2008/12/5 George Herbert george.herbert@gmail.com:
I think these are valid concerns about my idea. I would respond with "But you can always create pages the existing way" 8-) But some new users won't want that much framework either. I don't know how many different methods/paths we can set up for different levels and expectations of users (and being aware of things like screen real estate, etc).
I've occasionally over the years suggested on wikien-l that we prefill article pages with an article template, e.g.
---O<---cut here---O<--- First sentence explaining your '''article topic''' with the topic in bold.
Second sentence introducing it more. Explain to the reader why this is important enough to need an article.
== Subheading ==
Some text explaining the subheading. Add more subheadings and text as needed.
== References ==
What sources back up the information you've written above? Please list them here. Be able to back up everything you've written.
== External links ==
List here the one or two very best web links possible in the world on this topic. ---O<---cut here---O<---
Unfortunately, the idea's never gotten any traction, and discussion has rapidly gone all bikeshed [1] on the precise content of the hypothetical template and how this is horribly restrictive of established editors and the Man's keeping them down, etc.
A pity, as I think new en:wp contributors seeing the above when they start an article would lead to a lot less articles being shot on sight.
- d.