[WikiEN-l] Clearer policy on self-written and obscure biographies

Sun Jan 4 07:43:39 UTC 2004

On Saturday 03 January 2004 12:46, tarquin wrote:
> Toby Bartels wrote:
> >We don't need a special policy for autobiographies
> >which states that unverifiable biographies are unacceptable,
> >if we already have a policy that all articles must be verifiable.
> >That said, it's justifiable, in meta pages on biography conventions,
> >to ''mention'' that all articles, including biographies, should be
> > verifiable. And it would be a good idea to mention this if there have
> > been problems -- which it seems that there have!  But this is not Yet
> > Another Policy ^_^.
>
> Agreed.
> It's making a page to explain this particular aspect of existing policy.
> My motivation is that when I directed MRM Parrott to "what WP is not" he
> said that nothing there prevented him having an article.

I don't really understand what is the problem with autobiographies and why are 
they more unverifiable then biographies written by someone else. If we write 
an article about a dead person, for facts on its life we might consult 
person's autobiography, or biography, and biographies are often in large part 
written by biographer talking to person about person's life. I don't see how 
is it different then person writing about itself - it's the same source at 
the end.