Help talk:Starting a new page
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- removed discussion of linking to talk pages from articles - obsoleted by current software
- some old talk at Wikipedia talk:Look for an existing article before you start one
I am surprised that the simplest method of starting a page, going to the url of a nonexistent page, a la www.wikipedia.com/wiki/nonexistent is not included on this page.
I can see that it is good for people to start pages from within other articles, weaving the web, and I also imagine that making pages this way would lead to a lot of garbage pages with garbage pathnames.
However, most of the pages I work on are already started, but it is tedious to create #REDIRECT pages using any of the methods documented on this page, so I just do it using the browser and everything is fine. The same goes for reorganizing topics, adding overviews, etc., just create a blank entry and go.
Should this method be documented on this page? Or is this some kind of taboo? I haven't been doing wiki very long, so I'm asking. It seems an obvious thing for an application to do. I didn't want to go ahead and add to the page without checking with older hands. Ortolan88
It took me a while to find it, but I came here looking for instructions on how to make a redirect page in Wikipeida --Jeff 17:06, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Well, I'm no old hand, but the page says in no uncertian terms that :
- Yes, it can be done that way
- Yes, it is acceptable
- Yes, it is a kludgy way of going about it
It sure does work, though. Technically, I see no reason not to do it this way, but it may create issues of style/orphaned pages/duplicate pages if people jump in too hastily. For example, there's no page at Boards of Canada. It's at Boards Of Canada. As long as people search before creating duplicate entries and have something useful to contribute, all should be well. - Tzaquiel 20:13 Jan 3, 2003 (UTC)
What the heck is this?????:
- You've followed a link to a page that doesn't exist yet. If you'd like to create a new page under this title, delete this message and get typing! Click the 'Help' link up top if you haven't used a Wiki before and aren't sure how to go about it.
- If you didn't mean to create a new page, just click the 'back' button in your browser, or use the search box at the top of the screen to find existing articles.
- Isn't that a tad excessive? -- Zoe
It's an experiment; a longer, more informative message has been frequently suggested, and I say it's about time we tried it. Over the next couple of days, count the number of pages that are created that are empty or contain only "test" or "what's this" or the new-page message. Compare with the count of pages deleted as "newbie experiments" from the previous few days. See if it's gone down. --Brion 05:42 Jan 27, 2003 (UTC)
- I've changed the code so that the text is autoselected via JavaScript. It's in CVS, bug Brion if you want it on the live server. --Eloquence 10:02 Jan 27, 2003 (UTC)
- At the same time let's start counting the number of 400 byte pages that are created with only that text or a slightly modified version. The text also has a comma so it counts as an article! It would be nice to have javascript delete this text as soon so a cursor touches it. Of course, not everybody has Javascript enabled but I'm pretty sure that over 90% of people visiting us do. The other 10% should be presented with what we have now except for the fact that the software does not create pages with only the intro text (as it was with the old "Describe the new page here". --mav
"If no-one has already made a page on your subject, you can find some related topic (often a general category, like Philosophy or Biology), edit that page, and (in an appropriate place) add the title of the article you want to create between double brackets, [[like this]]. Then press the "save" button at the bottom of the page. On the page you just edited, you should see a clickable red link or question mark (depending on your user preference settings); click on that and go to work on your new page! This is often good practice since it structures the encyclopedia, but it may lead to unncecessary entries in some pages."
This is not "that" good practice, often the user won't find what he/she looked for..
"
- create a new link in any existing page
- then create/edit your new page by clicking on the link and writing new text
- then go back and delete the link from the original page.
"
This is bad practice, I am changing this, The sandbox is the perfect place to do this. -- Rotem Dan 19:45 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)
The question-marks for ghost links are almost nonexistent nowadays (and uneasthetic in my opinion), I'm removing these explanations (In preferences, it is clearly stated that question marks = ghost links..), and also, the average user wouldn't understand what is the "older version of the wiki.." -- Rotem Dan 20:01 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)
Page = Article, no need to confuse the reader with both of these terms, I am considering changing the name of this article to "How to write a new article" -- Rotem Dan 20:14 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)
- Ok I got it, the page is the container and the article is the content, I won't rename this.. -- Rotem Dan 20:50 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)
"And yet another way to do this is:
- click on a link to any wikipedia topic
- go to your browser's address bar and change the link there.
