User talk:Andrewa/New article incubator

Why this page

There may be a need and opportunity for a new process to assist new editors interested in creating an article on a possibly borderline topic.

This has been motivated on my part by discussion surrounding Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pierre Jovanovic. There are a number of other potential articles, some suggested by the now-indeffed User:Micha Jo, but others that I've run across just poking around.

It seems to me that when a user comes here as an SPA simply to create an article on their pet borderline-notable topic, that's not a bad thing, and is probably quite common. We assume good faith (or do we?) and hope that they may become a more general contributor, or that at least we'll find that the topic is notable and we'll get an article, or preferably both. Not all will become Wikipedians, but some will if it's well handled (even if the article is not accepted, and probably more likely if it is). For both the potential article and the potential contributor, it's worth taking some care.

But it's also a minefield. In that case in particular, there is a strong possibility that there was inadvertent transgression of wp:meat. This is likely to have happened before too, IMO, and will again. The policy on meatpuppetry is somewhat draconian (and perhaps necessarily so), and newbies cannot be expected to know it. The temptation to indulge in it is to me obvious, and then without warning they are indeffed, and we lose a potential article, lose a potential contributor, and (with some justification on their part, IMO) risk making enemies.

Can we perhaps do better? That is the question. In that case at least, there is a distinct possibility that we did lose both articles and contributors, and needlessly made enemies.

But far more important, this scenario is not likely to be unique. Andrewa (talk) 19:15, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

What to avoid

I am not wishing to criticise those involved in the Pierre Jovanovic saga or any other case. It's the process I wish to improve. Not the people. Andrewa (talk) 16:11, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Previous attempts

Old article incubator

The previous article incubator was closed down following Wikipedia:Article Incubator/RfC to close down Incubator.

But the rationale was that the draft namespace and Requested article process made it redundant. There now seems room for doubt that it has. Andrewa (talk) 19:19, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

WikiProject Requested articles

This WikiProject is currently flagged as semi-active, since June. It is arguably inactive. The recent activity on the WikiProject page (for over a year now) is almost entirely reversion of vandalism or test edits. The coordinator User:Matty.007 has retired and has not been replaced.

The most recent post to its talk page was in March. It is headed I don't understand how to make an article request which is also the edit summary, and the text contains some details of what this user has tried. As of December there has apparently been no reply.

The WikiProject seems less active than the Requested article process. It's not completely clear to me whether or not the process depends on the WikiProject, but it seems not to, and should not.

But having these two different destinations was confusing to me and is I imagine far more confusing to newbies. Perhaps this can be clarified and the WikiProject revitalised, but otherwise there seems a case for closing the WikiProject down and marking all its pages as historical.

That is, just its own project and talk pages. Those that are part of the Requested article process should be kept, assuming the process is kept... but that's a separate issue. Andrewa (talk) 19:32, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Requested articles

There is also a page at wp:Requested articles which is active. Its talk page is flagged as under the scope of WikiProject Requested articles.

The latest request for help there is unanswered after almost three months. However there has been other activity on this talk page in that time, and a little activity on the project page.

The exact relationship of this process to the WikiProject is unclear to me, see above. It seems more active than the WikiProject. Andrewa (talk) 19:21, 5 December 2018 (UTC)

Draft namespace

The draft namespace is IMO an excellent facility. Any new or revived process to make article creation less painful for involved newbies should probably use it. That's not the issue here. Andrewa (talk) 19:39, 5 December 2018 (UTC)