[WikiEN-l] How friendly are we to Newbies? Create an article as a newbie challenge now paused

[Carcharoth]

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:

> or do you claim that we shouldn't
> delete sub-stubs duplicating pre-existing articles?

If the title is valid, it is easier to turn it into a redirect and
merge any content not already mentioned in the existing article (a
s-merge as it is sometimes called). The failure to consider moving
content elsewhere (and leaving a redirect to preserve the
contributions history) is a common misunderstanding made by those who
request deletion in such cases. Whenever I look at an article proposed
for deletion, I ask myself, "is this verifiable and encyclopedic and
would someone potentially be searching for information on this
topic?", then I ask myself if it is "notable"? If it is not notable
but still verifiable and encyclopedic, the answer is usually to merge
the information (in some limited sense) to a broader article. Deletion
is a blunt tool sometimes used when editorial consideration and actual
editing can get better results instead.

Carcharoth