Wikipedia:Drafts

For general information about drafts on Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Draft.

Wikipedia namespaces
Subject namespaces		Talk namespaces
0	(Main/Article)	Talk	1
2	User	User talk	3
4	Wikipedia	Wikipedia talk	5
6	File	File talk	7
8	MediaWiki	MediaWiki talk	9
10	Template	Template talk	11
12	Help	Help talk	13
14	Category	Category talk	15
100	Portal	Portal talk	101
108	Book	Book talk	109
118	Draft	Draft talk	119
446	Education Program	Education Program talk	447
710	TimedText	TimedText talk	711
828	Module	Module talk	829
2300	Gadget	Gadget talk	2301
2302	Gadget definition	Gadget definition talk	2303
2600	Topic
Virtual namespaces
-1	Special
-2	Media

Drafts of Wikipedia articles may be stored in the "Draft" namespace. They allow new articles to be developed before being moved to Wikipedia's mainspace. If you are logged in, creating a draft before directly publishing the article is optional. Editors may also create draft pages in their userspace instead if they so prefer.

How drafts work

Finding drafts

Drafts are not indexed by most search engines including Google, meaning most readers will not find them. Anyone may search and view drafts on Wikipedia directly using Wikipedia's built-in search engine: simply choose "Advanced", then tick "Draft" or "Draft talk" on the list of options [1]. The list of all Draft pages is at Special:AllPages or Special:PrefixIndex. You may also view recent Draft changes to the namespace, newly created drafts or visit a random draft.

Creating and editing drafts

Anyone, including users who are not logged in, may create and edit drafts. Drafts in the namespace have "Draft:" before their normal title, and also have an associated draft talk page. Users who have VisualEditor enabled will be able to use VisualEditor just like on articles. Registered editors may also move a userspace draft in to the Draft namespace if they choose.

Create a draft in the Draft: namespace

Create a userspace draft – if you're logged in

Incubation

Incubation was previously done at the Wikipedia:Article incubator. Once in draftspace, incubated articles have the same status as other drafts.

Moved to incubation...
in need of loving care and gentle handling

• Articles are incubated as a result of i) a deletion discussion, ii) an undeletion request, iii) userfication, or iv) a bold move from article space.^{[under discussion]}
• An editor moves the article or userfication into draftspace. For example: [[Foo article]] is moved to [[Draft:Foo article]], and [[Talk:Foo article]] is moved to [[Draft talk:Foo article]]. The redirects left at [[Foo article]] and [[Talk:Foo article]] must be tagged for speedy deletion as a cross-namespace redirect using {{db-r2}}.
• It would be helpful to link to the original deletion discussion and the decision to move the article into draftspace.

Preparing drafts

• Add the template Draft article, {{Draft article}}, at the top of the draft (not the talk page).
• Disable any categories by inserting a colon before the word "Category". Example: change [[Category:Living people]] to [[:Category:Living people]]

Publishing a draft

Publishing a draft will (for now) require an editor to use the page move function to move it in the Main (article) namespace. This means that anonymous editors, or registered editors not autoconfirmed, will need to request publication by inserting into their drafts the relevant template for page move. Editors may also optionally submit drafts for review via the articles for creation process.

An article created in draftspace does not belong to the editor who created it, and any other registered user can decide that it is done and can be published. Editors who do not want that to happen should use their sandbox or talk page subsections.

Deleting a draft

Drafts are meant to be works in progress, and most will not meet Wikipedia's standards for quality at first. The general speedy deletion criteria may be applied to drafts, though a special deletion policy for drafts has not been decided. Though drafts are not subject to article deletion criteria like "no context" or no indication of notability, drafts that are copyright violations, vandalism, BLP violations or blatant advertising or promotion will be speedily deleted. As with regular articles, content that violates our policy regarding material about living people must be removed or deleted. Drafts may be nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion. Alternatively, drafts that were created through the Articles for Creation process may be nominated for speedy deletion criteria G13, according to the policy.

See also

• Request for Comment for the new namespace on the Village pump (proposals)
• Wikipedia:Namespaces

Learn more

• See the technical requirements and future development ideas on MediaWiki.org