User talk:Spotlight Actor
Welcome!
[edit]Hello, Spotlight Actor, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions, especially your edits to Wikipedia talk:Contributing to Wikipedia. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
- The five pillars of Wikipedia
- Contributing to Wikipedia
- The Wikipedia Adventure (a fun interactive editing tutorial that takes about an hour)
- Wikipedia Teahouse (a user-friendly help forum)
- How to edit a page and How to develop articles
- How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
- How to add those all-important references
- Simplified Manual of Style
- The Signpost, our newspaper.
I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, or you can to ask for help on your talk page, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! We are so glad you are here! Sm8900 (talk) 19:36, 11 March 2020 (UTC) Sm8900 (talk) 19:36, 11 March 2020 (UTC)
May 2020
[edit]Please refrain from using talk pages such as Wikipedia talk:Contributing to Wikipedia for general discussion of the topic or other unrelated topics. They are for discussion related to improving the article in specific ways, based on reliable sources and the project policies and guidelines; they are not for use as a forum or chat room. If you have specific questions about certain topics, consider visiting our reference desk and asking them there instead of on article talk pages. See here for more information. Thank you. Chris Troutman (talk) 19:53, 31 May 2020 (UTC)
How to write articles that won't be deleted
[edit]If you're going to write an article about anyone or anything that is not you or something you are connected to, here are the steps you should follow:
- 1) Choose a topic whose notability is attested by discussions of it in several reliable independent sources.
- 2) Gather as many professionally-published mainstream academic or journalistic sources you can find. Google Books is a good resource for this. Also, while search engine results are not sources, they are where you can find sources. Just remember that they need to be professionally-published mainstream academic or journalistic sources.
- 3) Focus on just the ones that are not dependent upon or affiliated with the subject, but still specifically about the subject and providing in-depth coverage (not passing mentions). If you do not have at least three such sources, the subject is not yet notable and trying to write an article at this point will only fail.
- 4) Summarize those sources left after step 3, adding citations at the end of them. You'll want to do this in a program with little/no formatting, like Microsoft Notepad or Notepad++, and not in something like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer. Make sure this summary is just bare statement of facts, phrased in a way that even someone who hates the subject can agree with.
- 5) Combine overlapping summaries where possible (without arriving at new statements that no individual source supports), repeating citations as needed.
- 6) Paraphrase the whole thing just to be extra sure you've avoided any copyright violations or plagiarism.
- 7) Use the Article wizard to post this draft and wait for approval.
- 8) Expand the article using sources you put aside in step 3 (but make sure they don't make up more than half the sources for the article, and make sure that affiliated sources don't make up more than half of that).
Doing something besides those steps typically results in the article not being approved, or even in its deletion.
If you are writing about yourself, or someone or something you are connected with (such as a friend, family member, or your business), the following steps are different:
- 0) If the subject really was notable, you wouldn't need to write the article. Remember that articles are owned by the Wikipedia community as a whole, not the article subject or the article author. If you do not want other people to write about you, then starting an article about yourself is a bad idea.
- 8a) If the article is accepted, never edit it again. Instead, make edit requests on the article's talk page.
- 8b) If the article is rejected, there will be a reason given. Read it carefully and closely. If there are links in the reason, open them and read those pages.
Ian.thomson (talk) 22:50, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
- The above is a template message. You should start with the second set of instructions (step 0). Ian.thomson (talk) 22:50, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
Friendly advice regarding Draft:Michael Austin
[edit]Hello there! I'm Roxy. Like you, I am a volunteer contributor to the Wikipedia project.
Based on your activity, it looks like you are editing Wikipedia primarily to promote an actor with whom you may be affiliated. That's usually a bad idea, and it may not be successful in the long run. Here's why.
Wikipedia is not a platform for promotion or autobiographies. Wikipedia is chiefly interested in what external sources have to say about a subject, rather than what the subject has to say about themself. All encyclopedia editors are expected to adhere to the neutral point of view, and it is very difficult to remain neutral when writing about yourself, your coworkers, or your clients.
Editing with a conflict of interest is not strictly forbidden, but not advised. If you have some business or personal connection to an individual or organization, you are expected to declare it on your user page, and are strongly discouraged from directly writing or modifying Wikipedia articles about that subject. As an alternative, you may request an article be written about them.
See also:
- Wikipedia:Best practices for editors with close associations
- Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing
- Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure
Only certain subjects are notable. In order for a subject to merit an article on Wikipedia, that subject must meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability. The following guidelines give criteria for determining whether a subject is notable:
I could not find very many reliable sources, or significant appearances, that demonstrated that Michael Austin (the English actor who appeared in India vs England) meets these criteria for notability at this time. However, there may be notability-establishing sources I'm not aware of, or this may be change with time, so this may be a point for further discussion.
I suspect it is rather unlikely that Mr. Austin merits a Wikipedia article at this time. If you are mainly interested in expanding his presence on the world wide web, you may wish to seek out other venues, as trying to do so on Wikipedia might not be a worthwhile use of your time.
Best wishes, RoxySaunders (talk · contribs) 23:59, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
Concern regarding Draft:Michael Austin
[edit]Hello, Spotlight Actor. This is a bot-delivered message letting you know that Draft:Michael Austin, a page you created, has not been edited in at least 5 months. Drafts that have not been edited for six months may be deleted, so if you wish to retain the page, please edit it again or request that it be moved to your userspace.
If the page has already been deleted, you can request it be undeleted so you can continue working on it.
Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia. FireflyBot (talk) 21:03, 27 September 2021 (UTC)
Your draft article, Draft:Michael Austin
[edit]Hello, Spotlight Actor. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Michael Austin".
In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been deleted. If you plan on working on it further and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.
Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Liz Read! Talk! 22:37, 27 October 2021 (UTC)