I want to express the same concern others have in the wishlist survey and surface that this makes newcomers contribution more difficult. It would be nice to provide a user experience that prevents the creation but also assists as much as possible users that (a) don't know what a reference is or how to add one (b) they know about how references work but they can't find one at that particular time (c) the subject or facts in the article are very hard to reference (this is specially true in underrepresented communities)

The opening statement for the Wishlist proposal says "Most new users fail to create articles with higher probability of success because they don't understand how they can reference the information".

I wonder whether that is actually true. At least at the English Wikipedia, I think most (i.e., >51%) new editors who attempt to start an article understand that sources are wanted. The problem is teaching them how to find good sources.

I would encourage the team, if they take this up, to investigate the premise. I just clicked through the first 10 Drafts: created by newcomers at enwiki today. 80% have <ref>s. In fact, most have more refs than the median Wikipedia article. One of the unref'd pages is a very incomplete autobiography by an aspiring musician, which means that there is a problem with this article that cannot be solved by adding refs. The other is about a (claimed) 6th-century forebear of Charlemagne, which is either verifiable (though not cited at the moment) and notable, or something in the speculative/hoax range. Citing some sources might be able to tell us which one it is. Overall, though, I'm seeing 80% of articles in this sample that already have formatted refs, and only 10% that have the potential to significantly benefit from encouragement to add refs.

i agree, with this ticket proposal, there would only be issues as unreliable sources would be supplied

my proposal for solving it is using this as preload https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gryllida/NewArticleBLPv1/preload

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Articles_for_creation/Archive_58#h-drafts_are_too_long-20240904103200 has related discussion

i'm randomly away often, so if you have an energy to re-open that discussion, it could probably help @WhatamIdoing