Wikipedia:New pages patrol

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New pages patrol is a Wikipedia communal patrol which refers to the process of checking and performing classification upon newly created pages.

The patrol is entirely voluntary and carries no obligation. At its heart, it's really just a way to see that every page gets checked in a timely manner and is given a boost on its way to becoming a quality article, and that Wikipedia is not deluged with poor quality pages.

Wikipedia has a project named WikiProject New page which is aimed for conducting research on newly created pages and new page patrol.

1 Being nice
2 Patrolling new pages
3 Tools
4 Related project
5 See also

New Pages Patrol Userboxes

Regular NP patrollers may wish to put the NP patrol userbox on their user page by adding {{User wikipedia/NP Patrol}}:

	This user is a newpage patroller.

You may also want to add New page patrol; [[WP:NPP|You can help!]] to your edit summary.

Being nice

Throughout the entire process of NP patrol, it is important to remember not to bite the newbies. Far from being a monolithic horde of vandals, trolls, and spammers, the available evidence seems to indicate that newcomers write most of Wikipedia's content.

If you see a new user or IP address contributing, {{welcome}} or {{welcome-anon}} them if you're so inclined, and include a pointer or two of feedback about how they can make their contributions even better. Most will gladly welcome the support.

It is also important to assume good faith as much as possible, or, minimally to assume incompetence instead of malice. For example, remember not everyone is as computer-literate as you; some people will accidentally blank or damage pages when attempting to cut and paste material from Wikipedia. Others may not understand that, yes, their changes really are visible to the entire world.

Patrolling new pages

Special:Newpages logs new pages as they are created. It is advisable to patrol new pages from the bottom of the first page of the log. This should give the creating editor enough time to improve a new page before a patroller attends to it, particularly if the patroller tags the page for speedy deletion. Tagging anything other than attack pages or complete nonsense a minute after creation is not constructive and only serves to annoy the page author.

Especially if the new article has a {{newpage}}, {{inuse}}, or {{underconstruction}} template showing, care should be taken to ensure that the author has finished the initial version before you evaluate the page. A good rule of thumb is to wait until at least 15 minutes after the last edit before tagging the article (or up to an hour for the {{newpage}} tag). Additionally, it may be helpful to check the editor history to be sure that you don't offend an experienced editor who has a set plan to create a valid article.

Also, consider working from the last page of the log: pages only stay in the queue for 30 days (720 hours), and there can be a considerable backlog. Working on the backlog completely eliminates complaints from editors that you tagged their page for deletion only two minutes after its creation. And remember - if you don't click the 'patrolled' link, the article will remain in the 'unpatrolled' queue.

Improving new pages

Stubs, which are the beginnings of meaningful and encyclopedic articles but which need a little help (a little wikifying, as it were). The basics of wikifying stubs:
- Bold face the article title.
- Link relevant terms.
- Phrase the article in complete sentences, including the first.
- Place an appropriate stub notice at the end of the stub.

Style problems. First, try to fix any style problems yourself. If you cannot, add one or more specific cleanup tags for pages which need tidying up. In particular, the following tags are common:

{{cleanup|date=March 2010}} -- for general problems
{{wikify|date=March 2010}} -- for articles that need appropriate formatting or linking
{{internallinks|TOPIC}} -- a variant of wikify for pages that are properly formatted, but need linking to other related topics.
{{unreferenced|article}} -- for articles that conspicuously lack references

