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I never paid much attention to this article after it was created, but I am aware of the development of the topic. The userspace draft User:JKBrooks85/Capital punishment in Alaska was created in late 2014 and worked on for seven-and-a-half weeks before being effectively abandoned. A comparatively inferior take on the topic appeared in mainspace in the form of this article in late 2018. JKBrooks85 hasn't hidden who he is in real life, but I won't elaborate due to WP:OUTING. Let's just say that he's obviously very busy with his career and may not have the necessary time to pursue content creation here, but he has a history on the project as a talented writer, with multiple GAs and FAs to his credit. Today, I noticed that there was a huge expansion to this article in a single edit in 2021 by Afddiary. If you don't mind me asking, how much of that edit's content was lifted from the userspace draft without proper attribution? Some effort to merge the two pieces of content should have been done long ago and still needs discussion, IMO. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 17:51, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hey there - to be completely honest, I had no idea there was a draft of this page. I was pretty inexperienced with Wikipedia's etiquette at the time I made that edit. (I'd been a member for 7 years but hadn't written nearly as many articles as I have now. I wouldn't have even known back then that I could access other users' draft spaces.) I did not lift any of the 2021 edit from the userspace draft. At the time of me writing this, I have never even looked at JKBrooks85's draft (although I will after I finish posting this reply).
All of what I wrote in 2021 was from my own research and my own words, with no help from anyone else and nothing to be attributed to anyone else; if it helps to provide context, I'm neurodivergent and obsessed with the death penalty as a "special interest" topic, and I wouldn't get any enjoyment or fulfillment out of copying someone else's Wikipedia research because the researching is where most of the fun is for me. If this also helps to prove I didn't copy from JKBrooks85's draft, I recall studying Hawaii's death penalty at around the same time (although I'm pretty sure I waited at least several months before I edited the Capital punishment in Hawaii page or created the Adriano Domingo page) and reading several sources that mentioned the racial aspects in both territories' applications of capital punishment. I don't know if JKBrooks85's draft goes into that aspect of it, but both my Alaska and Hawaii edits touch upon that aspect because I read about it frequently.
I'll take a look at JKBrooks85's draft; based on what you're saying about it, it would likely be great to merge the content from the draft – and depending on wording, stylistic choices, and structuring, and given JKBrooks85 is far more experienced at editing Wikipedia (as I only have one GA) – there are probably several parts of the article I wrote that should be replaced or entirely restructured. I'll check out that draft now. I hope this explanation helped; let me know if I need to provide anything else. Take care! Afddiary (talk) 02:30, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
After looking over the draft, I'm curious about the question "how much of that edit's content was lifted from the userspace draft without proper attribution?" I apologize if you did not intend to sound accusatory, but that was how I read the question. I want to reiterate that none of my edit was copied from anywhere, much less any other Wikipedians, and I had never seen JKBrooks85's draft before tonight, October 4, 2024. But we did not use the same sources, so I'm not entirely sure how it wouldn't be obvious that I conducted my own research and did not copy anyone else's research, text, or work otherwise.
For example, I relied mostly on websites and newspaper articles; JKBrooks85 appears to have relied heavily on books. For specifics, with the very first execution recorded, we both had two different spellings of the man's name, as I had never seen the spelling "Shx'atoo" before (because my research was conducted with different sources that only mentioned the names Scutd-doo or Scutdor, with no acknowledgement that those names were wrong). JKBrooks85's draft has little to no information on Alaska's final three executions (those of Nelson Charles, Austin Nelson, and Eugene LaMoore). My edit does.
I think there is a ton of valuable information in JKBrooks85's userspace draft that should be integrated into the main article, not only because JKBrooks85's draft goes into more case-by-case detail than my edit did and has valuable factual corrections (such as the spelling "Shx'atoo" and the fact that "Scutd-doo" and "Scutdor" are Americanized translations), but because he also covers topics I did not cover in a lot of detail, particularly when it comes to Alaska's legislative history with capital punishment. In fact, I don't at all mind helping with the endeavor of merging the draft with the existing article if my help would be needed or appreciated. But being completely honest, I really didn't appreciate the accusatory question; I found it a hurtful way to approach. Afddiary (talk) 03:53, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
