[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment: referencing

[Tom Morris]

On Thursday, November 3, 2011, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3 November 2011 12:22, Tom Morris <tom at tommorris.org> wrote:
>
>> Perhaps this could be part of the article feedback tool: "is this article
>> missing a source? could you tell us what it is?" - this would
automatically
>> dump a new section on the talk page with whatever they type in, along
with
>> a template called something like "potential ref" which would add a
category
>> so someone could go and check up on it. And, yes, I do know that this may
>> seem like I'm coming up with a solution to the huge backlog of
unreferenced
>> articles by creating a new backlog of "articles which need a reference
>> check". ;-)
>
>
> I suggest that backlogs don't matter nearly as much as involvement and
> drawing new people in.
>
> Backlogs as a concern translate directly to "newbies are inherently a
problem."
>
>

I'd disagree. Newbie treatment is important, but having quarter of a
million articles without a single reference is also important given WP:V.

-- 
Tom Morris
<http://tommorris.org/>