Wikipedia:Advice to biography subjects
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This is the contents of a standard response used by the email response volunteer team. It is reproduced here as an adjunct to Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error (from subject).
As with most content issues, the email response team will always try to promote resolution of an issue by open discussion on Wikipedia
Advice
[edit]Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia written by its readers. The project is a "wiki", which means that anyone visiting the site can edit or add to pages. There is a general introduction to Wikipedia here: Wikipedia:About
One of our most important policies is that on biographies of living individuals: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. We also require that all articles adhere to the neutral point of view: Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.
As the subject of one of our articles, we encourage you to create an account. This is free and helps members of the Wikipedia community to communicate with you. You can create an account here: Special:Userlogin. If you are having problems creating an account, you may request an account be created for you at: Wikipedia:Request an account.
Each article has an associated "discussion page" or "talk page"; you can access this by clicking the "discussion" link at the top of the article. You can then ask a question by selecting the "new section" link in the tabs at the top of the page. You will see two text boxes for you to write in: one for a title for your question and one for the question itself. At the top of each page is an "edit" tab, and clicking this tab allows readers to edit the page. To find the specific authors of a page, you can click on the "history" link at the top of the article.
Each Wikipedia editor has a personal user page that you can reach by clicking on their name; that user page has an associated "discussion page" where you can leave them messages. These users' discussion pages can be edited in the same way as article discussion pages.
We would encourage you (or your representatives) to use the article's talk page rather than edit the article directly. This is to protect your own reputation against possible adverse publicity caused by editing your own Wikipedia biography, something that has caused adverse comment in the past and we've formulated a guideline here: Wikipedia:Autobiography. The community's views on edits by subjects and those working for them can be seen at: Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. Obviously we make an exception for fixing obvious vandalism.
It is very important to avoid the use of legal language and threats. We have an absolute prohibition on this: Wikipedia:No legal threats. In order to maintain an orderly atmosphere we also prohibit personal attacks: Wikipedia:No personal attacks, Wikipedia:Civility. If you feel attacked or threatened then please ask for help.
Wikipedia policy is that all articles should remain open for editing by our users as a process of continuous improvement. Though in extreme cases we may "lock" pages from receiving edits for a short time, pages are then reopened for editing, as most edits we receive improve our articles. Because of this, we do not lock articles on request. However, we strive to keep articles free of vandalism and inaccurate material. There is a noticeboard specifically for biographical issues at: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard, this is widely watched and is a good place to ask for help. For more general assistance you can use the help desk, Wikipedia:Helpdesk, or add the text {{helpme}} (including the curly braces) on your talk page.
In some cases an article may be deleted, either due to unfixable problems or because of lack of reliable independent sources, as noted in our guideline on inclusion of biographies: Wikipedia:Criteria for Inclusion of Biographies and Wikipedia:Importance. This is absolutely not a judgment on the individual themselves, only on whether there are sufficient sources of a quality that allows us to compile a biography which meets objective standards of fairness and accuracy.
External links
[edit]- Advice to subjects of Wikipedia biographies
- Response template on OTRS wiki (OTRS volunteers only)