Wikipedia:Userfication
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Userfication is the process by which material that was posted in one
This page contains guidelines for when and how to userfy material. For help on moving pages, see
For articles, an alternative to userfication is the
What can be userfied
Article namespace content
Userfication is usually performed because material is added in article space that is inappropriate for inclusion in an encyclopedia, but not objectionable as content in a
In some cases, a new user will inadvertently create an article in article namespace that appears to be content meant to be in a
It may also be appropriate to move an article that only you have edited into your user space somewhere. If others have edited it, a page move is usually preferable to a cut and paste move, in order to preserve the edit history.
Userspace material is frequently deleted via Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion where the material is judged to be merely an archive of previously deleted content. Regarding biographies (including autobiographies), the policy Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons may preclude userfication. The fact that an editor initially chose to userfy content rather than delete it does not in any way prohibit a later editor from nominating that content for deletion.
Template namespace content
Userboxes posted in template namespace are controversial, since templates generally have wide range applicability and point of view, extra-wiki affiliation, and other userboxes have uses limited to only some Wikipedians. The outright userfying of userboxes was rejected in April 2006. However, the non-policy userbox migration solution suggests moving the userboxes in question to user space. If only one editor makes use of a userbox, consider moving that userbox to a sub userpage of that user, redirecting any "What links here" links, and listing the now redirected template page for speedy deletion under {{db-r3}}. If more than one editor makes use of a userbox, consider moving that userbox to a user subpage of User:UBX, redirecting any "What links here" links, and listing the now redirected template page for speedy deletion under {{db-r3}}. In either situation, post a note on the userbox creator's talk page informing them of the move.
What can not be userfied
- Copyright infringing or inappropriately licensed material – Userfication must not be used to resolve the copyright policyapply to all pages posted anywhere on Wikipedia.
- Material already not permitted in user namespace – Material that should not be posted on user pages or subpages in the first place should not be relegated to user space if placed in article space (see WP:MFD.
- Articles not undergoing deletion process – Userfication of an article will effectively amount to deletion of an article, as in general, the redirect left behind will be speedy deletion, the community often recommends alternate remedies such as userfication during AfD.
- Articles for which an AfD discussion is underway – Userfication of an article that is the subject of an ongoing AfD is disruptive to the AfD process. The editor desiring to userfy the article must wait until the process has been concluded. Note that, if all participants agree, the AfD can be closed early in favor of userfication.
- File (image or multimedia) and category pages – Due to technical limitations, there is no process for the userfication of an image or multimedia upload's page from file namespace to user namespace. Similarly, although there are numerous user categories, category pages can not be userfied because the category functionality requires that the page reside in the category namespace.
- Anonymous material to IP address pages – Material posted by an anonymous user generally should not be userfied under their IP address's user page. To engage in such userfication would make it more difficult for Wikipedia to control its content. If such a user posts unencyclopedic material that would be appropriate for a user page, they should be contacted and invited to register an account; failing that, the material could be restored to draft space or deleted.
- Material substantially violating the biographies of living persons policy. Potentially libellous material does not belong anywhere on Wikipedia. If negative material on a living person is to be worked on to make it comply with the BLP policy, this should generally be done off wiki, and the material only recreated once fully compliant with the policy. Use discretion when considering whether to userfy a biography of a person that has been considered non-notable in a deletion discussion.
Userfication process
In general, the source page may be moved to a target user subpage, the "What links here" links for the source page manually may be redirected, any resulting redirect on the source page may be listed for speedy deletion under {{db-r2}}, and a note may be placed on the user's talk page informing them of the move details.
No purpose is served by userfying materials that duplicate content already in the contributor's user space. Such materials should be deleted with a note to the contributor.
General steps
Regardless of the target location, the following steps need to be carried out on the userfied page:
- Remove all non-free images
- Wikipedia copyright policy allows non-free images to be used only in articles, not in user pages.
- Remove maintenance tags
- Remove deletion notices, cleanup tags, and other maintenance tags, as the Wikipedia community is not responsible for maintaining the quality of pages in user space.
- Disable any categories (per Hidden text commenting, or you can change the individual entries as follows
- Add a colon right after the double brackets like this: [[:Category:Cars]].
- Tag it
- Add the {{Userspace draft}} template to notify others of the status of the article.
- Delete the resulting redirect
- Moving a page creates a redirect from the original location to the destination. Redirects should not point from article space to user space, so the editor must tag the resulting redirect for deletion (by adding, for example, {{db-rediruser}}). Administrators and page movers can prevent the redirect from being created while moving the page.
- Notification
- Make sure the user knows about the userfication. While a personal note is generally nice, the following templates may simplify the task for you:
- {{A7article namespace posts
- {{A7article namespace posts
- {{A7article namespace posts
- {{Userfy warning}}, warning for conflict of interest (Vanity)/user pages in article namespace identifying an autobiography article in namespace
- {{
Subpage userfication
In order to properly userfy an article, an editor must have access to the "
- User:Receiving Party/Original page name
The user for whom such a subpage is created should be notified of this event on their talk page, as the creation of a user subpage does not appear on a watchlist (unless the page that was moved was being watched).
Main user page userfication
In some cases an article describes a certain contributor, such as when they accidentally place a personal profile in article space. In these cases the following can be done:
- If the actual userpage of the contributor is empty: Move the article as a whole to the user page.
- If there is already some content on the user page, but the contributions are only by one contributor: Cut and paste the content as described below.
Cut-and-paste userfication
If text is copied to user space, rather than moved via the page move tool, a list of all the contributors to the original text (obtained from the edit history of the original page) must be kept to meet the requirements of
Userfication of deleted content
Administrators can undelete a
Pages that would clearly fail the
The administrator who userfies a deleted page may subsequently reverse their action and delete it again, at their own discretion. The administrator might do this if, for example, an intention to improve the page is not carried out.
Related pages
- Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion
- Administrators who will provide copies of deleted articles
- Help:Merging
- Help:Moving a page
- Wikipedia:Subpages
- Wikipedia:Editors are not mindreaders – essay encouraging editors to create articles first in user space.
- Wikipedia:When in doubt, userfy it– essay encouraging the userfication of articles that could potentially become notable.
- Userboxes
- User:UBX, user namespace created to house userboxes
- Wikipedia:Userbox migration, discussing userfying userboxes
- Wikipedia:Userfying userboxes, rejected mandatory move of userboxes from template space