User:Encoded/Drafts

Draft articles are a special type of article in their own space, they don't appear on search engines, and they're deleted after 6 months of inactivity - so for people to see your article, you'll need to change it from a draft to an article when you're done.

Drafts aren't subject to many of Wikipedia's guidelines and policies until they're submitted, so you can build your article without worrying about all that. However, once submitted it will be reviewed in accordance with our policies.

Anyone, including users who are not logged in, can create and edit drafts. Drafts have "Draft:" before their normal title, and also have an associated draft talk page. Changing a page from a draft to an article requires an autoconfirmed account (an account with at least 10 edits and created at least 4 days ago). Doing so is done by moving the page to a title without "Draft:" in front of it. However, if you have a Conflict of Interest or aren't auto confirmed, you should change drafts into articles by going through Articles for Creation.

Articles for Creation

Articles for Creation (or AfC) is a process where drafts are reviewed before being placed on the main Wikipedia website ("mainspace"). You'll have to use AfC when creating a new article if you don't have the required permissions to create an article or if you have a conflict of interest.

When you've finished your draft, click the "Submit" button and an AfC reviewer will review the draft and either decline it with a reason or publish it to mainspace.

Articles for Creation require that drafts follow Wikipedia guidelines to be published as articles, I'd recommend reading about our policies and guidelines if you haven't already, that page is a simple summary of them all. Important ones to know are our reliable sources policy, neutral point of view policy, and what Wikipedia is not if you haven't already. It's ok if you don't remember everything, if something is wrong with your draft someone will let you know so that you can improve it.

Drafts may be declined for any number of reasons, and it might be declined more than once. It's ok if it's not published first time! AfC has high standards for articles that pass through to ensure that they're great, and we're here to help you improve your draft - not punish you for writing, so if you need any help please ask.

Once your draft is approved, a member of the AfC team will move it for you.

Help and Questions

Creating a new article can be daunting, if you have any questions or need help with any of the processes please feel free to send me a message or you can ask at the teahouse if you'd prefer to talk to someone else.

Create a Draft

Once your draft is created, don't delete any of the content that is added to the page - this helps with the Articles for Creation process. Click "Publish changes" first once the page loads, then go back into edit mode using VisualEditor (click the pencil icon then the eye icon if it's loaded you into source editor) to get started, this ensures everything is set up and good to go!

Enter the name of the article below to start a draft