Mistitled articles. Usually it's straightforward to move a page to a more appropriate title (WP:Name) using the "move page" function. Sometimes you'll find that an article under the other title already exists, in which case you should try to merge any new material from the newly created article into the old one, leaving a redirect in place of the new page.
Categorization Check that the article has been assigned to a useful category and if not, either tag it with {{uncat}} or try to find a category for it. If the article links to other Wikipedia articles, you can check their categorizations for ideas, or assign the article to one of the fundamental categories.
Orphaned articles Checking the "What links here" link will tell you if any other page points to the newly created article. Sometimes orphans result from a mistitled article (see above). Other times you'll want to find a related article and link the new one to it. It may be helpful to search for mentions in other articles. If none are found, an {{Orphan}} tag can be placed.
Articles without sources The best time to ask for sources is when an article is fresh and the contributor is still around to ask about the origin of the information in it. Tag articles with {{unreferenced}} and let the contributor know with {{subst:sources-warn}}, or try to find some yourself. If there aren't any, it might need to be deleted.
Foreign language articles. Tag the page with {{notenglish}} and list it at Wikipedia:Pages needing translation into English. Do not run the page through an online translator and submit the results.

Moving new content to other projects

Dictionary definitions. These can be transwikied to Wiktionary or converted into disambiguation pages. Many may be redeemable as Wikipedia articles, if sufficiently refactored, rewritten, and expanded.
Primary source texts. These should be transwikied to Wikisource.
How-tos or instructional materials. In some cases, these can be transwikied to Wikibooks; however, it's often possible to turn these into meaningful articles by rewording the text to make it more descriptive and less prescriptive. Try to improve an article by adding some more material before resorting to moving it out of Wikipedia.

New pages that may require deletion

Speedy deletion candidates. Read and be familiar with the speedy deletion criteria, then if you see any such pages created, tag them with {{db|Your reason here}}, so that they can be deleted by an administrator. You may want to use one of the following, which provides the reason from the criteria automatically: {{db-empty}}, {{db-bio}}, {{db-repost}}, {{db-attack}} or {{db-music}}, {{db-spam}}, or {{db-nonsense}}. You might also want to consider placing {{test}} on the creator's user talk page to help point him or her in the right direction. If you tag an article for deletion as a non-notable bio, you may opt to notify the user who created the article with {{nn-warn}}. Many of the speedy delete templates suggest a readily formed tag that appears at the bottom of the resulting speedy deletion box and can be easily copied and pasted into the creator's user talk page. When leaving messages for new editors, consider using {{firstarticle}} rather than the usual warnings.

Speedy deletion is a tool which can easily be overused. Since speedy deletion removes a page without discussion, an article should not be tagged for speedy delete if there is any plausible reason that the article should be kept. In particular, an article should not be tagged for speedy delete using A7 for not being notable (in your opinion): an article does not have to prove that its subject is notable, it only has give a reasonable indication of why it might be notable (whether it actually is notable is a subject for an AfD discussion, not a speedy deletion). Consider using a Notability tag instead of a speedy delete tag. Also, an article should not be tagged for speedy deletion if it's possible that it might be improved into an article which should be kept. Pay attention to the guideline "Contributors sometimes create articles over several edits, so try to avoid deleting a page too soon after its creation if it appears incomplete." It is not a rule of Wikipedia that an article has to be perfect the instant it's first posted; that's why we have edits.

Unsuitable pages. Pages about individuals, places, or things which generally don't merit an encyclopedia entry should be tagged with {{subst:prod|Your reason here}} or, if someone could reasonably defend its existence (or if a prod has been added and removed already), listed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. What exactly qualifies as encyclopedic is debatable, though, so it's best to err on the side of caution and not delete or nominate for deletion too hastily.

Copyright violations. One way to check for a possible copyright infringement is to do an internet search; however, not all text is on the internet; search engines do not index all the internet's text, and some texts available through search engines are public domain and thus suitable for import into Wikipedia. These public domain texts include the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
- After notifying the uploading editor, blank the page and replace the text with {{copyvio|url=insert URL here}} ~~~~
- Go to today's section of the copyvio page and add {{subst:article-cv | PageName}} from [insert URL here] ~~~~ to the bottom of the list. Put the page's name in place of "PageName". If there is no URL, use a description of the source.
- Please also add {{subst:uw-copyright| PageName}} to the article creator's talk page.

