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This is an essay.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Don't be too hasty in nominating newly-created articles for deletion. Remember that some people don't have as much free time to edit as others and that we shouldn't bite the newbies. |
Sometimes, editors create very short stubs with the intention of filling them out later. The stub, in that form, may not make any claims to notability (though notability is irrelevant) or list any sources for verification. This induces many editors to hastily add a speedy-delete tag. If the original editor manages to return before the article is deleted, they explain their intentions on the talk page. The following is a typical example of what happens next:
Often, instead of outright deletion, someone will suggest moving an extremely short article to the main contributor's userspace. This, however, defeats the whole purpose of a wiki. A wiki is for collaborative editing; articles grow organically as different people come along and contribute their own bits of information. Keeping short articles in userspace, where almost no one (certainly not casual editors) will be able to find them, until they are expanded to meet some arbitrary criterion makes this whole process impossible. Don't do this.
So give an article a chance. Unless it's a blatant speedy delete—such as nonsense, advertising, slander, or a copyvio—don't tag it speedy. And don't PROD or AfD it until the original editor has had a chance—a week should be enough time—to add substance to the article and list sources and do everything else people tend to use against such short articles. Regardless, even if PROD is used, work with the original editor and make them aware of the reasons for the tag. Help them work within the accepted norms of the community to get the article up to snuff, lest you scare off a newcomer.
You might consider a websearch for references—part of checking potential notability. If you find anything useful, fill in a few sentences of the article and cite. This is almost always sufficient to make an article PROD-resistant while usefully contributing to the project.
