User:Bella the Ball

There are better places than Wikipedia for the things you really care about

If you're reading this page, you might be someone who wrote or is the subject of an article that has been nominated for deletion from Wikipedia. You might be annoyed that some people would want to delete a page you've worked hard on. You might be even more annoyed that the people commenting on your page are calling you (or your band or your book or your product or whatever) "non-notable." And you might think, "Hey, Wikipedia is a public space, and there are plenty of articles about things I don't find significant, who do those jerks think they are to pass judgement on my stuff?"

Well, there's good news and there's bad. The bad news is, Wikipedia is not the wild west, and your page can be yanked for a number of reasons. The good news is, you probably don't really want a page on Wikipedia anyway, because there are a lot of ways that are better for you to let the world know about you (or your stuff).

First, why are people saying that your page isn't Wikipedia-worthy? If you've gotten this far into the AfD (article for deletion) process, there's a good chance that it isn't. That's because Wikipedia is not a place where anyone can put anything. It is true that anyone can edit, but that editing happens according to a set of rules that have been agreed to through a consensus built over many years. If you put stuff on Wikipedia, other people can change it. Often they will help make it better, but sometimes they will think it is garbage and ask for it to be removed.

What makes something garbage on Wikipedia? Pretty simple - something does not belong on Wikipedia if it is not a subject that would be of interest to the reader of an encyclopedia. People go to encyclopedias to find out about people or things they've read about or heard about or need to know about. They don't go to encyclopedias to find out about things other people want them to read about or hear about or know about. For example, I play soccer. If I scored 10 goals this season in my school league, that information does not belong on Wikipedia because nobody will care in three years, even though they were great goals and I really want everyone to know about them. If I were a professional soccer player, though, my 10 goals would be important information to people who follow me or my team or my league. Sometimes the difference can be subtle. What about if I'm a college soccer player? What about if I played in one pro game, scored one goal, then threw in my spikes? How about if I play high school soccer and kick the winning goal at my state championships, and there are articles about the game in all the papers in my state? These decisions can be tricky, which is why there is the AfD discussion process.

But there is a catch to what you just read: something may be "garbage on Wikipedia", but that does not make it garbage! My soccer goals are not garbage, even though they are not important to the readers of an encyclopedia. Your band or business or life is not garbage, even though it does not pass the consensus for "notability" standards on Wikipedia. In fact, my soccer goals, or your important stuff, may very well belong on the Internet, even if Wikipedia is not the right place. You have a lot of other options, and, here's the key point: your other options are better than Wikipedia!

The best thing you can do is to put all your information on your own website. This can be ridiculously easy, and cost you zero money. In fact, it is much, much, much easier to get your information onto most websites than it is to write on Wikipedia. Did you notice how complicated it is to write your Wikipedia article, with all the tags and secret codes and impenetrable formats? Writing in Wikipedia format sucks - there are a million ways to do it wrong, even after you've edited hundreds of articles for many years. On the other hand, the tools to write your own webpage can be really easy. You can go to WordPress or Blogger or some other helpful site and put together your own web page quickly and intuitively. Want to add a picture, and not worry about proving that the image is open source for anyone to use? It's easy. Want to add a link, or upload a document? It's as easy on those other sites as it can be complicated on Wikipedia.

"I don't want a blog," I hear you say. You may be right: you may want your own site. More good news, you can buy your own site for very little money. You just have to visit some place that seems reliable on this list of accredited registrars (do a web search to find customer comments before you commit to a particular company), give them not very much money, and now you own "MarySmith.com". Ok, if your name is Mary Smith, then MarySmith.com is probably already taken, but what about "MarySmithLovesYou.com"? With a little creativity, you can get a name for your site that tells the world a bit about you, and that is all yours. The complicated part is getting that website you started above, using all those cool free tools that are so much easier than Wikipedia, to play nicely with your own site name. Guess what - it's really pretty easy! You just need to follow a few simple steps that you can read about on the authoring or hosting sites. It is the business of those companies to make it easy for you. And I'll make it even easier. Go to Google, and type in two words: the name of your authoring site, and the name of your hosting site. You will almost certainly find the top links tell you, in one simple page, how to get your own website working with the name you choose. It might cost you three or four dollars a month, but you get a huge amount of space to put your stuff (your pictures, your music, your life), and, best of all...

You are in total control! Why does Wikipedia really suck as a place to let the world know about you and your special interests? Because on Wikipedia, anyone can edit. That means that anyone can go to your page and delete things that you wanted there, and they can add things you don't want. Did you put on your Wikipedia page about the time you won your school spelling bee in seventh grade? Someone's going to decide that is unimportant for Wikipedia, and they'll delete it, and if you put it back they'll just delete it again. Did you leave out the part about the job where you got fired for some reason that you don't want to share with the world? On Wikipedia, a former lover might come along and include that little detail, and the community might decide that it is important enough that it should stay in. On the other hand, if you have your own site, nobody else can change what you've written! You can put in all the good stuff, none of the bad, and nobody can mess with your work.

For example, a politician can start her own Wikipedia page, saying "Mary Smith is a great person. She has great ideas and is the greatest person you could vote for." Then her opponent can come along and change that to say, "Mary Smith is a disaster. She is stupid and mean and a vote for her is a vote for a bully." After some clawing back and forth, Wikipedians will step in and end up with a page that says, "Mary Smith is a politician. She lives in her home town, has been elected to certain offices, and has taken positions on several issues. In 2011, she was accused by her opponent of poking out the eyeballs of newborn kittens, but those allegations have never been proved." Do you see why Mary Smith might not be so happy with that page, even if it ends up being the most factually accurate? On the other hand, MarySmithLovesYou.com, controlled entirely by the Mary Smith campaign, can leave off all the negative stuff, and contain only the nice bits about the politician's background, family, positions, and how to give money.

Which, by the way, is similar to what you can do on your own website. You can link to all your pictures on Flickr or Picasa or SmugMug. You can link to all your books on Amazon, and make a commission every time someone buys one. You can upload your album tracks to Emusic. You can publish your writings with Lulu and put them up for sale, or just upload pdf's of what you want to share with the world. You can design your own cards or t-shirts and sell them through CafePress. You can put on advertising and earn money when someone clicks on a link. You can be as opinionated as you want. You can say unkind things about your opponents or competitors. If you were to try to earn money from links to your stuff on Wikipedia, you'd be hounded out of town. If your Wikipedia article says something mean about someone else, or something overly flattering about yourself, people will tear you apart for violating "Neutral Point of View". On your own webpage, you are free free free to do as you like, as long as you remain within the laws of your country.

All of which is to say, please do not be angry or insulted that your page has been nominated for deletion, or that you are being referred to as "non-notable". The people who are discussing the deletion are not worried about you or your work. They are worried about maintaining the quality of Wikipedia according to the standards already established by the community. This is their work. They are volunteers, they are not getting paid, and they are donating a lot of time to make sure that Wikipedia moves continuously toward excellence. Don't get mad, get busy: get your own website and show the world your greatness!