[WikiEN-l] A newbie on article prefill templating

Mon Dec 19 13:27:50 UTC 2005

me: "I have put forward the idea of a prefilled article template for
new articles, instead of an empty edit box - show newbies what we
expect from an article. Thoughts?"

Malkin: "Actually, I think that's a great idea. It took a lot of work
to figure out what needed to be there - jumping around to figure out
how to add categories and sources, and that's with a fair amount of
familiarity with what it should look like in the first place. A
template would've been much easier to start from than an empty box."

Look at User:Malkin's edits and you'll see how she slowly constructed
the article. Prefill would have been just the thing to lead this
newbie the right way. She did OK anyway, but it would have helped
greatly and made the blank edit box a lot less intimidating.

- d.