![]() | This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
![]() | This page in a nutshell: You may face problems if there is an article about you on Wikipedia. So think about it before you really go out of your way to try to get one. |
Are you planning to write a Wikipedia article about yourself? Are you planning to pay for someone to write an article on your behalf? Before you proceed, please take some time to thoroughly understand the principles and policies of Wikipedia, especially one of its most important policies, the neutral point of view (NPOV) policy. Wikipedia content is also required to be verifiable and original research is forbidden on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia seeks neutrality. An article about you written by anyone must be editorially neutral. It will not take sides and will report both the good and the bad about you from verifiable and reliable sources. It will not promote you. It will not right great wrongs. It will not always favour the truth. It will just contain factual information about you from independent, reliable sources.
Some accomplishment or event, good or bad, may give you notability enough to qualify for a Wikipedia article. Once you have become a celebrity, your personal life may be exposed. No one is perfect, so your faults may get reported, and overreported, and reported enough to end up on Wikipedia. Even if you have lived a life free of scandal, and your Wikipedia article is spotless, at some time in the future your first publicized mistake may well end up getting into that article. Suddenly your fame may turn into highly publicized infamy. Yes, Wikipedia is highly publicized! It is mirrored and copied all over the place. Some reporters use Wikipedia as a source for their articles, so information about the mistakes you have made which end up in the Wikipedia article about you and which are covered in independent reliable published sources may be repeated.