[Wikipedia-l] the REAL solution to useless stubs and micro-stubs

[Karen AKA Kajikit]

If it's garbage delete it.

Full stop.

Deleting a pitiful little stub that contains no useful content is NOT
vandalism, and I defend my right and Mav's right and anyone else's right
to do it. If you have been around for more than a few WEEKS you probably
know what's garbage when you see it... But most people are so afraid of
being accused of vandalism that they won't touch them. It's not
helping... 

Having these pathetic microstubs doesn't make people write more - it
just makes people think that 'oh, we have an article on 'X', so I'll
look at it later...' instead of saying 'Oh! A red link to X! I'm
surprised nobody's written anything yet - I'll go and make an article.' 

Examples of a useless stub: 'Walhalla is a town in Australia.' 'A
kookaburra is a bird.'

Examples of a useful stub: 'Walhalla is a small isolated town in
north-west Victoria. At one time a thriving gold town, it is now
virtually abandoned. There is only one road into Walhalla and at times
it is blocked by landslips or extreme weather.' etc. 'A kookaburra is an
Australian native bird. It was also known as the 'laughing jackass'
because of its unusual call. It is a member of the Kingfisher family.'
etc

If somebody deleted the second two, I'd be asking them what they were
playing at... but the first two do not deserve to exist.

If a stub merely restates the articles title it does not deserve to
exist. If a stub is part of a mutually-linked uninformative pair (eg.
'One flew over the Cuckoos Nest is a book by [[Ken Kesey]]' and 'Ken
Kesey is the author of a book called '[[One flew over the Cuckoos
Nest]]') then you do NOT need both of them, and the one with the least
potential for expansion needs to go. If a stub exists purely for the
purposes of directing you to a weblink with no explanation, it deserves
to go. 

Let's get on with the important stuff now... we've wasted enough time on
the subject of stubs. 

-- 

Karen AKA Kajikit

To err is human... to really foul things up add kitten and stir.

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