From: "charles matthews" charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com
How about the much simpler approach of restricting page creation to logged-in users?
No, no and three times no!
Do we want people to try test edits of [[World War II]] rather than creating [[pancakesMMM!!!]] as a sandbox/test edit. No we don't.
We don't know that this would be the effect. A great deal of logically plausible human behavior doesn't happen. For example, nothing in a newspaper vending machine stops someone for paying for one copy and taking several.
I find that many anons are graduate students very much able to help with developing WP. We need these guys! We need them to understand that 'libre et gratuit', as the French helpfully put it, is exactly that. We ask no more than that you come and edit; we put no barriers in place;
We promise that you can "edit this page," not "create an article." The policy is "zero-threshold editing," not "zero-threshold article creation.'