Userfication is the process by which material that was posted in one namespace is moved into the user namespace (prefix User:). Generally, material is moved from the article, Wikipedia/project, or template namespace to a subpage of the user that originally posted the material. Such materials (pages) are moved because they are not ready to be seen by the public (articles), used on other pages (templates), or (least common) put out as guidance to the community ("Wikipedia:" or "Help:" prefix pages). But the material is worth keeping because it has potential to be useful at some point — they may just need more work, or more time.

This page contains guidelines for when and how to userfy material. For help on moving pages, see Help:Moving a page. For help getting a copy of a deleted article, to put into your userspace, see Category:Wikipedia administrators willing to provide copies of deleted articles, or post at Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion.

For articles, an alternative to userfication is the draft space. Like userfication, draft space allows editors the opportunity to work on sub-par articles outside of the main article namespace. Draft space, however, may increase the chance of collaboration by placing draft articles in a central location. Another advantage is that incubated articles are automatically "noindexed", meaning they won't show up in search engines.

What can be userfied[edit]

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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 user page or a subpage thereof. This can be a satisfactory result for new users unfamiliar with the boundaries of Wikipedia content, and for users who inadvertently create personal templates in the main template space.

In some cases, a new user will inadvertently create an article in article namespace that appears to be content meant to be in a user page. Generally, such material should be moved to a user subpage with a note placed on that user's talk page informing them of the move. If such an article is made, it is appropriate to move the article to the creator's user page, provided that (1) their user page doesn't already exist, and (2) the creator is the only editor who has edited the content of the page.

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[edit]

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  1. Copyright infringing or inappropriately licensed material – Userfication must not be used to resolve copyright problems, even where the user who posted the material is the one claiming copyright ownership. Wikipedia's licensing requirements and the copyright policy apply to all pages posted anywhere on Wikipedia.
  2. 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 Wikipedia:User page#What may I not have on my user page?). Personal attacks, invasions of private information, spam, and posts by banned users should be deleted altogether. By contrast, an article intended as a joke, an essay, patent nonsense — or even an earnest attempt to cover an unencyclopedic topic — can be userfied, as such material would generally be permitted in user space. These materials may even offer useful examples of things the community has deemed unencyclopedic, and may also reflect the contributor's view about what should be contained in the encyclopedia. Note, however, that nonsense pages may be nominated for deletion at WP:MFD.
  3. 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 speedily deleted. Userfication should not be used as a substitute for regular deletion processes. Except for self-userfying and obvious non articles such as accidentally-created user pages in the main namespace, it is generally inappropriate to userfy an article without a deletion process. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion (AfD) is recommended for this since, unlike proposed deletion or speedy deletion, the community often recommends alternate remedies such as userfication during AfD.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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[edit]

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 WP:USERNOCAT). for this, you can either use 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:
  • ((Nn-userfy)), for A7 article namespace posts
  • ((Userfied)), for other than A7 article namespace posts
  • ((Userfied2)), talk page message box for other than A7 article 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 "move" function. Thus only registered users will be able to take the necessary steps to userfy a page. Copy–paste moves are generally prohibited by policy (but see instructions below for unusual cases), because they fail to retain the edit history of the content, so userfication must be done via the move function. To do so, go to the page, click the "move" button, and enter the receiving party's username followed by a slash before the original pagename, like so:

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:

  1. If the actual userpage of the contributor is empty: Move the article as a whole to the user page.
  2. 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

Further information: Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia § 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 CC BY-SA and GFDL. If the original content has been modified by other users, and is later moved or copied to another namespace, the list of contributors should be copied to the corresponding talk page. The userfying editor can also simply search the article history for the last version which had only been edited by the person whose space the article is to be moved to, and cut and paste only that text.

Userfication of deleted content

Further information: Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion
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Administrators can undelete a deleted page and move it into a user's userspace, without creating a redirect; this results in a page in userspace with all the history intact and a red link in main space. This can be requested from requests for undeletion, or alternatively from any administrator or via Deletion Review. There is also a list of administrators who say that they are willing to provide deleted content on an editor's request.

Pages that would clearly fail the criteria for speedy deletion may or may not be userfied on request, depending on the administrator's judgment. In addition, content inappropriate for the mainspace should not be kept indefinitely in user space, per Wikipedia policy regarding the third disallowed use of subpages. Pages in userspace (including those that have been userfied) may be nominated for deletion through Wikipedia:Miscellany for Deletion.

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[edit]

This page is referenced in the Wikipedia Glossary.
Userboxes
Categories