only my second time creating an article so forgive my ignorance. -- Carlobunnie (talk) 02:38, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

It's usual for user-space histories to be included. So, it should be usual for draft-space histories to be included, as well, although I myself have never used draft space for creating articles. I don't see how that inclusion would be a problem. Dhtwiki (talk) 21:01, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

@Dhtwiki: I'm referring to the history of anything done in my sandbox prior to when I started working on this particular draft. Surely the only history in a draft should be the edits related to it specifically and not the entirety of one's sandbox. -- Carlobunnie (talk) 21:34, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

@Carlobunnie: I see (I've created separate subdirectories for each of my articles). If there's something you don't think should be in the article's edit history, perhaps requesting a revision deletion is appropriate here. Dhtwiki (talk) 22:34, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

@Dhtwiki: I read the page and I don't think my draft history meets that criteria? It seems to be more for extreme cases and the like. Do you know of another place I could possibly ask about this? -- Carlobunnie (talk) 04:07, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

@Dhtwiki: I asked one other editor's opinion and they said your rec was appropriate so I have taken your advice. Struck my prev reply. Thank you for your help. -- Carlobunnie (talk) 19:21, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Carlobunnie, What happens with all pages is that a complete record of all work done on it is preserved. I suggest you ask for a revel

May I suggest in future that you give each potential article its own subpage? To create User:Carlobunnie/Foo you enter this in the search box and work from there? Fiddle Faddle 19:41, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

RfD opened which could affect WP:RDRAFT

Watchers of this page may be interested in participating in Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 August 21#Draft:The Pilot Newspaper. I've posed a question in this discussion which may benefit with input from editors who are versed in the purpose of the "Draft:" namespace, specifically regarding redirects and WP:RDRAFT. Steel1943 (talk) 18:57, 21 August 2020 (UTC)