User:Bjelleklang/Editcorp

This article is a basic guide to Wikipedia aimed towards organizations, companies and individuals who already has an article on Wikipedia, or wants one. Everything found in this article is based on the existing policies and guidelines developed by the community; for additional or more in-depth information please see the individual policies and guidelines.

What is it
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia anyone can edit. You can find articles covering just about any subject amongst our, and aside from some very basic rules anything can be included and expanded upon.

Starting a new article
Anyone can start a new article on any topic whenever they want, but it's also possible to request articles. To decide on what content should be allowed and what shouldn't there are some basic rules. Everything written must be neutral, verifiable and notable.

All content must be written in a neutral language, and not be overly biased (in neither a positive or negative way). If violated, the content is either removed or rewritten, and in some cases the article is restored to a previous state. Articles can also be deleted, although this is most common if it also violates either of the other two key policies.
 * Neutrality

All content must be verifiable through independent reliable sources. This means that you can't usually use a blog (not reliable) or a corporate website (not independent) for an article about the same company. Although this policy is less strictly adhered to than the two others, disputable content without references can be removed at any time.
 * Verifiability

Notability is the primary criteria used when deciding which articles to keep and delete. The general notability guideline (GNG) is the thumb-rule used, and it states that "if a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to satisfy the inclusion criteria for a stand-alone article or stand-alone list." This is the one key rule every article must conform to, regardless of subject. To help identify notable subjects, we also have some subject-specific guidelines dealing with a range of topics such as bands/artists, organizations and corporations and biographies on living persons (BLP) just to name a few examples. These does not supersede the GNG, but can be additional help.
 * Notability

We have a policy regarding biographies on living persons which is strictly enforced. It basically says the same as above, but is more conservative on the type of information included, and also require the references to be of a higher standard.
 * Autobiographies

An important thing to note, is that the burden of evidence is on the user adding information; if other users contest a source, a section of an article or an article you've written, it's you who have to address their concerns.

Writing about my company/band/self/organization/other
While Wikipedia doesn't forbid anyone from writing about themselves or something they are closely affiliated with, it's strongly discouraged. The main concern is a conflic of interest which will hinder you from contributing in a neutral manner, but there is also a concern that the article will be used to promote a person or an organization, and such violations will often result in the user being blocked indefinitely. Over the years several thousand users have been blocked for trying to use Wikipedia as a PR tool, and several thousand articles have been deleted because the subject typically has been a non-notable person or company. Keep in mind that even if the subject you want to add isn't notable enough to warrant an article of its own, you can still contribute to other articles!

If you decide to write about yourself, a good way to get started and ensure that you follow our relevant policies and guidelines is to write the article by using the articles for creation process. By using this process, you will first write a draft of your article, which will be submitted for a review by one of our volunteers. The reviewer can either approve the article, reject it (with an explanation saying what it's missing) or comment upon it. For many new users this is a friendlier way to create an article compared to starting it directly in the main article space.

If this is your first time here, and you are writing about a subject closely affiliated to you, it's likely that you will run into some issues regarding the three key policies mentioned in the previous section. If you use the AFC process for creating a new article, you'll get valuable feedback which will enable you to improve the article. If you create it directly in the article namespace and it doesn't satisfy the criteria regarding neutrality, verifiability or notability, the article is likely to be deleted under one or more of the speedy deletion criteria.