User:Tom Morris/NPPS

''This bit of my user space is open to collaboration by anyone who wants to help. Jump in! I won't bite! —Tom Morris (talk) 18:23, 31 March 2011 (UTC)''

Welcome to New Page Patrolling (NPP) School. New Page Patrolling is an important task on Wikipedia: there are hundreds of new pages created daily and someone has to check them. But it is important to do it right. The New Page Patroller is often the first experienced Wikipedian that new users come across after registering. In order to help them become a productive contributor, it is important that we make a good first impression on them and to welcome them into our community. If we do not, they may leave in frustration or even tell others that Wikipedia is not a friendly place to be. New Page Patrolling should be about helping rather than putting off new contributors rather than biting them, hastily tagging their page for deletion and then filling it up with a load of cleanup tags.

Example articles
Below are a list of example articles: these may represent the sort of pages you might find come across while patrolling.


 * 

Where do new articles come from?
It's important for NPP's to understand both the mindset of new article contributors, and the technical processes.
 * Article wizard -- (is there documentation for experienced users? If not, we should write it.) This wizard ultimately offers the user three choices: (1) Submit article for review at AfC; (2) Create article in user space sub-page; or (3) Create new, live article.
 * Task: Familiarize yourself with the wizard, so that you have an understanding of what guidance the article creator has already had.

Self-assessment
First off, thank you for considering becoming a New Page Patroller. It is a very important task! Handling new pages by inexperienced contributors impacts the quality of Wikipedia content; but just as importantly, it influences whether they will continue to contribute to Wikipedia. As of early 2011, there are some serious concerns about the level of participation on Wikipedia; making sure new contributors have a positive experience, and helping them set realistic expectations, is a good way to encourage them to stick around and do good work.

Please consider the following questions, as you consider becoming a New Page Patroller:
 * Familiarity with relevant policies, guidelines
 * Patience: When confronted with basic questions, or ill-informed edits, are you able to maintain a friendly and helpful approach?
 * Experience with article creation: Have you created a few articles yourself? Have you experienced resistance to the articles you create from other Wikipedians, and worked through disagreements?

Alternatives -- related areas that you might enjoy, if NPP doesn't seem like quite the right fit:
 * WP:AFC
 * Web chat -- help people with questions in a "live chat" environment

Questions to address

 * What is NPP? (More detailed overview than intro)
 * What are the best ways to get involved with NPP?
 * How does NPP relate to the articles for creation process?

Collaborators
List your name if you plan to contribute to the NPP school.