User talk:Article finder

RNA Tertiary Structure
Where did you originally find the article? I had to delete the mainspace version because just copying and pasting from one location on Wikipedia to another break attribution and thus creates a copyright violation. --ThaddeusB (talk) 04:23, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Instructions
First off, thanks for offering your help in getting abandoned drafts out of userspace. This certainly is a neglected area that could use some help.

The first thing you should be aware of is why pages are in userspace to begin with. Usually a page is in userspace for one of two reasons: 1) it was created there as a draft and never made it to mainspace. 2) it was previously deleted and the user requested a copy to work on. In the former case, you usually won't have to worry about accidentally causing problems. In the later, it is best to ask an admin (me, for example) to review whether the changes are sufficient to override the previous deletion until you get the hang of it.

The vast majority of userspace articles are unrelated to university projects, but if you want to focus on those a number of current and past ones are listed at School and university projects.

Now, deciding when to move pages is a bit tricky. You need to consider both when the article was last edited and when the editor last edited. The former can be found via the "history" tab on the article. The later via Special:Contributions. As a general rule of thumb, an article that has been untouched for 6 months is subject to deletion, which would imply it can also be freely moved w/o much fuss. However, if the editor is still active it is always best to just ask them their intentions. Pages with shorter time periods of inactivity can still be moved, but require a bit move judgment.

Before moving an article, you should consider whether it is finished enough for mainspace or still needs a lot of work. If it still needs work, the article incubator is a good suggestion. The incubator offers a helpful template - Incubate from userfied - to notify the user whose article you want to move. Whether you use that template or not, you should always leave the user a notice about what you intend to do and preferably wait a few days. (Some people who haven't edited in a long time have the system set to email them when they get a message or long on to read articles, but not write them.) At the very least, this will let the user know what happened if they decide to log on again after you long hiatus. If you want to keep track of potential targets you are monitorin/users you've notified, you may create a page in your own userspace for that purpose (or keep an off-wiki list of course).

You won't be able to actually move pages for a few days, but feel free to start creating a list of articles you want moved. I will be happy to take a look at it.

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask. I am most happy to help. --ThaddeusB (talk) 05:29, 3 December 2009 (UTC)