[WikiEN-l] How to deal with direct requests for articles?

Thu Sep 28 13:38:43 UTC 2006

>> From: "David Gerard" <dgerard at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [WikiEN-l] How to deal with direct requests for articles?

My phone number and email are publicly available for media contact
purposes. This means, of course, I get emails and calls about
*everything*.

A common call is "How do I get an article about me/my book/my achievement?"

Now. What's a helpful answer to this? Better than "You don't, someone
else has to write one," because you *know* they'll just write a really
bad one themselves and it'll all end in a tearful AFD entry and
someone hating or fearing Wikipedia henceforth.

Assume that referring them to a web page or policy page is less good
than being able to answer on the phone right there.

Ideas please?

++++++++++++++

David, I know that this will sound like it's self-serving promotion, but in
all honesty, MyWikiBiz.com could potentially be another alternative to
consider if your caller is asking about a notable, verifiable company or
non-profit organization that currently lacks an article in the mainspace.
We do our best to research the entity, evaluate both the "good" and the
"bad" news associated with it, and write a NPOV article.  Then, according to
Jimmy Wales' request, we see if an independent, non-paid, non-employee
editor thinks it's up to Wikipedia's standards for inclusion, and we see if
it gets posted.

I think our examples at [[The Family & Workplace Connection]] and [[Arch
Coal]] demonstrate fairly well that we are not here to spam Wikipedia, but
rather, to fill in the gaps.  Also, I know you have no way of knowing or
verifying this, but we turn away the potential business of about 20%-25% of
our contacts, usually on the grounds that they fail [[WP:CORP]].  One final
note -- we are currently running a promotion where, if the client is a
non-profit entity with a humanitarian mission, we complete the work on a pro
bono basis (no charge).

Kindly,

   Gregory Kohs
   MyWikiBiz.com