User:Sbowers3/sandbox/creating an article


 * recommend using a user subpage?
 * update Tutorial re starting an article
 * references
 * headings
 * bold article name in lede

We should tell newbies what to do to create an article
As I mentioned previously, we do practically nothing to let newbies know what should go into an article. So it is no surprise that they create so many useless articles. I just looked at 100 New pages - 62 of them had no references. That's probably typical. An article without references is usually not notable and not verifiable. Such articles are often speedily deleted.

The normal route to creating an article is through the search box. When the article is not found, users are immediately invited to "create this page". There is nothing in the way of advice as to what should go into a new article. What I recommend is to modify MediaWiki:Noexactmatch as follows:

No page with that title exists. You can search again:
 * Titles on Wikipedia are case sensitive, except for the first character; please check alternate capitalizations.
 * See all pages that begin with this prefix.
 * See all pages within Wikipedia that link to the page.
 * See Searching for more search tips.

To create this article:
 * Read Your first article.
 * Gather references to the source(s) of your information.
 * Create the page.
 * Add your references.

The important changes are to tell people to read Your first article and to tell them to add references to the article. If users actually follow these directions we'll get better referenced articles and fewer useless articles. Admittedly, that's still a big "if" but at least we'll have pointed editors in the right direction.

No page with that title exists.  You can create this page or request it.
 * current

 See all pages within Wikipedia that link to this page. See all pages that begin with this prefix. Titles on Wikipedia are case sensitive, except for the first character; please check alternate capitalizations and consider adding a redirect here to the correct title. 