This does work, not too surprisingly, but it might be considered a kludge rather than a real solution by some. And the bad thing is that it doesn't automatically create a link to any other pages, and thus, may lead to creation of orphan (unlinked) pages. The only probable use is to create alternative entries that are only redirects to the proper one.
Note you could also create a temporary work area if you want to create many pages, using the same process, but you should choose a name for this which is very unlikely to be recognised as a word or phrase in the main text, though this is really a deprecated method. The preferred way of doing this is to set up the temporary work area as a sandbox within your user area."
I am removed this, this article is already bloated, this first paragraph describes exactly what's on the start of the article, and the second describes a depracted method.. -- Rotem Dan 20:27 Apr 15, 2003 (UTC)
People are very likely to use the first method described, so it is most important that this is the recommended method rather than a method with which new contributors will accidentally create orphan pages more likely than not. -- Derek Ross 02:53 May 1, 2003 (UTC)
What happens if you click on Sample article title, and why are we categorically warned against it? -Smack 22:51 1 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- You'll ruin the demo by creating an article at that title. Some people got confused and thought that to create an article you had to create it at Sample article title and then move it. Martin 12:26 17 Jul 2003 (UTC)
I see how you can edit a page (like this one). But how do you create a new entry in the encyclopedia? I see that if you click on a link that does not have an entry this creates an new page. Is there another way? --66.47.86.47 20:39 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC)
- Yes, type the new article name directly in the address bar, like http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/____. Replace "____" with the desired new article name. --Menchi 20:43 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC)
- It isn't simple to make an article that is not linked to in another, to discourage "orphans" that aren't linked to. It is best to find a related article and make a link, perhaps in a see also format. Orphans are bad, though, so try not to make them often except redirects and such. Tuf-Kat
- That does make the creation of redirects difficult though: it'd be nice to have a quick way to create one or more redirecs to a page. Martin
- Edit a page, any page. Add links to your new redirects. Don't save, click SHOW PREVIEW. Take those links. When finished, throw away your previewed page. Tannin
- Like I say, a quick way! Martin 12:26 17 Jul 2003 (UTC)
I'd like to know how to add a page that forwards to another page. For example there's no page titled "Poststructuralism". There's one called "Post-Structuralism" but it took a while to figure that out. I know there's a way of creating a "Poststructuralism" page that immediately forwards to "Post-Structuralism" because there are lots of other pages like that. This "How to start a page" page should explain how to make a forwarding page.
- See Wikipedia:Redirect. - Patrick 12:19 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)
| Contents |
I plan to move this page to meta soon
We need one place to develop MediaWiki documentation so I'm starting a project-neutral MediaWiki User's Guide in meta and think it would be a good idea to cross wiki redirect this page to meta:MediaWiki User's Guide: Starting a new page as soon as I'm done with the conversion. --mav 05:26, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Using "Go"
What about Searching for the page, and clicking the link about creating the page?
Yeah
Yeah... Agree
Please help me...
I am new to this website and have no idea what is going on but this website still interests me. Will someone please fill in the basics for me to help me figure out what I am doing. Please help me because I have no idea what is going on so please send me as much information about the website. Thankyou
- See the Wikipedia:Tutorial for a quick introduction. Angela. 22:55, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)
==
Links to Non Existing Articles?
I've noticed there are a lot of links to entries that don't yet exist. I'm not sure if these links are there to encourage people to create these articles or if the links are a mistake. I feel like some links should be edited out but I don't want to do that if they're there for a reason.
- Yes, the red links are there to encourage people to create the articles. -- 199.71.174.100 23:42, 28 May 2005 (UTC)
