Community Wishlist Survey 2023/New contributors/Reference requirement for new article creation
Reference requirement for new article creation
- Problem: Most new users fail to create articles with higher probability of success because they don't understand how they can reference the information that is added to said article.
- Proposed solution: That the system does not allow them to publish or move to the main space any article without at least one reference and that they always have a link that takes them to see a video about references, how to search for it and how to add it to the article in question.
- Who would benefit: New users
- More comments: This is a proposal for new users to learn more easily and thus have more success. Most enter once and leave because things get complicated for them. Certainly Wikipedia has all the teaching material, but they need it more in plain sight. I also think that every article should come from a registered user.
- Phabricator tickets: phab:T329942
- Proposer: Mega809 (talk) 13:03, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
Discussion
- Thanks, Mega809 for adding this proposal! This wish is actually very similar to some ideas I've been discussing with some English Wikipedia community members.
- I updated the title from "References" to "Reference requirement for new article creation" to be slightly more descriptive, but please feel free to make further changes.
- Some questions that might be worth discussion: Does this wish require a policy change? Could it be built in a configurable way so that each wiki still has control over requirements? Does this requirement impact all users or just new users? --KStoller-WMF (talk) 20:00, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
- @Mega809 - I'll accept this proposal on Friday, so if you want to make any changes to the proposal based on discussion feedback please do so before then. Thanks! KStoller-WMF (talk) 23:35, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
- There are some isues:
- Some articles will have references when there is certain infobox and connection to Wikidata. But before creating thic cannot be connectect and there are no references.
- In dismabiguation pages sually are no references. This can be solved with accepting some templates instead of references.
- CAPTCHA. When I edit anonymously and want to add reference, I must write some annoying captcha.
JAn Dudík (talk) 14:01, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
- This can be achieved by a edit filter in enwiki to check whether the newly created page has a reference or not, however moving from draft is harder to check. Thingofme (talk) 12:45, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
- When trying to publish without a reference, a popup alert could appear with a video already explaining how to add the reference. Elilopes (talk) 14:31, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
- For me, reference requirement for new articles seems like a nobrainer. However, different projects may have different guidelines and different requirements. This is where edit filters can help, by preventing whatever behavior is found annoying or againts the rules. Anyway, I think this overlaps with the mw:Edit check (phab:T265163) initiative, so we can definitely expect some improvements in this field. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 10:27, 19 February 2023 (UTC)
- This section of the wishlist is for newcomers, but it doesn't address a newcomers' problem. It addresses experienced editors' problem. Unfortunately, experienced editors forget too easily that to become an experienced editor, one has to be a newcomer first. This change will make it even harder to be a newcomer than it is now. Don't forget the "anyone can edit" principle, please. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 12:03, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
Voting
- Support Skimel (talk) 00:54, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support --NGC 54 (talk|contribs) 01:57, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support * Pppery * it has begun 03:57, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Jurbop (talk) 07:54, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Martin-78 (discutailler) 08:26, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Muted Red Tulip (talk) 08:50, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Exilexi (talk) 09:20, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Doktor Züm (talk) 09:39, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Antonov (talk) 09:47, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Oltrepier (talk) 09:57, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support OwenBlacker (Talk) 15:05, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Makes sense. Nerd271 (talk) 15:14, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support CROIX (talk) 15:18, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support FinixFighter (talk) 15:42, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support De nue pw (talk) 22:15, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support NillaGoon (talk) 22:28, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support --Furfur ⁂ Discussion 23:49, 11 February 2023 (UTC){{
- Support Ahkei (talk) 01:40, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Betseg (talk) 03:56, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support That make sense but exclude redirects, disambigs. Thingofme (talk) 04:02, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Gohan 04:42, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support EnIRtpf09b (talk) 07:38, 12 February 2023 (UTC).
- Support Mauricio V. Genta (talk) 07:54, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support HLFan (talk) 08:39, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Yes, I support this. Mgr MOOBBY (talk) 09:16, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Wiki-uk (talk) 10:24, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Funcrunch (talk) 23:53, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Thomas Kinz (talk) 00:25, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Ropaga (talk) 10:45, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support IsabelaSC (talk) 17:01, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support I support this proposal but I have some concerns. Articles created through AfC basically have to have references (which is great) but what kind of overview is possible for articles created outside of that process? A manual review by more experienced editors or worse, putting that on the NPP? Would this cover references from sites on the SPAM blacklist? References that are to dead links, that don't actually attribute the claims made on the article page, references that are present but are poorly formatted? I agree with the proposal as a topic but there will be some major details to hammer out first. Kazamzam (talk) 18:59, 13 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Veron (talk) 09:17, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support When publishing without a reference, a popup alert could appear with a video already explaining how to add the reference. Elilopes (talk) 14:30, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Yes agreed. 1st time I tried i was rejected because of citations Chefs-kiss (talk) 15:52, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Barkeep49 (talk) 22:59, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Hareesh Sivasubramanian (talk) 10:48, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Thooompson (talk) 13:59, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support You simply should not be able to save a new article without citations. Reywas92 (talk) 14:52, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Laurent Meesseman (talk) 14:52, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Raphaël28190 (talk) 21:08, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support This can also prevent the creation of some joker articles. De un millón (talk) 23:51, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support AshLooming (talk) 00:35, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Aishik Rehman (talk) 07:43, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Hey man im josh (talk) 15:39, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support cyrfaw (talk) 17:47, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ (talk) 17:49, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Alien333 (talk) 17:54, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Hehua (talk) 09:02, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support DobryBrat (talk) 10:42, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Kurmanbek 💬 17:12, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support A basic, very important guideline. Radlrb (talk) 19:27, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support —CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 19:55, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Fuchs B (talk) 20:02, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Truthanado (talk) 06:02, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support --Yining Chen (Talk) 10:14, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Fabius Lector (talk) 11:05, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support LauritzT (talk) 14:58, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Monjablanca (talk) 15:49, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Vulcan❯❯❯Sphere! 15:58, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Anonimo88 (talk) 16:37, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Libertyguy (talk) 21:36, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
- Strongly I would rather edit a bad article with no references then create an entire new one because its a hassle and takes months to be approved Crainsaw (talk) 11:52, 19 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Hans5958 (talk) 05:39, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support PamD (talk) 15:32, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
- Oppose Encouraging references is fine, but requiring them is an unnecessary barrier to entry. — Omegatron (talk) 16:09, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
- Oppose Makes large moderating projects like WP:AfC useless. New users should be mentored to know how to add references. Requiring them to add refs when they're creating their first article, makes it even harder to contribute an article (some of which are about a notable subject) to the encyclopedia for them. — Jeeputer (talk) 05:20, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Dr vulpes (talk) 06:16, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Bnichols23 (talk) 17:08, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Serieminou (talk) 23:04, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Genesis2FrontierProj (talk) 18:24, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Rose04zr (talk) 12:58, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Althair (talk) 04:25, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support منى ناصر ثابت علام حُزين (talk) 16:16, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
- Support Krokofant (talk) 09:41, 24 February 2023 (UTC)