Wikipedia:Newbie Recruitment Initiative

This page is currently inactive and is retained for historical reference.
Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the village pump.

This proposal is designed to encourage the recruitment of new users by existing ones, and to reward said recruiters. The Newbie Recruitment Initiative can be shown as such:

1. IP edits limited to 500? characters per time frame per page, cannot move pages, cannot revert, etc.
2. User "X" asks Joan\John Doe to join Wikipedia.
3. J. Doe joins as User "Y" and credits User "X"
4. User "X" receives credit for the recruitment, counting towards his\her edit total or other statistic.
5. User "Y" has edit limit removed, and other restrictions removed with time and experience.

Such an institution would reward both those who register and those who encourage them to do so. Sock puppetry for credit could be combatted by examining which IPs belong to User "X" and User "Y".

See also Wikipedia:Building Wikipedia membership, for the same goal through non-technical means.