I'm starting to like where this proposal is going. I have some suggestions that I'd like to throw out for feedback:
- AfD would be turned off for the first two weeks of the month (1st -14th). During this time no nominations or "votes" are allowed. Any article not nominated by the last day of the previous month would have to wait until the 15th. Existing AfDs would continued to be closed. Speedy deletion criteria would still be in effect.
- The second week of the month (8th-14th), all mainspace article creation would be turned off. This could be enforced through software by only allowing article creation by admins (and this would be strongly discouraged). Talk pages and pages in other namespaces could be created by all registered users.
- Starting on the 15th, Wikipedia would return to operating as usual (for the rest of the month).
I believe that the result of these changes would be to create a cycle in which more articles were developed into "real" articles rather than remaining substandard. It also cuts AfD's status to part-time. There probably would be a flood of nomination on the 15th of each month, but by this point every article would have had at least one full week to improve and likely closer to two weeks.
Again, this is just a rough proposal, but I believe it could be developed into a very workable policy.
Carbonite