Mike Dickison is a New Zealand museum curator, zoologist, Wikipedia editor and personal friend who’s written a LinkedIn post with advise for people who want a Wikipedia article written about a certain subject that I’m republishing here with his permission:
I get a lot of mail from people who’d like a Wikipedia article written about some company, organisation, or person. Sometimes they want to pay me to write something, other times they assume I’ll do this for free in my spare time. I’m usually flat out with both paid and volunteer work, so I give them this advice instead.
Steer clear of any conflicts of interest
If you’re trying to write a Wikipedia article about your spouse, relative, friend, workmate, business, band, or employer, beware. Wikipedia has strict conflict of interest rules. Ignoring them can land you in the papers, like the New Zealand MP who got her staffer to remove embarrassing information from her Wikipedia article. And never edit an article about yourself (should you be unlucky enough to have one). If something about you in Wikipedia is wrong, there are other steps you can take.
Don’t trust Wikipedia-editing services
Sneaky paid editing is frowned upon in the Wikipedia world, but there are various dodgy types who claim they can make any article you want, no trouble. Don’t believe them. Sometimes there’s a good reason an article doesn’t exist. An editor who claims that—for the right amount—they can make you a Wikipedia article about someone or something that doesn’t meet notability criteria (see below) is probably lying. They’re usually reluctant to supply a portfolio of previous work, and in some cases will take your money, create an article that’s quickly flagged for deletion, and disappear.
Approach volunteer Wikipedians first
Wikipedia is written by over 250,000 regular volunteers, and sometimes the only reason an article doesn’t exist because no volunteer has gotten around to doing it. Try approaching actual Wikipedia editors in your community for help: search for the local Wikipedia Facebook group, turn up at a in-person or online meetup or contact the national Wikimedia chapter if you get stuck. Volunteer editors are often only too happy to help you out, for free, especially if you can make their job easier by supplying reliable sources (see below).
Make sure the topic is “notable”
Here’s a common misunderstanding: Wikipedia subjects need to be “notable”. But “notability” doesn’t really mean “impact or importance”; it’s a technical Wikipedia term that’s more a measure of how much published information there is about the topic. Wikipedia’s general notability guidelines say that a person, place, or institution needs sufficient coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. There are also specific notability criteria for biographies, academics, and so forth, but the basic requirement is coverage.
Get those reliable sources
If you really want a Wikipedia article about something, the most useful thing you can do is to assemble reliable sources for a volunteer editor. Published sources suitable for Wikipedia include newspaper stories, magazine profiles, book chapters, journal articles, radio and TV interviews, and institutional blogs (but not personal blogs or social media posts). Any coverage should be directly about the article subject, and discuss it in depth. The sources should be independent of their subject, so the staff page of a corporate website wouldnʻt qualify, and nor would a person’s LinkedIn profile. If sources exist but aren’t online, can you track them down? A media file or clippings scrapbook is like gold to a volunteer Wikipedian. If there really aren’t enough sources, can you help create some? Organise a newspaper or radio interview, write a magazine piece about the subject, or persuade a researcher to write up that study. Getting basic reliable information published is as valuable for Wikipedia as writing articles directly.
I think it’s great when people want to improve Wikipedia. It’s a hand-written artisanal knowledge source, an oasis in an AI-generated wasteland, and one of the last good things about the internet. Understanding how this volunteer-created, volunteer-run, non-heirarchical collective enterprise actually works can be enlightening for people who rely directly or indirectly on freely-available online knowledge. So I take the time to explain it.
This was originally published on LinkedIn by Mike Dickison. You can also follow him on Bluesky and Mastodon.
