On Jan 24, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Omegatron wrote:
If we're going to preload an "article skeleton" for new articles, what else are we going to include? Sections? See also and External links? Sample images? Templates? Categories? Infoboxes?
On 1/23/07, Mets501 wrote:
It already is included in the text above the edit box, but it's not enough. New users don't know how to add references, and therefore just ignore the whole thing.
Sounds like a problem with the referencing system...
There are two problems here.
1) The referencing system is non-intuitive, and a first-time editor can't use it. I still don't know how the fuck to use it, and have always found it to have a terrible interface from a reader's standpoint as well. And for good measure, I just read [[WP:CITE]], which is a godawful instruction manual.
2) A casual editor who comes upon a mistake or a redlink is going to fix it from their personal knowledge, not references. This is a larger problem I've observed before - our demand for references fundamentally runs counter to the idea of "you can edit this page right now" in practice. We have to get realistic about references before we can get serious about them.
-Phil