Blatant copyright infringements may be speedily deleted. If an article and all its revisions are unquestionably copied from a website which does not have a license compatible with Wikipedia, and the uploader does not assert permission, you may use {{db-copyvio|url=url of source}} instead of the standard copyvio notice, and an admin will decide whether or not to immediately delete the article. Notify the creator using {{Nothanks-sd}} or a similar message.

Be hesitant to list articles on Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion if there's a chance they could be improved and made into a meaningful article. Tag them for cleanup instead. Try not to step on people's toes. Users will often start an article as the briefest of stubs, and then expand it over the following hours or days.

Use of the {{prod}} tag may be more suitable in these situations. This tag may be removed by any editor, thereby averting the proposed deletion. This way, if the creator is serious about improving the article to meet Wikipedia's standards for inclusion, s/he may remove the tag and improve the article in the coming days. But if the creator subsequently abandons his/her attempts to construct the article, and it just sits, it will automatically be deleted in seven days. Regardless, it is a good idea to notify the creator of this tag placement, following the instructions on the template itself.

If you believe the article will probably meet Wikipedia standards one day and has a chance of improvement by someone else, you do not want to prod-tag it, but rather place other appropriate improvement templates on the page.

In any case, if you are unsure whether a page will be improved in the coming days, you may want to place it on your watchlist. The {{construction}} tag may be placed on a new page by a creator to inform new page patrollers and other editors that the article is still being constructed, and its early revisions may not meet Wikipedia's standard for inclusion. If the creator has not placed it there him/herself, you may want to place it there yourself. Many editors, especially newbies, are not familiar with this tag. The {{construction}} tag does not make a new page totally immune from deletion; see Wikipedia:Deletion of pages under construction for details on when a page under construction can be deleted.

You may want to contact the creator on his/her talk page to ascertain the creator's intentions regarding future construction of the page prior to taking any such action. If you do so, try to learn from the creator about the purpose of the new page and any sources that may be used to establish notability and verifiability, two of the most important aspects regarding suitability for a page's inclusion. It may be helpful to discuss one-on-one with the creator some possible ways to make the page more worthy of inclusion or otherwise improving it, and if this is not possible, to name one or more articles the topic can be merged or redirected to.

Always check the history and the talk page. A new page might be a recreation of a previously deleted article. With other articles, someone may have removed a tag. The talk page may contain a notice that indicates that the article has already survived an AfD.

New images

Special:Newimages logs all new images as they are created. Check new images for the following problems:

Image copyright tag Check that an appropriate image copyright tag has been added. If not, leave a note on the contributor's talk page per suggestions here.
Image source The image description must say how the image was obtained, for example if the uploader took it himself. Also consider if the licence is reasonable considered the source, for example a combination of "I found it on bbc" and "this image is public domain" may indicate that the image is in fact not free. Tag unsourced images with {{subst:nsd}}.

Tools

NPWatcher is a new-page monitoring and reporting tool for Windows. It also provides extensive deletion processing tools for admins.
RC patrol script permits rapid tagging of new pages with the relevant criteria for speedy deletion (ie: for non-notable content, use "A7"). This tool isn't useful for new page patrol unless you have some of the CSDs committed to memory. However, it also gives non-admins tools for revert, filter, and popup, while using the (default) monobook skin.
New Page Patroller shows a box in the sidebar that lists the 10 newest articles. The box is updated every 5 seconds using AJAX.
Twinkle is a user script that contains quick reverting, deletion, warning, and reporting features. It can be used to tag articles for speedy deletion, and it automatically marks pages as patrolled when applying tags.
Friendly is a user script designed for welcoming and tagging articles. The script includes all of the most commonly used article tags.
The WikiProject Check Wikipedia script scans new pages on a daily basis, and passes them through a series of wiki syntax checks. The result is listed as a series of reports of pages to fix.
WikiAlerter (beta) is a Windows program designed to aid users in tagging pages for deletion and patrolling new pages.

Related project

WikiProject New page

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