User:Livitup/Start an article right

Wikipedia has a set of guidelines for article inclusion; the subject of an article must meet certain standards in order for the article to remain in the encyclopedia. (See WP:NOTE, WP:V, and WP:OR.) One of the minor side effects of Wikipedia being the “encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, is that many people start articles on subjects which do not meet those guidelines. A group of editors actively monitors new pages, and nominates those that don’t meet the criteria for . (For specifics see WP:CSD, WP:PROD, and WP:AFD.)

Some articles are started in obvious bad faith: vandalism articles, and attack pages, for example. Others are started by good faith-editors, but can never meet the notability guidelines, while still others could meet the notability guidelines and should be included, however, the initial drafts of the articles make it impossible to tell the difference. It can be exceedingly difficult for new page patrollers to differentiate between the three.

The following essay provides some suggestions on how to start articles while avoiding Wikipedia’s deletion processes entirely. It is prompted by a real-world example of a good-faith article started without sufficient claims to notability or referencing. The article went through two of the three deletion processes, but in the mean time was expanded and referenced properly that it was widely accepted that it should remain in the encyclopedia. By following the advice of this essay you can avoid Wiki-deletion-drama entirely. For our example we will pretend we are creating an article on John Doe.

Attempt #1:An editor creates an article with the following content:

John Doe is an American singer and actor. He has been featured in many television commercials and shows, been in many films, and has written and sung many songs. He was born April 1, 1979, in Hollywood, California. Within a few months he was in television commercials and had minor roles in sitcoms. He grew up in Orange County, and lived next door to Aaron Spelling. It is believed that Spelling based the character of “David” on Beverly Hills, 90210 on John. He recorded his first album in his garage during this period.

Doe currently resides in Hollywood, and has been seen auditioning for leading roles in movies and sending his latest recording to different recording companies in the hope of getting signed.

So far our article neither asserts notability (lots of people are in commercials, have bit parts in movies, and have recorded a demo tape), nor is it referenced. Biographies of living people are a frequent type of new article created which doesn’t appear at first glance to (and most often never will) assert sufficient notability. A new page patroller would tag this article for [[WP:CSD|speedy deletion] in a heart beat, and many administrators would delete it on sight.

Let’s try this again, but with some more details:

John Doe is an American singer and actor. He has been featured in many television commercials and shows, been in many films, and has written and sung many songs. His most notable roles were the lead role in the NBS comedy “All about John” and his role as the Hospital Administrator “Bob” on the medical drama show “ICU.” He was born April 1, 1979, in Hollywood, California. Within a few months he was in television commercials and had minor roles in sitcoms. As a child he was the popular star of a series of television commercials for Frosted Sugar Bombs. As “Billy” his suspicions brothers would feed him the cereal to test if it was sugary enough, agreeing to eat it only after Billy began bouncing off the walls. The commercials, ranked #4 in the “Top 100 Commercials of the 1980’s” as judged by the American Advertising Alliance, were Doe’s springboard to Hollywood success.

He grew up in Orange County, and lived next door to Aaron Spelling. It is believed that Spelling based the character of “David” on Beverly Hills, 90210 on John. During high school John wore a similar haircut as David wore in the show, and had similar ear piercings. Like David, John was a high-school DJ. His parents, both accomplished back-up musicians nurtured Doe’s interest in music. He recorded his first album in his garage during this period. Doe currently resides in Hollywood. He has auditioned for, and has been reported as being in “serious consideration” for a leading role in George Lucas’ latest film. After contract disputes with his current label, Capital Records, he has been sending his latest recording to different recording companies in the hope of getting signed to a new contract.

Wow, that’s much better. This guy clearly deserves an entry in Wikipedia. An established actor, with a lead role in two major series, currently signed to a major record label; clearly notable. While this article would probably not be speedily deleted, there is still a major problem with it... the article is totally unsourced. Wikipedia requires articles to cite independent, notable, third-party sources to back up the facts asserted in an article. Editors need to have references to any facts which would reasonably be questioned by other editors. “The sun is hot” does not need a reference, “The temperature of the sun’s surface is 5,578 Kelvin” does require a reference: NASA "Sun Fact Sheet"

Let’s try this article one more time, with both notability asserted, and properly referenced:

John Doe is an American singer and actor. He has been featured in many television commercials and shows, been in many films, and has written and sung many songs. His most notable roles were the lead role in the NBS comedy “All about John” and his role as the Hospital Administrator “Bob” on the medical drama show “ICU.”

He was born April 1, 1979, in Hollywood, California. Within a few months he was in television commercials and had minor roles in sitcoms. As a child he was the popular star of a series of television commercials for Frosted Sugar Bombs. As “Billy” his suspicions brothers would feed him the cereal to test if it was sugary enough, agreeing to eat it only after Billy began bouncing off the walls. The commercials, ranked #4 in the “Top 100 Commercials of the 1980’s” as judged by the American Advertising Alliance, were Doe’s springboard to Hollywood success.

He grew up in Orange County, and lived next door to Aaron Spelling. It is believed that Spelling based the character of “David” on Beverly Hills, 90210 on John. During high school John wore a similar haircut as David wore in the show, and had similar ear piercings. Like David, John was a high-school DJ. His parents, both accomplished back-up musicians nurtured Doe’s interest in music. He recorded his first album in his garage during this period.

Doe currently resides in Hollywood. He has auditioned for, and has been reported as being in “serious consideration” for a leading role in George Lucas’ latest film.

After contract disputes with his current label, Capital Records, he has been sending his latest recording to different recording companies in the hope of getting signed to a new contract.

Now, what editor in his right mind would nominate that article for deletion? The answer is none.

Creating an article is not a race, you don't need to hit "Save Page" right away. Work on your artilce in your Userspace, or offline in a Word Processor. If you make the extra effort to write the article right the first time, you'll never encounter CSD, Prod, or AfD.