Wikipedia talk:ACREQ

to talk
Auto-Confirmed status REQuired for new mainspace page creation.

Following WP:ACTRIAL we are to evaluate the results. After ACTRIAL launched and even more so after it finished it quickly become apparent to many users involved in maintenance that the minimal barrier to new page creation of 10 edits and 4 days of account age is a bare minimum requirement to discourage the creation of unsuitable mainspace pages.

The Wiki Way is to make editing easy and reversing that editing also easy. This is fine on existing pages. Unfortunately, we have also made new page creation easy - a new page of junk can be created in seconds. In contrast, page deletion is a multi-step multi-user involved process that requires an Admin, and maybe a week of discussion. A lot of effort by good established editors and Admins goes into removing junk. By allowing brand new users with nothing invested in the building of Wikipedia to flood the WP:NPP with spam and totally unsuitable pages we only frustrate our dedicated long term users.

We also frustrate the new good faith users who can't understand why their new page is being quickly deleted because they have spent insufficient time learning about what are and are not appropriate topics.

New Page Patrol

 * WP:NPP backlog on Sept 15/17 (pre-ACTRIAL)
 * Breakout over 90 day indexed
 * NPP backlog on March 15/18 (post-ACTRIAL)
 * These are all pages in mainspace
 * Beyond 90 days pages are automatically indexed.

AfC
These are all pages in draftspace
 * AfC backlog on Sept 15/17
 * AfC backlog on March 15/18 (post-ACTRIAL)
 * AfC submitted pages are often reviewed somewhat randomly with the vast majority of reviews happening within days or several weeks. Easy accepts and declines are handled quickly while complex topics or borderline notable pages may take longer to find a willing reviewer. At worst pages may wait 6-8 weeks for a review.

WMF Report Summary
Here is a summary in plain English of key findings in WP:ACTRIAL


 * 1) Rise in AFC submissions
 * 2) Decrease in speedy deletions

New Users at Events
How to handle events and new editor training was discussed in detail before ACTRIAL started. Since new editors should start working in Draft anyway the only actual restriction is that non-auto confirmed users can't use their own account to move their creations to mainspace. Consensus at an RFC was against creating a userright for trainers that would allow then to Confirm new users directly. Some users felt strongly that edit-a-thon users should not get special treatment at all.

There are a number of work arounds to getting new pages into mainspace including:


 * 1) Request users create an account 5 days before the event. One event leader reported 100% success with this request.
 * 2) Have an experienced editor at the event move the pages after checking them. This can done on any device logged in as a user with appropriate rights and the new users can follow along and learn from it
 * 3) Have an experienced editor anywhere in the world monitor the drafts off an event page and move them as appropriate.
 * 4) Use WP:AFC which will give feedback and opportunities to correct deficiencies
 * 5) Have new users make a request at WP:PERM for confirmed status, specifying they are at an event and naming the editor running the event. Singlce hopefully training includes the importance of both maintenance and content creation, new users should learn about PERM anyway so later they can request NPP or other user rights.
 * 6) Have a physically or virtually present Admin give out Confirmed status for event participants.
 * 7) Event coordinators are encouraged to seek Adminship. There is a shortage of active admins and users willing to apply, so why not give tools to our dedicated trainers.

Remember new users don't know that before ACTRIAL they could have made the move themselves. Don't make it a negitive thing, present the restriction as a positive small control Wikipedia has to discourage vandals and spammers. Everyone will appreciate the need to discourage bad actors.

Also consider training new users on how to expand pages that interest them. Dreaming up new notable and easily referenced topics is hard work, and a brand new user is unlikely to understand Notability on day one. Hundreds of thousands of pages sit needing attention from an interested editor and surely any new editor could find something they are passionate about to work on. A new editor trained to expand, improve and maintain will never run out of things to do on Wikipedia while a new editor that thinks creating new pages is the real deal will run into frustrating deletion processes pretty quickly.

Further good summary comments by Kudpung here and TonyBallioni here