User:Casualdejekyll/Mainspace quest

The problem
Recently, I've noticed that I've sort of lost "the magic" of editing Wikipedia that drew me here in the first place. I haven't made any substantial mainspace contributions since my DYK Synapturanus danta in May 2022, over a year ago. And guess what? Since that DYK, I've made over 2,000 edits.. which is over half of my edit count. (How have I not been blocked as NOTHERE yet?)

A bit ago, I joined the WikiCup 2023 to try to motivate myself to go back to mainspace and that.. didn't really work, as you can tell. Did you know, that despite never making a report to AN/I, never being reported to AN/I, and never being an administrator, I've made almost a hundred edits to AN/I? (Seriously, I'm genuinely concerned that nobody's ever called me out on this.) casualdejekyll  22:55, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

The proposed remedies

 * 1) Effective immediately, I will be removing AN/I from my watchlist, and not adding it back again. This is to constitute me "page-banning" myself from AN/I, with the obvious exception of if anybody reports me to AN/I.
 * I have decided to enact this remedy. casualdejekyll  22:55, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) I will temporarily restrict myself from making any edits to projectspace until I have made "substantial content contributions" as defined by myself.
 * Before enacting, I need to figure out the finer details of this. It will probably include exceptions for anything related to DYK/GA/FA, but I'm pretty sure only FA is in projectspace and I'm unlikely to write one of those any time soon. casualdejekyll  23:01, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
 * The reason I want to do this is because the greatest part of my edits (37%) are in projectspace, as opposed to only 19% in mainspace. I want to increase the meaningfulness of my contribution to the encyclopedia, as most of my mainspace edits are very small. casualdejekyll  23:01, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) Adding an "emergency user shutoff button" to this page would both be extremely funny and, at the same time, emphasize that I'm capital-S Serious about this.  casualdejekyll  23:26, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Enacted. casualdejekyll  23:28, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Defining "substantial content contributions"
(Anyone is free to add ideas to this section if they so desire.)
 * My two main ideas are either defining this by bytes or by WikiCup points. casualdejekyll  23:10, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Bytes

 * I wrote this down but then after thinking about it I'm mostly leaning towards the WikiCup points target. Still, this would be a nice alternative target to have if I would rather jump around adding content to a bunch of articles. It would probably be a higher goal than the amount of bytes in a usual GA or FA, since by the very nature the disconnected content would be somewhat less "useful", I feel. So really instead of it being the main goal it'd be a backup goal if the GA/FA stuff isn't working out. It would specifically be bytes of "readable prose", and I'm thinking about the realisticness of a restriction that only edits adding a citation count.  casualdejekyll  00:17, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

WikiCup Points

 * I withdrew from the WikiCup during the first round, so I will be keeping track of these points myself for myself in an "unofficial" capacity if I decide to go down this route. casualdejekyll  23:10, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm mostly thinking about whether to set the line at a GA or equivalent (40 points) or at an FA or equivalent (200 points). The reason I'm deliberating is because I'm not sure how long either would take. I want to put up a substantial goal, but I also want it to be realistic so I don't trap myself in Wiki-hell. My main problem with doing a GA is that the inherent nature of single-editor review means that stuff will slip through the cracks, and I don't want to make a GA only to find out later that it was actually a pile of garbage and the editor who reviewed it didn't do a good job. casualdejekyll  00:12, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Suggestions on what content, exactly, to write
Feel free to add your own comments. The following two comments are copied from Special:Diff/1173363410.
 * Book articles are a good niche, there’s tons of notable ones with plenty of sources that don’t have articles (some stuff Angela Davis wrote for example) Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 23:17, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
 * You can always go to every movie article and remove all but the first and last sentences of each paragraph in the plot section. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 23:40, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Various articles listed in User:Casualdejekyll/Collections, a page I completely forgot about and haven't edited in almost a year - oops! casualdejekyll 23:53, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Perhaps pages listed on WP:Unusual articles (which inspired me to join Wikipedia in the first place) may be candidates for expansion that intrigue me significantly. casualdejekyll 00:22, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Flipping the switch
I got a bit distracted, but I think it's time now. I'll be posting the details on my User Talk page. casualdejekyll 19:47, 17 September 2023 (UTC)