User:A2soup/Don't use draftspace

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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The Draft namespace (draftspace) is not a "free" drafting space. Though deletion procedures in the draftspace and mainspace differ, drafts often face deletion just as live articles do. Drafts in the draftspace are commonly deleted for any number of reasons, including:

they have not been edited for 6 months (see G13)
they have been declined at Articles for Creation too many times
they duplicate an existing article, even if they are intended for drafting improvements to that article
they do not demonstrate plausible notability
they appear to be "hopeless"

Since the draftspace is not a "free" drafting space, all editors—and especially newbies who do not understand how to avoid draft deletion—should use their userspace for "free" drafting instead. These userspace drafts should not be tagged with {{userspace draft}} (or similiar templates), nor should they be submitted to Articles for Creation, as this adds no benefit and makes it more likely that the draft will be listed at Miscellany for Deletion or, in the latter case, deleted per G13 for the same reasons listed above. The use of the draftspace, Articles for Creation, or {{userspace draft}} should be reserved for cases where community feedback on the draft is desired, with the understanding that this feedback may include deletion if the draft meets any of the criteria listed above. Users currently working on pages in the draftspace should consider moving them to userspace if they wish to have a "free" drafting space.

Completed drafts can be unilaterally moved to the mainspace (turned into articles) without going through any special channel, provided that the mover's account is 4 days old and has made 10 edits. This 4 days and 10 edits requirement should be easily reached simply by developing the draft.

Note that while userspace is a good "free" drafting area, it is not okay for user pages to contain work that is unrelated to the purpose of Wikipedia.