This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference. Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump.

Since 2007, the number of new editors has been declining. One of the reasons for this is the reception that new users get - and the Wiki Guides project exists to improve that reception, and gather data on it. As part of that, we're doing a trial at Special:NewPages to incubate, rather than delete, problematic-and-deletable pages and mentor the creator in how to turn it into an article that will be kept around.

A lot of users seem to get disenchanted, and one of the reasons is the reception they get at Special:NewPages; watching your work go up in smoke with only semi-automated contact does not enthuse new contributors. In a lot of cases, people don't stay around; their article is deleted and that's that. By the time any contact is made, in other words, it's often too late. User:Ironholds, in consultation with James Alexander and Philippe Beaudette, is running a project to gather data on how often this occurs, and in the meantime try to save as many pages (and new contributors) as possible.

Interested users go through Category:Candidates for speedy deletion the deletion log and Special:NewPages looking for new articles which are at risk of being deleted, or have recently been deleted, but could (potentially) be useful. What this covers is entirely up to the user reading the article, but should be interpreted as broadly as possible. When such an article is identified, the user who found it incubates it, contacting them and shepherding them through how to turn it into a decent article. If the article is improved to the point where it no longer meets our deletion criteria, it can be moved back into the mainspace. If the creator does not reply to our overtures (which should be made both via the talkpage and email, if email is enabled) the page can be deleted after 30 days.

Users interested in acting as reviewers and mentors can sign up below, and list incubated articles in the table provided. Current Wiki Guides are automatically signed up. Questions and suggestions can be directed to Ironholds, or posted on the talk page.

1. Ironholds ( talk) 21:29, 18 March 2011 (UTC) reply
2. Silver seren ^C 22:00, 21 March 2011 (UTC) reply
3. Pesky ( talk) 07:46, 27 March 2011 (UTC) Just interested in keeping an eye and chucking in the odd (hopefully useful, but just as likely just plain 'odd'!) idea into it. reply
4. Mark ^Dask 09:04, 27 March 2011 (UTC) Interested but need more info and am a novice pedian reply
5. Russell Dent ( talk) 21:50, 30 March 2011 (UTC) I'm fairly new to Wikipedia however I would be keen to help new editors in whatever way I can. reply
6. Since I NPP I may was well try to work on this -- Guerillero | My Talk 00:43, 31 March 2011 (UTC) reply
7. Blue Rasberry (talk) 10:13, 31 March 2011 (UTC) reply
8. mikeu ^talk 13:24, 2 April 2011 (UTC) I would be interested in helping with new articles on science and technology. I'm also involved at Wikiversity: and Outreach: reply
9. Ckruschke ( talk) 17:26, 2 April 2011 (UTC)Ckruschke reply
10. Otelemuyen ( talk) 18:40, 2 April 2011 (UTC) reply
11. -- Sandeep ( talk) 13:16, 5 April 2011 (UTC) reply
12. Nick-D ( talk) 11:16, 8 April 2011 (UTC) reply

• Essay by User:Ironholds on New pages and new user experience.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Article Rescue Squadron/Newsletter/20091001/Interview2 an Article Rescue Squadron newsletter with advice on the rescuing of articles up for speedy deletion.
• User:Mr.Z-man/newusers A study on the new editors of February 2010, which found that over 10,000 created an account, contributed an article had that article deleted and left. New editors who start by creating an article that is subsequently deleted are much less likely to continue editing than either those whose article is accepted or those who start by editing existing articles.
• Current discussion at village pump on whether only autoconfirmed users should be able to create articles in the mainspace.
• Wikipedia:Writing better articles