[WikiEN-l] Lock new article creation for three months

[Erik Moeller]

On 3/31/07, Phil Sandifer <Snowspinner at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why don't we lock new article creation in the main namespace entirely
> for three months? Or six months? Demand that people fix existing
> articles.

Because things happen every day that deserve to be documented, and
there are always people who want to do so. Don't force them to try to
do what you want.

There are much softer solutions to get people's attention.  For example:

A simple notice:

"We have 1,715,464 articles in English. Why not bring an existing one
up to [[featured article status]]?"

on the new article creation page.

A contest announced through the site notice for registered users.

A "how to make Wikipedia better today" newsletter

Making an "Improvement of the month" part of the Main Page for
readers, which would also raise awareness of what Wikipedia
represents.

Organizing face-to-face meetups with a focus on actual research & work
-- perhaps by making them focused on topics, or WikiProjects.

E-mail newsletters of the "how you can help Wikipedia today" type.
Real-time collaborations with Gobby. Topic-oriented mailing lists and
IRC channels.

Be creative. Locking article creation is not.
-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
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