How to Patrol New Articles on Wikipedia

Because of the high volume of article submissions every minute, it is extremely difficult to look at every single new page on Wikipedia. However, you can use a more advanced tool that lists potential problems that a new page has. This wikiHow will show you how to patrol new articles on the English Wikipedia. [1]

Steps

  1. To do so, type Special:NewPages or Special:NewPagesFeed in the search bar of Wikipedia. This will take you directly to all the new pages on Wikipedia.
  2. If on Special:NewPagesFeed, you may want to review the pages that likely have the most problems first, then review the pages that have less or no problems.
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  3. Because Wikipedia is an English language project, content on Wikipedia is expected to be in English. If the page is not in English, then conduct a cross-wiki search to see if the page exists on another language project. If so, tag the article for deletion with {{db-a2}} (foreign language pages existing on another Wikimedia project). Otherwise, add {{not english}} to mark the page needing translation into English.
  4. If it is, then the newly created page is eligible for speedy deletion per their respective criteria.
    • Patent nonsense - defined as text that has no clear meaning, such as random banging on the keyboard. Tag these with {{db-g1}}.
    • Test page - a page created by a contributor while they are experimenting with editing. Tag these with {{db-g2}}.
    • Pure vandalism or blatant hoax - any page creation attempt with the intent to damage the reputation of Wikipedia. Tag these with {{db-g3}}.
    • Attack page - a page that is intended to attack its subject or contributors. Tag these with {{db-g10}}. Make sure to blank the page (other than the deletion tag) and replace it with {{subst:blanked}} .
    • Spam/advertising - a page that only seems to promote the subject. Tag these with {{db-g11}}.
  5. If the page is blank, then check the history of the page to see if the author removed all the content from the page, and see whether it was done in good faith. If so, then tag the article with {{db-g7}} (author requests deletion in good faith). Otherwise, tag the article with {{db-a3}} (no content) only if the article is more than ten minutes old.
    • If the article fails this criteria after ten minutes, then check whether the article is patent nonsense, a test page, a hoax, an attack page, or promotional, and tag appropriately.
  6. If you cannot identify the subject, then tag the article with {{db-a1}} (no context) only if the article is more than ten minutes old.
    • If the article fails this criteria after ten minutes, then check whether the article is patent nonsense, a test page, a hoax, an attack page, or promotional, and tag appropriately.
  7. To do so, you can enter the article title into the copyright violation detector or do a web search of the infringing text. If the page is a copyright violation, and there is no non-infringing text worth saving, then tag the article with {{db-g12}} (unambiguous copyright infringement). Otherwise, remove the infringing text and tag the article with {{copyvio-revdel}} to alert other administrators that copyright violating revisions need to be suppressed.
  8. If it doesn't, then see if the article makes a credible claim of significance.
    • If the article does not make a credible claim of significance, then determine whether the article is an article about a person, individual animal, non-educational organization, event, or musical recordings, and tag the article with {{db-a7}} (for people, individual animals, non-educational organizations, and events) or {{db-a9}} (for musical recordings where there is no article about the artist).
    • If the article is a biography of a living person, and there are no references whatsoever, then tag the article with {{subst:blpprod}} (biography of living person proposed deletion).
    • If an article is not a biography of living person, and a quick search turns up reliable sources, add {{unreferenced}} or {{more references}} to the article as appropriate. Otherwise, see if the article meets subject-specific notability guidelines. If there are offline sources that suggests the topic may be notable, and the article contains useful prose, then move the article to draftspace and tag the redirect created with {{db-r2}}. If it doesn't, then tag it with {{subst:prod}} (proposed deletion) (if proposed deletion is unlikely to be contested). If proposed deletion is contested, and the article still has the same issues, then start a discussion at Wikipedia's articles for deletion about whether the page should be deleted. Mark the article as reviewed if the page survives a deletion discussion (if you are a new page reviewer).
  9. If so, then merge the content, redirect the newly created article, and mark the article as reviewed (if you are a new page reviewer). If there is no useful content to merge, and the title is not a plausible search term, then tag the article with {{db-a10}} (article duplicates an existing topic).
  10. If you cannot find appropriate categories, then tag the article with {{uncategorized}}.
  11. Make sure you sort the stub (such as Microsoft-stub, biology-stub, etc.) if possible.
  12. Do not add more than 3-4. For example, if the article relies on primary sources, add {{primary sources}}.
  13. To do so, add relevant wikiproject tags ({{WikiProject X}}) to the article's talk page.
  14. If you are not a new page reviewer, then consider becoming one. With this, you will get access to scripts that will make reviewing new pages on Wikipedia easier.
  15. For deletion templates that you added, you can add {{subst:db-[criteria]-notice}} to their talk page. Otherwise, explain what you did and what the author can do to improve their article.
  16. Remember to review articles in-depth and not to sacrifice speed for quality.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/NPP_flowchart.svg

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