On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Ron Ritzman ritzman@gmail.com wrote:
Deleting newcomers' hard work is one of our big PR problems. Even if, after contemplation, we decide we were actually right to do so.
When someone wanders into the sausage factory and the very first thing that happens is that they fall head-first into the meat grinder ... this is an *unfortunate* circumstance.
Doesn't just happen to newbies. For the first time in years I started a new article quite some time ago. It immediately got a speedy delete tag *even though* I had placed an "in use" banner at the top (something a newbie would never think of).
Now, the rationale given for listing it for deletion was that it was "rubbish". And it's true: it was rubbish! But the fact was I was editing it from the very earliest point of noting a phenomenon and trying to document it. I thought the "in use" banner and the fact that I would have edited it in the moments before the deletion banner popped up would have been enough to say "someone is working on this right now, so hold your horses".
I now realise I should have started the article in my user space but, again, this is certainly not something a new user would think to do.
I recall, during the Strategy process, a user of very long standing saying that a new article he created was similarly stomped on at birth.
I can see it from the new page patroller's point of view, mind. It can't be any fun doing a shift on there at all.