[WikiEN-l] Civility poll results

[Carcharoth]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 3:15 PM, FT2<ft2.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
> Depends, do we see a lot of fixable articles getting deleted due to quality
> issues? That would be a reasonable resolution. On the other hand if they
> aren't really fixable or they're not encyclopedic, if they haven't much
> chance of surviving AFD even if edited a bit more, then it wouldn't do
> much.

Oh, there are lots of articles deleted at AfD that could be saved.

> What isn't wanted is to keep myriad articles (by definition of unchecked
> quality, missing cites to be added, etc) in draft space forever, even if it

Unchecked quality and missing citations has never been a reason for deletion.

> isn't spidered. It would be a working space for articles actively being
> worked on and made ready for the 'pedia, or actively being fixed up for
> issues, or where newcomers could work on an article so's not to get it
> deleted by the next passing admin.

If passing admins are deleting for lack of quality (other than the
strict criteria given by CSD) and/or due to missing citations, could
you tell someone, or have a word with them?

> So one criteria I'd expect would be a communal limit or criteria for
> articles in draftspace. (In the worst scenario, they're works in progress,
> not parking space for BLP nightmares to be dumped indefinitely in case
> someone else randomly fixes them.)
>
> I'd construct draftspace something like this:
>
>
>   - Draftspace is for articles under construction. It is especially
>   encouraged for newcomers and users unfamiliar with Wikipedia editing, as
>   more leeway is given to articles being developed as "drafts" here. It's also
>   useful for major or lengthy articles where a lot of work is involved before
>   the article will be ready for mainspace, and for collaborative drafting.
>   - Draftspace is for articles that have a reasonable chance of becoming
>   viable content. Extra flexibility is given within reason for [[WP:CITE]] and
>   [[WP:CRYSTAL]].
>   - Draftspace is not a license for negative, defamatory or attack pieces,
>   and good quality citations for any negative or highly contentious statements
>   must be added in a timely manner upon request (48 hours of request).
>   - Articles that are deemed too poor in quality for an article, though on
>   a possibly-credible topic, may optionally be moved to draftspace (without
>   redirect) as an alternative at CSD, PROD, or AFD. The article's main editor
>   should be notified.
>   - Draft articles that have not been worked on for some time, and appear
>   abandoned, may be PRODed for deletion. However an article draft that appears
>   harmless and non-contentious, and may form a basis of a credible future
>   article, then it may be left long term in draftspace, or (if suitable) moved
>   to mainspace as a stub.
>   - There is no formal requirement for a draft article to be moved to
>   mainspace. Draftspace is a working space, intended to help new editors to
>   develop an article and get feedback, aside from the main encyclopedia.
>   Articles may be moved between draftspace and mainspace as editors see fit.

You might want to actually look at examples of draft articles in
userspace before going ahead with something like that. I'll give you
an example from my userspace to start with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Carcharoth/Article_incubator/Eddington_experiment

Look on the talk page as well.

It should be easy to find others.

On a search for "incubator" in user namespace, I found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jhony/Incubator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MJKazin/AtricleIncubator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Soumyasch/Incubator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dravecky/Genre_conventions_incubator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Carcharoth/Article_incubator

Also, see this search for "draft" in the title of user namespace pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&redirs=1&search=intitle%3Adraft&fulltext=Search&ns2=1&title=Special%3ASearch&advanced=1&fulltext=Advanced+search

Remember that not all drafts have that in the page title.

It might even be possible to just add a category to all userspace drafts.

Carcharoth