User:Bsoyka/Skeletons

Like most people, I'm not perfect. I've made some mistakes and have thrown some skeletons in my closet. The Internet forgets nothing, and everyone messes up sometimes. I believe publicly learning from the mistakes I've made is the best way to move forward from them, so this page is dedicated to sharing what I've gained from a few past mistakes.

Not every mistake I've ever made is included here, for two reasons:

1. Finding every mistake I've made would be implausible and practically impossible, especially depending on the exact definition of a mistake.
2. More importantly, not every mistake is worth publicly going over. I've listed some of the events I've learned important lessons from, and I think the amount of information here is generally enough.

I hope that those reading this will recognize the importance of learning from mistakes and will assume good faith in the future. If you ever believe there is something I'm doing wrong, feel free to reach out on my talk page or email me; I'd love to make things right.

Non-notable articles

I've created some non-notable articles and drafts, with some of which I also had conflicts of interest (COIs). They are listed here, and, while you could probably find the articles being referenced, I did not include links to the actual articles or discussions; I think the lessons learned are more important here than reviewing article logs again.

My middle school

I created an article about my middle school. Two days later, it was marked for proposed deletion (PROD) as it was not notable. Less than an hour after that, I replaced the PROD tag with a speedy deletion tag, requesting the article be deleted as I was the only author of the article and I agreed with the proposal. Minutes later, the article was deleted.

This taught me about the notability of schools, a guideline with which I was not previously familiar, and that middle schools are typically not notable enough to be included on Wikipedia. I have since used this same reasoning to request the deletions of other middle school articles in order to also teach others this same lesson.

My father

I created a draft about my father. It was deleted six months later as an abandoned draft.

With the deletion of this draft, I also truly learned that not everyone is notable enough to be included in an encyclopedia, even if they have done some interesting things in life. Now, I also recognize the important of the COI guideline and know to generally avoid editing articles with which I have COIs at all, especially including articles about close friends and family members.

A businessperson

I created an article about a presumably notable businessperson and included sources I believed were reliable. However, the sources were determined to not be included in determining the subject's notability. The article was marked with a PROD tag and deleted for this reasoning.

I am now aware of the guidelines surrounding announcements, press releases, paid advertising, and similar content as sources and will not base a subject's notability on these websites.

A company

I started an article about a company I believed to be notable, but it was speedily deleted under criterion A7. Almost two years later, I created the article again, trying to use more reliable sources to establish notability, but it was nominated at Articles for Deletion (AfD) a few months later and discussion resulted in the deletion of the article.

I believe the article subject could still be proven notable with the right sourcing, but I generally accept the outcomes of community discussions, and this instance is no different.

A crime victim

I started an article about the victim of a crime. It was deleted around one week later after an AfD discussion, where the nominator pointed out a notability guideline I was not aware of. I !voted to delete the article, and there were no other !votes, resulting in the deletion of the article.

I am now aware of the specific notability guidelines for victims of crimes and know to follow them.

Signature transclusion

I previously had a transcluded template in my signature to indicate my real-time status. This was not a good idea, and I was made aware of the issue by an experienced editor on my talk page. I removed this from my signature and noted on the template that the page should no longer be edited.

I now consider myself to be more familiar with the policies and guidelines around signatures and know that transclusions in signatures are not allowed. I also understand now that my real-time status is not crucial to share on the project, as there is no deadline.