Wikipedia:Sending letters

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Sometimes, to clarify a fact of some kind, or to request the use of some copyrighted content, it is necessary to contact people outside of Wikipedia. These can range from minor webmasters to the very people who have articles on Wikipedia. This is typically done by sending letters, be they e-mail or snail mail.

This page is a proposed guideline for best practices in letter-sending, and also once had a planned "Requests for letters" system that would allow collaboratively-written snail mail to be sent on Wikimedia letterhead with a Wikimedia signature and approval - but this has been vetoed by Jimbo.

E-mail

E-mail is the easiest way to contact someone. It works well if you're only attempting to contact a less important person, or merely the proprietor of a website whose images you would like to use. When contacting a very important person, or a large company, e-mail will probably only result in a canned response or that of a spokesperson. In that case, see snail mail, below.

Here are some suggestions for writing e-mails:

Be polite. Address the recipient by his/her title and last name, unless you happen to know him/her personally.
Be formal. It isn't necessary to be boring, though. Jokes, in good taste, are fine.
Be clear. Explain what Wikipedia is and what it needs from the recipient.
Don't misrepresent yourself. If you're an admin, say so, otherwise refer to yourself as an editor, and nothing more.

A few example e-mails

Please add your own e-mails to this list.

Pete Ashdown

Hello Mr. Ashdown,

I'm not a citizen of Utah, but if I were I would certainly vote for you.

Anyway, I'm emailing you to inform you that I have created an article about you at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. You can read it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Ashdown. If you have anything you'd like to add, go ahead, or let me know if you'd like me to do it. Also, do you have a particular picture that you'd like me to post on it?

Andrevan
a Wikipedia Administrator

Thank you Andrevan. I considered putting up a Wikipedia page on myself, but I felt self-conscious about it. If you notice, I did some edits on the page about the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, but that is my sole contribution to Wikipedia (if only I had more time).

A color headshot is here:

http://pashdown.org/media/headshot/pete-color.jpg

I'd be happy to edit and correct my page in the future, but I think other people should add the content. FWIW, my full name is Peter Lynn Ashdown and I was born in a Salt Lake City hospital, but grew up in Bountiful, Utah, which is north of Salt Lake City.

TV-FM DX

Dear Mr. Hepburn,

I would like to request permission to use one of your map graphics on the Wikipedia encyclopedia articles for TV/FM DX and tropospheric ducting, which can be accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV/FM_DX and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_ducting respectively. Though the Wikipedia project is a non-commercial, non-profit, donation-funded venture, there is the possibility of a paper or CD version being sold in the future. The articles don't need a current or accurate map, merely a demonstrative graphic. Please let me know if this is possible.

Thank you,
Andre
Wikipedia administrator

Sure Andre, it would be an honour. Feel free to choose whichever map you want.

Cheers,
Bill Hepburn.

Snail mail

Snail mail commands a lot more respect than e-mail does, and is generally noticed more as well. Snail mail tends to work well for contacting article-worthy individuals or organisations.

Letter format

Here is a useful resource for business letter formats:

http://www.writeexpress.com/business-letter-format.html

Sample letters

None yet.