Wikipedia talk:Autobiography

Wikipedia:Autobiography#Problems in an article about you

Since I'm now working the quality mail formerly recommended as the "simplest" approach there, I've been fairly bold in revising this section. It really isn't the simplest approach, since it can take quite a long time and since OTRS volunteers are (as I read) only supposed to implement changes under certain circumstances. As I understand it, if the question is one of consensus, we're not supposed to implement it through off-wiki conversation. Hopefully the new language I've put in place will seem satisfactory to all. It is a bit redundant to the section immediately above, but I'm afraid that's necessary, as people will read the section that they think applies to them and will not necessarily refer to others. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 15:51, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

This needs more teeth

There are no good reasons for an editor to create an article about themselves or their company. The pitfalls with this are outlined well in this guideline. But it needs to be more than a guideline and it needs to have more teeth. Instead of autobiographies being "strongly discouraged", they should be a criteria for speedy deletion.--RadioFan (talk) 14:16, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

I disagree. The subject of the autobiography might be plainly notable and the autobiography might comply perfectly with all of the relevant policies. James500 (talk) 14:17, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

MoS naming style

There is currently an ongoing discussion about the future of this and others MoS naming style. Please consider the issues raised in the discussion and vote if you wish GnevinAWB (talk) 20:50, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Unverifiable corrections

Currently WP:AUTO#IFEXIST states "Similarly, you should feel free to correct mistaken or out-of-date facts about yourself, such as marital status, current employer, place of birth, and so on. (Note it on the talk page.)" Does this not encourage people to replace unverifiable information with other unverifiable information? If an article contains a fact is incorrect and unsourced, shouldn't it be removed rather than the subject coming along and adding what they know? If we have something that is sourced, but that the subject says is incorrect, we need another source to back up their version, since we are interested in verifiability, not truth. I therefore can't see why we should have this sentence in the guideline. I propose removing this sentence, or replacing it with "Similarly, you should feel free to remove mistaken unsourced or out-of-date facts about yourself, such as marital status, current employer, place of birth, and so on. (Note it on the talk page.)" Smartse (talk) 17:59, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

I've changed it as no one has replied. Smartse (talk) 19:38, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm. I came here interested in that sort of issue, and I think both these versions are less than ideal. For one thing there is no emphasis on referencing. In fact article subjects are often in the best position to know where the RS are, & should be encouraged to add references to existing (or self-corrected) material that is uncontentious. There should also be warning against copyvios from faculty bios etc, since their first thought is typically to cut and paste from an existing source. Ideally all such edits should be mentioned in the talk page, with diffs if they know how to do this. Whether or not stuff is unreferenced (and how close to the bit removed does the reference need to be?) removals should always be noted on the talk page unless libellous, as this is where most serious problems actually start. I don't myself think that there should be a blanket discouragement of the addition of verifiable non-contentious basic info on career, publications etc, which is very often what is added. Sometimes they add too much, or more than an independent editor would bother to, but that's no great issue. Johnbod (talk) 15:25, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

Submitting Photos/media

Currently this article states: "If you do not like the photo, you can help Wikipedia by contributing a good photo under a suitable free content license. If you have a promotional photo you are willing and able to release under such a license, that's ideal for us and you." It links to the free content page which explains various free content licenses, but it doesn't cover submitting photos or other media by the authors of that media or individuals covered. Is there a good page/referece/policy that we can point to on a simple step-by-step how-to? I talk to a few notable people who don't have photos on their pages and want to encourage them to submit them, but I am unaware of something I can point to in order to make it easy for those who simply would want to submit and release something for use, but don't want to become full blown wikipedia editors, or don't have the technical skills to do so. Thanks. Centerone (talk) 23:54, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

The Spinners article

I would like to point out that the dates of birth for Hughie Jones and Mick Groves are in fact listed incorrectly as it was Hughie Jones who born on 21 July 1936 and Mick Groves on 29 September 1936. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.144.104.237 (talk) 19:16, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks for pointing it out. However you could have corrected the error yourself; see Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error. Graham87 03:42, 22 May 2011 (UTC)