Wikipedia:Autobiography

Wikipedia has gone through many prolonged disputes about the significance, factual accuracy, and neutrality of such articles.

If you have been published elsewhere on a topic, we welcome your expertise on the subject for Wikipedia articles. However, every Wikipedia article must cover its subject in a neutral, fair, and comprehensive way to advance knowledge of the subject as a whole. Please acknowledge and minimize your biases while enriching the Wikipedia readers' knowledge. Articles that exist primarily to advance the interests of the contributor will likely be

It is said that

birth was marked by earthquakes, tidal waves, tornadoes, firestorms, the explosion of three neighbouring stars, and, shortly afterwards, by the issuing of over six and three quarter million writs for damages from all of the major landowners in his Galactic sector. However, the only person by whom this is said is Beeblebrox himself, and there are several possible theories to explain this.

— The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Fit the Ninth

• They are often biased, usually positively. People will write overly positive impressions of themselves, and often present opinions as facts. Wikipedia aims to avoid presenting opinions as facts. Neutral point of view does not simply mean writing in the third person.
• They are often unverifiable. If the only source for a particular fact about you is yourself, readers cannot verify it.
  you can be cited as a source
  for material about yourself that is not unduly self-serving or about other people. However, an article cannot be based on such sources.
• They can contain original research. People often include information in autobiographies that has never been published before, or is the result of first-hand knowledge. In order to verify information of this kind, readers would need to perform their own original research. Wikipedia does not distribute previously unpublished information, nor does it permit original research.

If your life and achievements are verifiable and genuinely notable, someone else will probably create an article about you sooner or later, but creating an article about yourself is strongly discouraged: we want biographies here, not autobiographies.

• Independent creation encourages independent validation of both significance and verifiability; it is natural for people to exaggerate in writing about themselves.
• If no third party has created an article about you, it is possible that you do not currently meet Wikipedia's definition of a
  significantly influential academic
  .
• There is the danger that, should the article be vandalised, there will be no interested editors watching and the vandalism may remain uncorrected for long periods.
• Self-created articles are often nominated for deletion, and comments in the ensuing discussions are often most uncomplimentary. Many editors feel that persons who create autobiographies are exploiting a volunteer project for their own aggrandizement.
• Anything you submit will be edited mercilessly to make it
  requests
  are more likely to be honoured. Biographies about public figures are incredibly unlikely to be deleted.

If you really think that you can meet the inclusion criteria, and if you are willing to accept that your article must be neutral and non-promotional, then submit a

Drafts that you have paid or instructed someone else to write on your behalf should also be submitted to AfC. You should know that

Your own neutrality cannot be adequately determined without external sources or analysis. Unconscious biases are commonplace and problematic in autobiographical articles, affecting neutrality and verifiability. It is also more common for new editors to be interested in writing autobiographies, which can compound issues already faced by their unfamiliarity with editing Wikipedia.

Even if you believe you can write a verifiable autobiography without doing original research, you may still not be able to achieve a neutral result. As a notable figure, you might emphasize objective data, such as the sheer volume of your published material, or the fact that your work has been translated into different languages or performed in other countries. Examples of volume or scope can create a non-neutral tone that is usually recognizable as deliberate self-aggrandizement. Likewise, deep biographical detail, such as details of your religious beliefs, the careers of your

It is difficult to write neutrally and objectively about oneself. You should generally let others do the writing.

Contributing material or making suggestions on the article's

You can also identify yourself on the article's talk page with the {{Connected contributor}} template.

If Wikipedia has an article about you, we want it to be accurate, fair, balanced and

While it may be frustrating to not have your changes implemented immediately or at all, ensure you remain

In clear-cut cases, it is permissible to edit pages connected to yourself. So, you can revert vandalism; but of course it has to be simple, obvious vandalism and not a content dispute. Similarly, you should feel free to remove obviously mistaken facts about yourself, such as marital status, current employer, place of birth, and so on. (Note it on the talk page.) If the information could have different interpretations, it is better to be cautious and submit an edit request instead.

If you have legal problems with material in an article about you, please email [email protected] promptly with full details. But do not post legal threats on Wikipedia itself (articles, talk pages, noticeboards)—doing so is a serious violation of Wikipedia rules and will lead to your being immediately blocked from further editing until you withdraw the threat.

If the article about you has no photo, or you can supply a better one, feel free to contribute one under a suitable free content license. (If you did not create the photo yourself e.g. photos from promotional materials, make sure you have the legal authority to release the photo under such a license.)

• Adding an audio recording of your voice to Wikipedia
  – why you should do it, and how.
• Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing
• Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#A7
  (articles about real people that do not assert the importance or significance of their subject can be speedily deleted)
• Wikipedia:Notable person survival kit
• Template:Autobiography
• Template:COI