Wikipedia talk:Drawing board

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[edit] New Topic Placement

New article topics and information relevant to them should be added to the project page. I see that some people add topics to the top of the Current discussions list and some add topics to the bottom of the Current discussions list. I'm wondering if we should make a suggestion as to which placement is more appropriate, or if the list should be alphabetized by topic/discussion name/heading. --cgilbert 13:53, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Experienced Editors Wanted

I do not see that many experienced editors frequent this page to give help to the newer editors who are requesting or contributing a new article. If this page is used properly, it can greatly aid in the creation of quality content for Wikipedia, and possibly cut down on the number of new articles that get speedily deleted. The last editor to give constructive criticism in helping me provide information for a new article was Jmabel, but I see that he is considering playing a less active role in Wikipedia. I hope that other experienced editors could help in monitoring or maintaining this page. --cgilbert 13:53, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Guidance

Guidance from experienced Wikipedia editors would be most beneficial and welcome to someone requesting an article, or considering contributing one. No doubt I am exceptionally dim, but I, for one, found the directions for initiating the development of a new article somewhat unclear, and spent a few minutes attempting to determine precisely where on the page new article topics were meant to be added. After scanning the dates of the additions, I decided that there was no apparent order, and added mine to the top of the list. Some gentle guidance, or clear guidelines, would have been most helpful here. Oldandtired 15:20, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why people suggesting new articles come to the Drawing Board

I believe that many of the new users that come to the Drawing Board probably know that they could start an article without discussing it first, but many would like to get feedback on the feasiblity of the article before diving in. I think the feedback that the occasional experienced editor gives on these article suggestions helps to make sure that the article is either started in the right direction, that the user is directed to an already existing article on the subject, or that the user is advised not to start the article for lack of notability of subject if its a person, group, or organization.

Many users are directed to the Drawing Board when they search for an article, don't find it, but follow the link to request it. There, users are directed to a sea of different article classifications in order to actually request the article, or "If you want to do more than just request an article and would like to discuss and plan its creation go to the drawing board." So, perhaps some of the users, as was I initially, might actually be looking to collaborate on the creation of the article, not just create it themselves.

I think it would be very nice if editors could welcome some of the new users requesting articles in this manner. Giving constructive feedback, and perhaps some direction, on the planning of these articles would greatly help new contributors. This would be much preferred to having created an article without feedback, and then getting it speedily deleted. - cgilbert 15:21, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I actually doubt that new users know they can start articles. Most websites do not allow users to create articles in any sense. Thus, I would not expect that new users think they can do so on Wikipedia. We should make it clear that they can, then give them the choice of whether to seek help. I think the link I provided, to Wikipedia:How to start a page, I quite valuable and shouldn't be buried. Finally, it is not a total disaster if a user's first article gets speedied. They can learn a lesson from it and do better next time. Superm401 - Talk 04:41, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Archiving

There are items on the project page dating back some six months or more. Are there any plans for archiving this material? I assume the procedure is the same as for talk pages. We could set up automated archiving by Werdnabot- it could even be set up so the bot leaves unreplied to requests alone, thus decluttering the page. Should I ask Werdna (talk · contribs) to add this to the pages that his bot works on? —Elipongo (Talk|contribs) 03:08, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

I guess that Werdnabot is down. I've asked about MiszaBot II's behavior [1] to see if we can use that bot for this project page. —Elipongo (Talk|contribs) 07:06, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
I just asked again about not archiving unreplied-to threads by MiszaBot II. It may be the case that we'll just have to settle for a set number of days like the setup at WP:NCHP, but maybe Misza can come up with something. In the meantime, I'm going to try to implement a solution to the fact that some editors add their questions to the top of the page and others to the bottom, making it very hard to find the requests that have been hanging around the longest.—Elipongo (Talk contribs) 18:24, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Overlap

This page appears to have quite some overlap with Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Is that intentional? >Radiant< 14:30, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

From what I can tell, it's supposed to be kind of like Wikipedia:Requests for feedback except that editor's are asking before they create the article. The difference from Wikipedia:Articles for creation, as I see it, is that the original querient will create the article him/herself rather than have someone else do it for him/her. In other words, it's the difference between saying, "Do this for me, please.", and, "Is it okay to do this?". It's a confidence booster for newer editors and can also help them to avoid common mistakes that a lot of us have made when we started editing. —Elipongo (Talk|contribs) 06:29, 15 March 2007 (UTC)