David Goodman wrote:
I would support making it a requirement before taking
any article to
AfD on the basis of lack of references to first make a bona fide
appropriate search for them, and to say so--this is already
recommended at [[WP:BEFORE]]
[[WP:BEFORE]] seems to need some work, at least from the angle you are
arguing. As well as admonitions, perhaps a dedicated page could contain
things like: a basic checklist before taking an article to AfD;
topic-based sketches of minimal search-engine checks to find some
references; and perhaps a flow diagram breaking down the major decisions
before putting anything up for deletion.
Charles