 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia articles in article space are outward-facing to be seen by readers. Pages in other spaces are inward-facing to be seen and used by editors. Different policies and guidelines apply to outward-facing and inward-facing content. |
A useful distinction, at least to some editors, is that some Wikipedia namespaces are outward-facing and some are inward-facing.
- The primary outward-facing space, and the whole purpose of Wikipedia, is outward-facing article space (or main space). It faces the readers and can be seen by everyone in the Internet (all in the world).
- In contrast, there are many inward-facing spaces, which are intended to be seen by editors. The purpose of all inward-facing spaces is to provide information that is used by the editors of Wikipedia in developing the encyclopedia for the reader.
Google indexes article space, which faces outward for its readers, who are also Wikipedia readers. Google should not be searching any space other than article space. If Google searches any other space, it should not do that, but that is not under the control of Wikipedia.
User space
editUser space, including user pages, user subpages, and user sandboxes, is used for various purposes including the development of articles, but draft articles in user space are not seen by readers, and so user space is inward-facing. User talk pages are similarly inward-facing, for communication between users. Article talk space is for the discussion of improvements to articles, but it is for discussion between editors and is not seen by readers, so that it is inward-facing. Draft space is for the review of articles before they are seen by readers. For that reason, it is inward-facing. Articles in draft space are being reviewed before a decision is made that they can face outward in article space.
Project space
editWikipedia project space (beginning with Wikipedia:* or WP:*) is a special case in that it is mostly inward-facing, but to a lesser degree it faces outward for registered and unregistered editors who may want to contribute to articles. Editors who do not normally contribute to Wikipedia may ask questions at the Help Desk or the Teahouse, or may ask general knowledge questions at the Reference Desks.
Policies and guidelines
editWikipedia has a variety of policies and guidelines. Some of Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines apply both to outward-facing and inward-facing spaces. These policies include the civility policy and related rules such as the policy against personal attacks. You may not be uncivil to your fellow editors, and you also may not put uncivil content in articles.
Some of Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines apply to outward-facing space only. These include notability, verifiability, and neutral point of view. Why should these policies only be applicable in outward-facing space? These policies are "hard" in two different ways. First, they are hard in that they are difficult to implement. Many subjects result in strong non-neutral feelings by editors. NPOV is not easy to achieve by collaborative editing (and impossible to achieve by non-collaborative editing). It is often not easy to find the independent reliable sources that establish notability for articles and that verify facts in the articles. For those reasons, it is extremely useful to be able to keep user page drafts, sandbox drafts, and drafts in draft space that do not meet those policies, so that they can be worked on to bring them up to standards so that they can later be accepted into article space. Second, these policies are "hard" in that they are mandatory for articles. They are not nice-to-have objectives. They must be satisfied in order to articles to face the readers in article space. For those reasons, failure to meet the outward-facing policies and guidelines is not a reason for deletion from inward-facing space, where editors can continue to work on the drafts.
There are certain criteria for speedy deletion that are applicable in all spaces, including inward-facing spaces. They include copyright violations, blatant advertising, attack pages, and a few other issues.
It is useful to understand the distinction between outward-facing Wikipedia content that is seen by readers, and inward-facing content that is seen by editors in support of developing and improving the outward-facing content that is seen by readers. Some core Wikipedia policies, such as verifiability, notability, and neutral point of view, are enforced for outward-facing content, so that inward-facing content can be used to facilitate the creation of good outward-facing content (the encyclopedia itself).