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I had an idea about a month ago to create a tool where the article requests are edited and checked for duplicates before they go through. This would be good as half our duplicates on wikiHow come from articles that have been requested. I just wanted to revisit this because people said it would be a good idea then nothing was done about it. I feel this would be a great addition to wikiHow and help to achieve our mission. Thanks and please give me feedback! @Anna @Krystle @Adelaide @Isorythmic @Lutherus-Shyrilser @Danielbauwens Tagged active users who have been part of helpful forums beforehand. Sorry if I have missed anyone!

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Sounds fine to me.

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Thanks for suggesting a new idea! We actually have an existing page to accept or reject article requests ( http://www.wikihow.com/Special:ManageSuggestedTopics ). This allows us to check for both duplicate and inappropriate topics before they’re let through. Although it can only be accessed by admins, non-admins can use this page ( http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Suggested-Topics-to-Delete ) to note down duplicate/inappropriate requests to be deleted.

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There’s another check in place, which is that when you try to publish a new article, even if it’s a request, our system looks for similar titles and asks you to contribute to those instead. In my experience, though, the majority of people who write duplicates tend to know we have an article on the topic. They want to start their own anyway, because their advice is different somehow, or sometimes because they want to be “the” author. This is understandable because it can take a little bit of time to understand the whole wiki concept and how being the author isn’t as important as creating a single, awesome article on a specific topic. Either way…With new articles not getting fully published without community approval, this is less of a problem than ever! Duplicates can be published, but they won’t be indexed (and shown to the world) which gives us time to suggest to the author that they add their expertise to the existing page:slight_smile:

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Okay, I never got this advice before! Thanks @Krystle @Illneedasaviour