 | 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: Put yourself in the shoes of other editors. How can they distinguish the incomplete, unreferenced article you've just created but plan to improve from one that will never be improved? |
If an article you've created is tagged for deletion, put yourself in other editors' shoes. Should they have known you have grand plans and will be adding more detail and references soon? How should they have known that?
New articles are created every few seconds. Some are well written, thoroughly referenced, and meet notability guidelines without any problems. Many other articles are very brief and unclear in their significance and often lack any references. This creates a dilemma for new page patrol volunteers. Is this the first revision of a future featured article or is it something that will never be improved? Editors who create unreferenced, very short articles or articles consisting mostly of red links can help prevent this head scratching and avoid having their contributions marked for deletion as well.