User:Chzz/help/auto

Autobiography?
Hi there. Sorry about the above, but Wikipedia can only have articles on people who meet their notability requirements. I'm guessing, perhaps, that the article was about yourself? If that is the case, then you are more than welcome to put such info on your own talk page, User: - that is the place to give a bit of information about yourself (if you want to). We could even copy that stuff across to there, if you wanted to? It's not a 'live' article, and won't show up in Google, but you are welcome to put almost anything you like on your own user page. Let me know on my own talk page, or talk to us live, with this or this. Cheers,

An eg

 * Hi there - Mr. Freeman. Welcome to Wikipedia. I heard that you were having troubles, and I hope that I might be able to help you a bit.


 * Firstly, please make sure you always log in to edit things, even when just leaving messages - so we see it's from, rather than  . It saves me getting all confused.


 * I'm honoured to 'meet' you, as I find this whole idea of lifestreaming very interesting. I hope we'll get a chance to discuss it more.


 * Now, about this 'notability' stuff. It's really nothing personal; 'notability' has a very specific meaning on Wikipedia, and we define it as, "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the source". Please look at that link - that is the key to the whole thing, it really is. For any subject - be it a person, a company, a band, species of animal, or any of the other thousands of subject types - the requirement is the same. What it boils down to is, the need for several reliable sources, such as newspaper articles, books, magazines, etc - with substantial information about the specific thing the article is about.


 * A 'reliable source' is something with a "reputation for fact-checking and accuracy", something with "editorial control" - and, to show notability, it needs to be independent too. We don't have black-and-white rules, but I'm sure you can understand that a home webpage is not enough.


 * So - something like an article in the Times newspaper, about a person, would be one good source - but we do need several. I advice people starting an article to look for sources first, and as a rule of thumb, if they can't find 3 or more good-quality reliable sources, then the subject probably is not 'notable' in Wikipedia terms.


 * And that, in a nutshell, is the primary problem with the article.


 * IF you think that you can show this 'notability', then there are a few other concerns. As the subject of the article, you have a conflict of interest - and we strongly advise against writing it yourself. It is very, very hard to be neutral, and to stick to verifiable facts from reliable sources - there are so many things that you, naturally, just know are true - but sadly, we cannot accept claims that we can't check - which means we need references.


 * I have two bits of advice;


 * Before working on an autobiography, edit some other articles - on any subject at all. You'll soon learn more about the way Wikipedia works, and you'll be in a much better position to then deal with the tricky business of COI. There's plenty of articles that need work - try here, for example.


 * Secondly, please talk to us live, with this link - just put in a nickname, and click 'connect'. It's often easier to explain things 'live'.


 * I certainly hope you'll help us make Wikipedia better, and I'll do everything I can to help you. Hope to speak soon.  Chzz  ► 06:51, 22 June 2010 (UTC)