[Foundation-l] Handholding for new articles (Was: Re: 80% of our projects are failing)

[Alex]

David Gerard wrote:
> 2008/12/5 Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com>:
> 
>> This [1] is the sort of thing I'm thinking about. David, has this been
>> proposed, discussed, modeled and rejected in the past? (It seems like it
>> must have, for something that is pretty common around the web).
>> [1]: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Add_an_article_-_basic.JPG
> 
> 
> Not that I know of. A preloaded text box would do much the same job, I
> expect. Note how I don't say anything about format of references, etc
> - just enter the content.

The article wizard on en.wp that Greg linked a while ago (which has been
 in a state of under-construction-ness for some time now) and a version
of which the Slovenian Wikipedia uses does this. It doesn't force people
to use the wizard (the Slovenian one just suggests people use it, an
en.wp version would likely do the same) but it does give the option.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?action=edit&preload=Wikipedia%3AArticle+wizard%2Fcompany%2Fpreload&editintro=Wikipedia%3AArticle+wizard%2Fcompany%2Fintro&title=Test1234>
is an example of the enwiki one, the Slovenian one is
<http://sl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?action=edit&preload=Wikipedija%3ANapi%C5%A1i+%C4%8Dlanek%2Fpodjetje%2Fpreload&editintro=Wikipedija%3ANapi%C5%A1i_%C4%8Dlanek%2Feditintro&title=Test1234>
- it even provides example article text.

> Unfortunately, getting community consensus for any change whatsoever
> on en:wp is all but impossible these days. Happenstance conditions are
> treated as rock-solid intention.
> 

As long as its optional, people probably won't mind that much.

-- 
Alex (wikipedia:en:User:Mr.Z-man)