[WikiEN-l] Template for new pages

Mon Apr 10 14:06:07 UTC 2006

It's certainly technically possible.  The problem I can see is that newbies
will be turned off by the rigid structure of it (really, if they're going to
make a three-sentence stub, do you think they'll bother to cite their
sources, even if we request it?).  I'd much rather teach newbies bit-by-bit,
rather than give them a bunch of information that will annoy them.

A specific problem as well, to requesting categories, is that they'll add
nonexistant categories, and, possibly even worse, click the red links and
create the categories, thus creating more work for new page patrollers.

Generally I'm unsure on the idea, though I think it's a decent proposal and
could have positive results as well.

On 4/10/06, Steve Bennett <stevage at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> This has probably been debated millions of times before, but could
> someone tell me the basic results of the debate, even if that's the
> case?
>
> Proposition: When you create a blank page, instead of having an empty
> page, have a basic template like:
>
> <!-- Lead, including '''article name''' in triple quotes. -->
>
> <!-- Sources - please include at least one verifiable source under a
> ==Sources== heading -->
>
> <!-- Stub template. If the article is less than two complete
> paragraphs, please insert {{stub}} or something more specific (see the
> stub page [[can't remember it]]) -->
>
> <!-- Categories: Every article should belong to at least one non-stub
> category. Add these like [[Category:Wikipedia articles]] -->
>
>
> Etc. If nothing else, it would help us avoid forgetting some of these
> basic things, and would help newbies not get bitten, create peace on
> earth, free beer, etc...
>
> I assume this is technically possible. So what's the social reason for
> not doing it?
>
> Steve
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--
Sincerely,
Ral315
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ral315