User:Brandingopportunity/User blog/Tips for being a Pathfinder Chronicler 2

Don't have the patience or time to create a fully realized article? Create a stub.

Something is (generally) better than nothing. There are literally thousands of topics which have not been covered in the PathfinderWiki (just take a look at Special:WantedPages for starters). It's wonderful when someone creates a complete article on a subject spanning multiple publications and numerous sub-sections, but that's not always the case. Sometimes you only have 20 minutes to spare, or you just want to work on something small.

Why not create a stub? A stub is a smaller article on a subject that gives only basic information. For example, let's say you're writing an article on the Empire State Building in New York City. A stub article might give brief information as to the location of the building, where it was built and how high it is, and maybe a factoid or two about its history. Even though it's just a stub, the article is well-written and readable. It's not just a collection of random facts or bullet-points. It just gives you a basic outline of the subject. Just add a {{stub}} template and you're done!

Stubs (IMO) are great in that they give you something to work with. Now you're not just looking at a blank page, you're looking at a short article that someone has taken some time with, that already has the basic outlines of a larger article. It can help inspire and motivate you to write something longer, and it adds to our Total Pages count!

And just to reiterate: we don't just want random facts or bullet points in a stub article, you can put those in your sandbox page. We are looking for short, decently-written abstracts of a bigger subject.

I think both main points of this are great and deserve emphasis. Stubs help to create something where there was nothing, growing the wiki and aiding future Chroniclers. Stubs are not random facts, but well-constructed articles of short length.

Keep up the tutorials. They're helpful reminders even to me. —Yoda8myhead (talk) Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:28:51 +0000