User talk:Retired username/proposal

Method

 * This is just a draft I'm working on... it's rather rough but comments are welcome

Basically, dubious articles without references can be tagged as potentially unverifiable articles, and if valid sources are not added in 30 days, the article can be deleted. More specifically, as I invision it:


 * Authors/major contributers should be notified on their talk pages, to provide them a chance to provide verification.
 * A category along the lines of 'Requests for Verification' should be created
 * After 30 days, if no references have been cited, the article may be speedy deleted. A tag along the lines of  should be added.

Rationale
This is an alternative to AfD that I believe will be more effective. It deals specifically with issues of unverifiability. In my experience (over 100 nominations on these grounds), these nominations are not controversial. I have never had a single "unverifiable" nomination not end in a deletion decision, except in one case where the article was completely rewritten during the nomination period (and thus, no longer an unverifiable article). The fact is, unverifiable topics as usually hoaxes or jokes, or something in between. There's not much to object to.

There are a lot of these kinds of articles on Wikipedia, and taking them all through AfD would be very time-consuming both for nominators and AfD voters. The overall effort it would require is prohibitative, in that many people see an article, know it's unverifiable, but don't want to hassle with AfD, so it stays up. This tag would let them address the problem in a less stressfull manner, while actually providing people with more time to provide verification.

Benefits
This would make deleting unverifiable articles very easy and safe, so long as deleting admins make certain that no sources are cited even after the 30 day period. I believe it would lead to many more unverifiable articles being deleted, especially if used responsibly by RC and new page patrollers. It would reduce the strain on AfD quite a bit. It would also actually improve the ability of the community to find verification, if verification does in fact exist.

Comments
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