 

Do New Article Boost

Edited by Grimm, Eng, Inukshuk, Maria Quinney

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Help Boost New Articles and Build the Community

The New Article Boosting tool is a way for our editors to help boost new articles.

Standard content patrols just make minor edits and changes, or spelling corrections. With the New Article Boost (NAB) tool, you're able to identify authors who are writing on topics we suggested, which will show up in the ST column, or any other new writer who has really worked hard on something. We want to take special care with articles and authors where a lot of work went into it, especially when the author is writing on a topic we suggested. Your goal as a NAB is to always help new authors. Through that help, you'll be making them welcome, and as a part of the community, encouraging them to write more.

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Other times, new articles are started by people who need help with a problem, and it's important that we reach out to them with the answer. The NAB tool is a great place to do this, as you can answer their question, and also change the article title if it's not suitable, contains typos, grammar mistakes, or has other errors.

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If you're interested in becoming a New Article Booster, you'll need to read the linked article, and then, follow up with a member of our editorial team. They'll help you get started on VisiHow.

For instructions and screen shots of how the tool works and what you can do with it, please read on.

New Article Boosters are VisiHow Brand Ambassadors

Your actions reflect on the site, and on everyone else who's a part of the VisiHow community.

When you first open the New Article Boost tool, you'll be taken to the main overview page, where all new articles are listed. When you look at the articles and titles, keep in mind that most of the users you see here might just be making their first edit. They won't have any real activity on their talk page, and VisiHow will probably seem like a pretty empty place to them. Your job is to change that perception, and show them what we're really about. They way you do that, is by selecting an article, and clicking it.

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New-article-boost-main-page.png

Once you select an article and click it, you'll be taken to a new page, where you'll perform the article edits and boosts. However, before we discuss those steps, it's important to understand just how important taking care of new users is to VisiHow.

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Because the people you'll be interacting with are new to the system, they aren't going to know their way around the site. They will also probably make some of the same mistakes you made the first time you wrote an article or asked a question. Since our policy is to assume that all of our new users have the best intentions, we'll expect you to be as supportive and helpful to them as we were with you when you started out on VisiHow.

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To quote the text you'll see for very new users in the next page of the New Article Boost tool:

  • Since this is a new contributor with less than 50 edits and no talk messages on their talk page, please hold back on any negative feedback for now, unless clearly warranted. Also, since this will be the first talk message they receive, it probably wouldn't hurt to leave them a personalized note thanking them in a specific way for their contribution!

That's really what you want to focus on. VisiHow is about making a difference, and empowering others to change the world with their knowledge. Remember that by working together, we can accomplish anything, and you'll almost always be able to find the right thing to say or do.

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Besides, if you ever get stuck or have problems, you can always contact Grimm for help. He'll be happy to point you in the right direction, and he also loves teaching others how to do new things, and answering questions.

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How to Boost New Articles on VisiHow with the NAB Tool

If you're a New Article Booster, these are the basic steps you'll follow to boost new articles.

Once you've selected an article from the first page, you'll be taken to the main New Article Boosting page, where you'll be making any necessary edits and changes to the article. The steps below explain each part of the page you'll encounter, what it is, and how to use it effectively.

