Wikipedia:WikiProject community rehabilitation/Idea/Patrol the New Pages

Patrol the new pages

If you want to reduce the WP:BITE go to Special:NewPages and look for those redlink usernames and be helpful. Add references, clean up, congratulate a newbie for starting a new page, give advice, or sometimes tactfully explain why the page may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Even if your input leads to an AfD rather than a CSD you are making a big difference. J04n(talk page) 12:21, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

J04n .. you make a great point - and to take it a bit further - it's not just in the NPP area. I used to spend a lot of time at the help desk, and those "redlink" talk things are a BIG indication that we have someone to help. ANY time, ANY where, that there is a redlink talk page .. we should take a second to drop a welcome of some sort. Even an automated one (such as the "Friendly" gadget) is better than nothing. Help desk, NPP, Reference desk .. even the admin boards - if there's a person that doesn't even have a talk page established yet - it's a great place to say "Hey, welcome to WP - if you have any questions, feel free to click on my signature and post to my talk page - and by the way .. there's a great group of folks at WP:Julian's help (or whatever we call it in the end) that are always willing to lend a hand. — Ched : ? 01:48, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- We already have editor assistance, for informal help requests. Is that the type of thing you're thinking about? Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 02:15, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  - I believe J04n is speak about taking a proactive role in helping new editors. Helping even before an editor may be aware that help is needed. editor assistance is a wonderful aid; however, one needs to know it exist. Users that are not long term IP users may not be aware of the help that is out there (ie. The five pillars). Watching during our normal course of editing for these "redlinked" new account talk pages and dropping a welcome and maybe a little unintrusive help with recent contributions may help starve off a later unpleasent encounter Calmer Waters 10:26, 13 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    - Organizing the editor assistance page to make it more user-friendly, like maybe asking people to organize themselves by topic, non-article specialty, or whatever might help as well. And definitely making sure it is on all the welcome to wikipedia templates would be a great idea. John Carter (talk) 23:47, 27 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with this and think that newpage patrol is a specially needy area. I've been doing a lot of work in this area recently and think I've identified several problems. Lots of people start as article creators, lots of newbies get bitten, its really isn't unusual for newpage patrollers not to discover they've been doing things wrong until they run for admin - I can think of two this month where that proved a problem. Politely correcting overhasty or over deletionist taggers is part of the solution, spending a bit of time there yourself is also helpful as I think that part of the problem is casued by patrolers feeling swamped and unable to spend ten minuts salvaging something as other stuff floods in. I'd also add that installing hot cat is really helpful at Newpage patrol, and over two years on I still remember having one of my articles categorised as one of my first interactions on the pedia. Ϣere SpielChequers 17:53, 28 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I fully agree. Almost all of the barnstars I give out are to newbies who have created a very good first article. I think more of this attitude to newbies who contribute positively will lead to a greater retention rate. That being said, if the newbie's help wasn't constructive we shouldn't go against process because a contributor is a newbie. Instead we should explain to them what exactly they did that was wrong and we should give them alternative ideas for constructive contributions. Them From Space 03:24, 29 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]