In the bright halcyon days of '13, a proposal was put forth at the Village Pump to alleviate the beaucoup backlog at Articles for creation — then at a whopping fifteen hundred. The idea was that "the task of reviewing submissions will be a less fragmented process, and it will be easier for volunteers to collaborate".

Discussion of this proposal, as well as a subsequent discussion on how specifically to implement drafts, ran to about two hundred kilobytes, and was closed as... well, the close note itself was 575 words. Whatever. What matters is that they agreed we should have a namespace for drafts, and so now we have a namespace for drafts.

The AfC backlog (via Category:Pending AfC submissions) is currently 4,134. The WikiProject attached to AfC has backlog drives every once in a while; the last one was in January 2023.

Many drafts are good, and well-written, and reliably sourced, and make their way into articlespace when a reviewer approves them after a short wait (ha — no — more like six months). Others are obviously crap: unvarnished self-promotion from humanity's roiling sea of Soundcloud rappers, TikTok aspirants, used car salesmen and soi-disant entrepreneurial geniouses[sic].

Somewhere in between, however, lie a treasure trove of digital mushrooms that sprout after the rain. In this magical place, one can find curiosities that defy explanation and texts that challenge the very boundaries of understanding — where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, and the irreverent dances with the absurd.

Some of this stuff is too good to let it disappear after six months untouched! Or, for that matter, too bad. Or too ugly.

The good: from "Cat Behaviors"

By User:CatLover 1137

Cat behaviour

please add on to this wiki page!

Cats when content

When cats are content they have relaxed limbs, their tail isn’t stiff or twitching they just look chill!

Sometimes cats purr when content but they also do this in pain.

When frightened

When cats are frightened their fun goes up on end, they hiss or spit, they swipe and arch their back

When in pain

I don’t know much about this so please add on here:

cats purr when in pain. This is seen by vets as a female cat is in labour.

When intrigued

When intrigued their tail twitches and they closely watch whatever is interesting them! Their ears also stand up straight!

When alert

When cats are alert they tense up their body, stay very still and stare at a target/possible threat.

Thank you for reading!

I apologise if I tagged you but I wanted to get the cat community together

and what better to do it then with amazing modern day tech! (Laptops!)

CatLover1137 :)

Sources:

inside the mind of a cat,

cat wiki page

Cat behaviour research

The hidden lives of pets (not the secret life of pets!)

This draft, created on May 30 and given a minor copyedit by Insanecatburger on July 26, is fun and earnest. While it's obviously unlikely to make it into mainspace, one cannot help but root for it anyway — and suspect that we'd be better off if more of our drafts were like this one, written and submitted in a spirit of genuine collaboration.

The bad: from "Anonymous"

By 2a00:23c7:d218:6e01:e003:8237:5029:fe93

Candy the cat is a pretty black cat. She sometimes forgets to put her tongue back into her mouth so she just walks around with it out.

Created with the edit summary "Everything" on May 29; submitted on August 9, and declined the same day by Milkk7 as an obvious joke submission.

While this is amusing, remember that thing about the draft queue being four thousand articles long? A human being had to click through this and type out an actual reason for why it didn't meet standards, making it a disgraceful waste of reviewer time. This is part of why AfC is bad.

The ugly: from "Code Cutting"

By Officiants12

Code cutting is a method of editing source code by physically printing out lines of code, cutting them with scissors, and then scanning them back into the code program. This method has been used by some developers as an alternative to traditional text editing tools, such as text editors or integrated development environments (IDEs).

Introduction

Code cutting is a unique approach to editing source code that has its advantages and disadvantages. While it may not be suitable for large code projects, some developers may find it to be a helpful technique for small code projects or when they need to make changes to a specific section of code.

Process

The process of code cutting involves the following steps:

1. Printing out the lines of code that need to be edited.
2. Cutting out the specific lines of code with scissors.
3. Scanning the cut-out code into the code program.
4. Editing the scanned code within the code program.
5. Saving the edited code and compiling it to check for any errors.

It is important to note that code cutting may not be suitable for large code projects, as it can become time-consuming and difficult to keep track of the changes made to the code. However, some developers find it to be a helpful technique for small code projects or when they need to make changes to a specific section of code.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Can provide a more tactile approach to editing code.
• Helps to visualize the code and the changes being made to it.
• May be helpful for developers who struggle with traditional text editing tools.

Disadvantages

• Not suitable for large code projects.
• Can become time-consuming and difficult to keep track of changes made to the code.
• May result in the loss or damage of the physical code cut-outs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of code cutting and determine if it is the best approach for a given code project.

References

• Doe, J. (2019). "The Pros and Cons of Code Cutting." Code Magazine, 56(3), pp. 12-15.
• Smith, M. (2018). "An Alternative Approach to Editing Source Code." Journal of Software Development, 44(1), pp. 22-25.
• Brown, T. (2017). "Cutting Code: A Unique Method for Editing Source Code." Journal of Computer Science, 33(5), pp. 45-48.

Creating this draft, on February 13, was Officiants12's first and only contribution to Wikipedia. While this seems, on first blush, to be a competent writeup about an intriguing (albeit idiotic) approach to programming, it is complete bullshit.

Searches for all three of the "references" turn up nothing whatsoever on any search engine. "Code cutting" as described has no results in a Google news search, scholar search, or general web search. The draft has since been speedily deleted as a hoax.

In conclusion

Obviously, this is a great bit. It is well-written, concise, and on the precise knife-edge of plausibility; not only a hilarious mental image, but a biting satire of a whole genre of hyped-up programming fads.

So why is it ugly? It is a hoax article, for one; if it's approved, it is an inflamed pus-filled boil on the project and on the edifice of free knowledge itself. If it's rejected, it represents a gigantic waste of time, even more so than the few seconds it takes to identify the obvious joke submission; reviewers must search the article topic, cross-check the references, and scamper between search engines all for the reward of figuring out they are being trolled.

What could have been a great joke was instead forced to be something between a denial-of-service attack on Wikipedia's volunteer corps and a malignant tumor on its face. An active drain on our review processes that, by the way, got close to zero views in the entire half-year it was live in draftspace!

By comparison, this humble paper's humor section does numbers, and our submissions page is always open; there we cherish a good bit like a precious baby.

But if you submit it as a draft we will hunt it to the ends of the earth, with no quarter and no mercy.