Help:Find or fix a stub

The OdleWiki is in its infancy. Many articles contain only a few sentences and need to be expanded. A stub is a short article, generally a paragraph or less in length, that provides a very basic description of a topic. A stub is usually considered inadequate and exists mainly to be elaborated upon by others. You can help. Look at the list of stubs for an article that interests you and expand it.

Remember when creating a stub that it eventually must be expanded upon and elaborated to be of any use. Don't just create a stub and walk away. Keep tabs on the stubs you create and try to elaborate upon them yourself. Frequent updates and modifications will keep the article high on the recent changes page. Wiki veterans keep tabs on this page and will likely jump in where they can and contribute. Even a short paragraph, or a question or point of debate on the stub's discussion page will help.

Also, when writing a stub, or expanding one, don't try to be "perfect." If you are writing the article, just write the article. A few spelling or minor grammatical errors are acceptable. Allow someone else to edit these errors out. This will bring more people into the article and persuade them to edit the article. While they fix any minor technical errors you may have made, they may also get the urge to expand further upon your work. It is also far more reliable to have another person edit your work. They will spot problems you will not.

When writing a stub, use the following points as a guide:

1. Provide a "This is a stub" message by adding {{Template:Stub}} at the very beginning of the article.
2. Follow the standards of correct English. Use clear, complete sentences. Again, you don't have to be perfect. At least attempt to be literate though.
3. Give a clear, precise definition or description for you topic.
4. Try to give more than just a definition, if possible. It doesn't have to be much. Just a paragraph or two is fine. This is a stub, after all.
5. Submit the article with a summary comment that will draw others to your article. Even just cutting and pasting the stub itself into the summary field will give others a good idea of what your article is about on the recent changes page.
6. Take some responsibility. Don't submit a stub and expect others to do all the work. A stub is a framework that the article can be built on; an outline, you could say. If you don't have any intention of elaborating upon your own stub, don't submit it. Leave it for someone else.
7. Don't add just links. Links are fine as an addition to an article, but don't make an article on their own. There must be content for the links to be relevant.

Again, these are guides only. They are not hard-and-fast rules. Generally a good stub can be as little as two sentences. Just make sure they are two good sentences. If you do not know enough about the topic to write two good sentences, consider not writing the stub at all.

External links and sources

• Wikipedia's stub page