On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Ron Ritzman <ritzman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Deleting newcomers' hard work is one of our
big PR problems. Even if,
> after contemplation, we decide we were actually right to do so.
>
> When someone wanders into the sausage factory and the very first thing
> that happens is that they fall head-first into the meat grinder ...
> this is an *unfortunate* circumstance.
Doesn't just happen to newbies. For the first time in years I started
a new article quite some time ago. It immediately got a speedy delete
tag *even though* I had placed an "in use" banner at the top
(something a newbie would never think of).
Now, the rationale given for listing it for deletion was that it was
"rubbish". And it's true: it was rubbish! But the fact was I was
editing it from the very earliest point of noting a phenomenon and
trying to document it. I thought the "in use" banner and the fact that
I would have edited it in the moments before the deletion banner
popped up would have been enough to say "someone is working on this
right now, so hold your horses".
I now realise I should have started the article in my user space but,
again, this is certainly not something a new user would think to do.
I recall, during the Strategy process, a user of very long standing
saying that a new article he created was similarly stomped on at
birth.
I can see it from the new page patroller's point of view, mind. It
can't be any fun doing a shift on there at all.