[Foundation-l] Handholding for new articles (Was: Re: 80% of our projects are failing)

Fri Dec 5 16:01:34 UTC 2008

I was just thinking how that would be a good idea - boxes of text, where you
fill in the introduction, the basic content and the references in "content
required" fields. It wouldn't be necessary for regular contributors (perhaps
it could be turned off for autoconfirmed), but if anything it seems very
strange that we don't already try to "shape" new articles in this way when
they come from new accounts and IP editors.

Nathan

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 10:47 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I've occasionally over the years suggested on wikien-l that we prefill
> article pages with an article template, e.g.
>
> ---O<---cut here---O<---
> First sentence explaining your '''article topic''' with the topic in bold.
>
> Second sentence introducing it more. Explain to the reader why this is
> important enough to need an article.
>
> == Subheading ==
>
> Some text explaining the subheading. Add more subheadings and text as
> needed.
>
> == References ==
>
> What sources back up the information you've written above? Please list
> them here. Be able to back up everything you've written.
>
> == External links ==
>
> List here the one or two very best web links possible in the world on
> this topic.
> ---O<---cut here---O<---
>
> Unfortunately, the idea's never gotten any traction, and discussion
> has rapidly gone all bikeshed [1] on the precise content of the
> hypothetical template and how this is horribly restrictive of
> established editors and the Man's keeping them down, etc.
>
> A pity, as I think new en:wp contributors seeing the above when they
> start an article would lead to a lot less articles being shot on
> sight.
>
>
> [1] http://bikeshed.org/
>
> - d.
>
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