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  1. 1
    Check for content duplicates, and merge if needed
    .
    Sometimes an article will have duplicate items listed or noted by the system. When this happens, you'll want to either merge the two articles, or work to differentiate them enough that they each add relevant and helpful information to the community, as different topics. Keep in mind that once they're both unique enough to be helpful and relevant articles in their own right, you'll still want to add a link from one to the other for more information. More often than not, the first time you encounter this, you'll probably work through it with another more experienced editor to make sure you understand everything. This is because duplicates are actually relatively rare, as our system checks for them before allowing new article creation.
    New-article-boost-duplicate.png
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  2. 2
    Look for any copyright violations, by clicking the 'Check' button
    .
    It's rare, but sometimes a person will just copy something else and paste it in as their own work. When this happens, the content needs to be marked as a copyright violation. In other cases, you might see what appears to be a copyright violation, but it's actually the author of a piece of content that simply hasn't attributed their work. If you see that, send them a message to confirm their ownership of the content, and follow up on it, either removing the article if you don't hear back from them, or updating it to reflect the source.
    New-article-boost-copyright.png
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  3. 3
    Click 'Edit' to format new articles so they meet the VisiHow quality standards
    .
    Not every article is perfect, and some even require a fair bit of work. Regular Patrols of content don't account for that extra level of effort. That's what New Article Boosters are for. They fix up content that needs help, making edits, corrections, and formatting it to VisiHow standards. Sometimes it can even mean completely fixing the article, or rewriting sections if the original author has abandoned the article. The thing to keep in mind is that fixing an article is better than deleting it, unless it's a clear violation of VisiHow policy. In the example below, you can see where we've answered a question, formatting the answer, and making minor adjustments to the title and additional text. More complex answers or articles would include additional headers, bulleted lists, numbered lists, and images, to name a few examples.
    New-article-boost-edit.png
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  4. 4
    Look for spam links, or links that are in violation of VisiHow quality standards
    .
    Because all outbound links on VisiHow are non-follow, and we have a strict policy of policing links to make sure they are beneficial and helpful to the community, we don't usually have a problem with bad links. Most of the time, what we find is that the owner of content may link back to his or her site when they've posted an article. This is acceptable, and within our guidelines for outbound links. Just send them a quick message to confirm their ownership of the content or site, make sure the link appears properly, and assume that the author had the best intentions when placing their link. Other times a spammer or affiliate marketer will try to seed links. In cases like this, you can click the link, and add it to our link blacklist. If you find that someone is posting the same link repeatedly, don't even worry about checking it. Just blacklist the links, and rollback any changes that user has made.
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  5. 5
    Send new users a welcome message when boosting articles
    .
    We mentioned this earlier, but any time you're interacting with a new user, make sure you send them a nice message. Never assume that someone knows what they're doing on the site, or how to go about doing it. Rather, use their article as a way to initiate contact with them. Reach out with a polite and friendly personal message. Let them know what you've done to help them with their article, and then ask them to help you by following up on it. That small gesture of giving them something and then asking for a little favor in return can go a long way towards building a strong relationship, and maybe even adding a new member to the VisiHow community.
    New-article-boost-welcome.png
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  6. 6
    Finish up your article edits, boosts, or title changes
    .
    There are a number of options you can choose from in the Action section of our New Article Boost page. Depending on other steps you may have taken in the article, this is the part where you'll finalize actions, and award items like Rising Star status. You can also rename articles with bad titles, or request that they're quickly deleted, as in the case of offensive or unpleasant content. The full list of actions you can take is listed immediately below the screen shot of these menu items:
    New-article-boost-final-steps.png
    • Rising Star: This is for those authors who have done a particularly good job of writing a new VisiHow article. It's the sort of thing you want to give out to new writers to help them when you've noticed that they've really worked hard on an article. Just make sure it meets our Rising Star Article criteria.
    • Duplicate: This box will automatically be checked if you've clicked duplicates earlier, in the 'Potential Duplicates' section discussed in Step 1. Any title you've listed here will be marked for deletion. Just remember that we try to salvage and edit, rather than delete, unless the content truly won't add value to the VisiHow community.
    • NFD: You can select any other reason you find acceptable for the deletion of an article, such as it being an affiliate article, impossible instructions, joke instructions, vanity article, or other unacceptable reasons. Once marked, an Admin or Senior Editor will review for deletion.
    • Stub: If you're reviewing an article that isn't complete, but isn't something you have the knowledge to fix, such as an article on how to repair a tractor, when your specialty might be computers or fashion, then you'll want to mark it as a stub. This way, someone with the right knowledge and skill sets can update it.
    • Merge: Just like the Duplicate tag above, Merge will move two articles together. If you can't decide between using the merge tag and the duplicate tag, but the article has unique content, then merge the unique content. That way VisiHow becomes a better place, and we don't lose unique contributions that can help better our community.
    • Copyviolation: When you find a copyright violation, link the source URL, and then paste it here. This will let our Admins and Senior editors more quickly identify the problems, and either make a last effort to correct them, or delete the article if warranted. Remember, your job is to do your best to salvage articles, not delete them. Leave that to the Admins and Senior Editors whenever possible, and focus on helping people, and passing off questionable items to others who are more focused on those tasks.
    • Speedy Delete: If an article is just nonsense, gibberish, or personal attacks, then it needs to be removed quickly. Marking it for speedy deletion will fast track it. However, this should only be done for articles that are pure nonsense or completely unhelpful. Your job as a New Article Booster is to try and salvage articles that are otherwise failing, or in need of rescue. Use this as a last resort.
    • Move, New Title: This is where you can change the title of an article. It tells the system to redirect that page. Just make sure you follow our title guidelines, and pay attention to the article topic. Remember, as a New Article Booster, you have a lot of responsibility. Use it wisely, and only change article titles that will really benefit from being changed or updated.
    • Delete, Reason: This is an Admin only function, and allows the article to be deleted. As we mentioned earlier, this is a last resort option to an article that's otherwise unable to be salvaged. If you've marked an article for deletion, make sure to list the reason so that Admins and Senior Editors don't have to try and figure it out and duplicate your work.
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  7. 7
    Mark your work as patrolled, and your changes will be submitted
    .
    Then you can look over another new article, and from there, boost someone else's work. Note that if you decide not to proceed with your article changes, just click the Skip / Cancel button, and none of your changes will be saved. Of course, there's more to learn, but much of it comes with experience. You'll get that in time, and of course with the help of a more experienced editor to mentor you. Before long, you'll find yourself eligible to be a Senior Editor, or even an Admin, depending on your skill sets and interest in bettering the VisiHow community and helping us to change the world.
    New-article-boost-finished.png
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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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Recent edits by: Inukshuk, Eng, Grimm

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