Wikipedia:FAQ/Article subjects
The information in your article about me is wrong. How can I get it fixed?
Before you do anything else, disclose your conflict of interest. See How to disclose a COI for how.
We ask people to refrain from editing articles about themselves.
However, it is generally considered okay for you to edit your own article in certain circumstances.
- If it contains minor "hard fact" errors, such as an incorrect date, a mistake in spelling or grammar, or a dead link, then please correct those errors.
- If it contains spam, nonsense, or other sorts of vandalism, then please remove that.
- If it contains private information you strongly don't want shared, particularly if you are not famous, then please remove that. This might include, for example, your email address or other private contact information, date of birth, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation.
- If its tone is clearly derogatory and cites either no sources or questionable sources, then please remove that (but be careful!).
- For serious legal issues, including libel, please send an email to info-en-q
wikipedia.org.
If your edit does not fall under these categories, make an edit request, preferably through the Wikipedia:Edit Request Wizard. The wizard will guide you on how to make an edit request.
Your article about me isn't exactly bad, but it could be better. How do I get it improved?
We welcome suggestions for improvement to all articles. Feel free to contribute new information or make suggestions on the talk page. If you do not have any specific improvements in mind, however, you will likely be ignored.
There's no photo of me in my article (or I hate the one that's there).
Feel free to contribute a photo under a suitable free content license. See here for more information.
I work in PR, and would like to fix up the article about the person or company I represent. Is that okay?
The instructions in the "The information in your article about me is wrong. How can I get it fixed?" section above mostly follows here. Disclose your conflict of interest, and if the edit is simply fixing a minor error, go ahead. Otherwise, make an edit request, preferably through the Wikipedia:Edit Request Wizard.
Please be aware that other people will edit what you've written, and that each article's history page is public and will reflect exactly what you have changed. If you aren't willing to accept that, then you should not edit.
Never:
- try to use Wikipedia to promote or advertise your client(s) (see our guideline on conflict of interest, for details)
- remove negative material (exception: material that violates our policy regarding living people)
- copy-and-paste content from another site, even if you manage the other site (if you personally own the copyrighted text, see WP:IOWN for requirements for copying it)
- add information that cannot be independently verified, or that isn't significant for an encyclopedia article
- add, delete, or modify text that's particularly controversial or where facts are disputed (again, with the exception of removing unsourced controversial information about living people, per WP:BLP)
Somebody keeps vandalizing the article about me or my company. Can't you stop them?
On Wikipedia, we have a very specific definition of vandalism, see Wikipedia:Vandalism. In short, vandalistic edits are bad-faith edits intended to disrupt the encyclopedia. You can revert those edits yourself, see Help:Reverting. You can also report people persistently vandalising at the Administrator intervention against vandalism board.
Can I ask the police or someone else to stop it?
No. The fastest and most reliable way to address vandalism is by simply reverting it.
Someone keeps writing negative things about me or my company. What can I do?
If it's uncomplimentary but accurate and backed up by reliable sources, there is nothing you can do about it. If you feel the article is poorly-sourced, unduly negative, contains information that is irrelevant or otherwise not worth including, or is particularly hurtful to someone who's not a public figure, please make those comments on the article's talk page, or post to Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard to bring the article to the attention of the wider community. Editors must maintain balance in articles and abide by a neutral point of view. Information won't be taken down just because it makes you unhappy.
I keep making a change in my article and somebody keeps changing it back. Why?
There are a variety of possibilities. Maybe someone thought your change was self-promoting or biased. Possibly the facts are disputed. Or it may be simply that someone thought your material wasn't worthy of inclusion, or was written in a style not suitable to an encyclopedia.
To find out what happened, the first thing you should do is look at the history page for the article you edited. This will tell you who changed it, when, and often why. If it says something like "see talk", then look at the article's talk page. If you don't find a reason that makes sense to you, politely ask in talk page what happened to your change. Generally, then someone will tell you why your change was reverted.
Can I start an article about myself or my company?
We strongly discourage this. Wikipedia is intended to be an objective resource, and it's very, very difficult for people to be fully objective about themselves or their company.
If your life and achievements are verifiable and genuinely notable, then sooner or later someone else will probably create an article about you. If you write an article about yourself, the chances are pretty good that it will be deleted.
Please note also that anything you write on Wikipedia will be mercilessly edited by others, and An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing. In fact, sometimes people who write about themselves end up requesting that their articles be deleted because the original piece has, over time, changed in ways they didn't like.
Why can't I advertise my company or product on Wikipedia?
Who wrote the article about me or my company?
The articles on Wikipedia are collaboratively written by volunteers. Almost all articles have more than one author. If you want to know who wrote a particular article, click on the "history" tab at the top of that page. That will show who has edited the page. It will display usernames for editors who have registered with Wikipedia, and IP addresses for editors who haven't registered.
How can I get rid of the article about myself or my company?
We generally aim to improve articles rather than delete them. Saying an article is "bad" (or inaccurate, or biased, or badly written) isn't reason enough for it to be deleted: we would prefer you try to help us make it better. See our deletion policy.
I am mentioned in an article about something else, and I would like the reference to me removed. How can I do that?
You probably cannot. If you think the reference doesn't belong in an encyclopedia (because it's incorrect, or not worth mentioning), you can make that comment on the talk page. Editors won't remove the reference just because you don't like it.
I would like to sue you for lying about me in your article. How do I proceed?
If you say this on Wikipedia, you will be blocked. See Wikipedia:No legal threats.
If you have a genuine legal concern, tell us about it by emailing info-en-q
wikimedia.org with "Legal concern" in the subject line, and giving the exact URL of the article, and what you think is wrong.
Some notes:
- Your email will be answered by a volunteer who will attempt to resolve your concern, but is unlikely to know anything about your situation in advance, so please be patient.
- We won't make your email (including your email address) public. Nor will we give you other people's information, such as the IP addresses of registered users.
- Please don't send legal concerns to other Wikipedia email addresses: that just slows things down.
- If you don't hear back, check your junk mail folder.
- We will not telephone you, even if you request that.
I would like more information on the topics covered in this FAQ.
To ask for help, visit the Wikipedia:Teahouse.
How can I prove my identity to the Wikipedia Community?
Sometimes editors claiming to be an article subject are blocked for impersonation. If you want to avoid this situation, please send an email to info-enwikimedia.org including your real name and your Wikipedia username to receive instructions from our volunteer response team about account verification. Please do not send documentation without being requested to do so.