[WikiEN-l] Display reason for article deletion to anons?

Sun Aug 8 13:28:26 UTC 2004

I always wondered why that doesn't happen. I think this would be a good 
idea if implemented properly.

John Lee (User:Johnleemk)

Timwi wrote:

> Although you're right that we don't want to "forbid" or "disallow" 
> legitimate editing, I don't think we want to discourage it either. 
> Your suggestion makes it harder for well-meaning newbies to find out 
> how to edit or create articles.
>
> A better way would be to encourage more healing. We already have the 
> "stub" message which encourages newbies to expand a stub they encounter.
>
> One idea I was toying with in my mind recently is this. When sysops 
> delete an article, the article goes back to saying "Wikipedia does not 
> have an article with this title yet." Maybe we should actually let 
> everyone (including anonymous users) know that there used to be an 
> article, and (this is the important part) show the reason for its 
> deletion.
>
> If a newbie goes back to see what happened to their article, and they 
> see it gone, they are more likely to just put it back in (it looks to 
> them more like a glitch in the system or an accident than a deliberate 
> deleting). If it actually said "This article was deleted for the 
> following reason: vandalism", they are more likely to ackowledge that 
> putting their article back in is going to have the same effect again.
>
> Timwi
>
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