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ArchivesRe: Fluri
in reply to a message by Mike C
Reading this, and Diana's reaction to your answer, suddenly made me realise that this is not at all obvious to those (especially newbies) who use the name submission form:
https://www.behindthename.com/submit/add.php
Neither in the link above or in the form itself is it mentioned that a lack of sources puts your submission at significant risk of being deleted. One is only told in a general sense that submissions may be edited or deleted: no concrete information is provided as to what might trigger such a thing (particularly deletion).
For the link listed above, perhaps it might be an idea to change the last sentence to something like: "Please note, submitted names may be edited or deleted, especially when you have not provided any sources for them." Alternatively, you could put a short list of bullet points there, similar to what people see when they are about to make a comment on a name in the main database:
https://www.behindthename.com/comment/add.php?name=john
You could also put a direct link to the Help and Guidelines for the Submitted Names there:
https://www.behindthename.com/submit/help.php
But honestly, that is so detailed that a casual submitter might be turned off by it. Someone who wants to quickly submit only one or two names is not going to want to bother reading all of that (especially with the shortened attention span that the average person has these days). It is then preferable to instead do one of the suggestions that I mentioned earlier, even if only in the sense of "a little goes a long way". Us editors would benefit from that as well: if only a simple changed sentence (like I suggested) increases the amount of submissions with actual sources by even 2%, then that would mean less work for us.
Oh, and as for the name submission form itself: at the end of the explanation of the 'Notes' section, you could put a gentle but clear warning that a lack of sources makes it more likely for your submission to get deleted. Alternatively, you could link to the FAQ instead:
https://www.behindthename.com/submit/help.php#faq
You could also change the warning at the very bottom of the form to something like: "Please note, submitted names may be edited or deleted by moderators, especially when you have not provided any sources for them."
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