User:LukeSurl/Do not try to create an article for the company you work for

The following began as the answer to a question at the Teahouse. The asker had made just one edit, and that was to ask how they could create an article for the company they work for. The company was described as a "fairly young company, just a couple years old"

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. We're an odd community that's put together this encylopedia, and we're very happy you're keen to help us. The beginnings of being a 'Wikipedian' can be quite challenging, but you can always find someone to help. Unfortunately, if the first thing you're planning to do involves creating a new page about your employer, the best advice I can give is the following:

Do not try to create an article for the company you work for.

There are a few reasons for this:

1. Wikipedia has developed guidelines about what we have articles on. We call this "notability". For example, there is an article on Barack Obama, but not one on me. Similarly, we have an article on Microsoft, but one created about your company will probably be considered "non-notable" and deleted. The specific guidelines can be found here, but in short, until a company is significant enough to have repeated coverage, in depth, in reliable sources which are independent from it, it should not have an article.
2. Wikipedia tries to maintain a neutral-point-of-view on all subjects. It's one of our core principles. As an employee of your company, you are unlikely to be able to have a neutral perspective upon it. While your closeness to the subject may make you very informed about the company, it's this very closeness that means you shouldn't write the article.
3. You will know a lot more things about the company you work for than the average person. In fact, you would probably be one of the world experts on your company. However, since it's very inception, Wikipedia hasn't been about collecting essays from experts and relying on their authority, but rather collecting information that has already been published in reliable sources and citing those. This is the essence of two of our other core principles, no original research and verifiability. It's also the main way Wikipedia keeps articles limited to important information, rather than just an unlimited list of facts about a subject. It takes a while to get used to writing like this, especially on a topic (such as your employer) you know a great many details about, and I would strongly advise against making your first foray into Wikipedia one where you maximise the chances of these problems.

Sorry if this is a bit much! I'm afraid that if you create an article for your company, your first experience of Wikipedia will likely be an unpleasant one, as the article will probably be deleted. We'd much prefer your beginnings as a Wikipedian to be much nicer than that.

Please be aware that writing new articles is not the only way of helping Wikipedia. All 4 million+ articles that currently exist could be improved in some way, and you can edit and improve all of them. A good place to learn how to edit Wikipedia constructively is the tutorial, and at the Teahouse you can always ask a friendly fellow editor for help.

Have a great day.