[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment: referencing

Fri Nov 4 07:44:34 UTC 2011

On Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 2:31 AM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> On 11/03/11 6:27 AM, Fae wrote:
> > On 3 November 2011 12:27, David Gerard<dgerard at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >> Backlogs as a concern translate directly to "newbies are inherently a
> >> problem."
> > I don't get the point being made here, I would have thought that backlogs
> > are a good way to attract new editors into teamworking and community.<
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/DER>  and<
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unreferenced_BLP_Rescue>  are
> > examples that attracted many new editors
> >
> Backlogs can go both ways. They can be a rich source of things to do if
> you're looking for something to do, but today's newbies are not the
> cause of the backlogs; they should not be be somehow held responsible
> for templates they didn't put on articles.
>
>
Naturally.

Something to consider: when the English Wikipedia reached a million
articles, inline citation was just becoming standard.  So there is inherent
catch-up to be played with the articles already written, and the additional
three million.  Providing a WYSIWYG reference interface with the editing
interface really can only help as much as the gadgets do in providing new
and updated articles with citations.  The backlog will never be conquered.
 It's just a side effect of our holistic growth.

-- 
~Keegan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan