# Subjects of Wikipedia biographies

Subjects of Wikipedia biographies react to this reality in varying ways.

## Quotes
### 2001–2010

* In spite of myself, I was pleased when I learned that someone had created a Wikipedia page about me. Once in a while I'd peek. As I wrote articles and appeared in the media, I'd occasionally ask my assistant to add a link to the site. My wiki page became a narcissistic pleasure.
** Jamie Metzl
** Metzl, Jamie F. (March/April 2010). Judgment at Wikipedia. Brown Alumni Magazine. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.

### 2011–2020

* My recollection is that it's completely fine. It was certainly accurate. I never felt any need to correct it. Although, actually, at one time my Wikipedia entry was vandalized. Probably if I say that it'll encourage people to vandalize it. No, who would even care? People wrote stuff in my Wikipedia entry that was obscene and I didn't know it until my brother alerted me. That was how I found out I had a Wikipedia entry: It was being vandalized.
** Marshall McLuhan how it feels to have a Wikipedia entry
** Royale, Rosette (March 30, 2011). The medium & its messenger. Real Change News. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.
* It's odd, funny, and mostly benign. A friend made one for me as a joke in 2003. Apparently some of the information in it was deemed by Wikipedia to be "notable," so when, in a flurry of privacy-seeking, I tried to delete the entry a few years later, I received a stern warning about "vandalizing Wikipedia." This struck me as really funny, and it's usually the first thing I mention when someone brings the Wikipedia article up. Since then it's been mostly a source of amusement, and is occasionally useful since I don't have a personal website right now. It's also strange when it gets updated anonymously.
** Jessica Nordell
** Nordell, Jessica (December 20, 2011). Jessica Nordell's answer to What is it like to have a Wikipedia article about you? When/how did you find it? Does it compare to having any other type of article written about you? Did you feel that the article characterized you accurately? Did you ever try to change/remove it? - Quora. Quora. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.
* Being by definition the greatest expert in the world on this lemma’s subject, I know for fact that a lot of it is mendacious. It is either your own lie or the lie of a source that you have cited or reproduced in good faith, but either way, it is not truthful. It does not follow your self-imposed requirement of “objectivity”. It describes an imaginary strawman, not me... Well, there you have it. The lemma on me has ended up taking this form because some militant among your contributors purposely wanted to “warn readers” against me. Please cite me an instruction for encyclopedists that names “warning” among the legitimate goals of an encyclopedia... Indeed it serves no purpose to take sides for or against me. But as is clear from your many readers that I have had to deal with, the lemma strongly takes sides, viz. against me. This is intentional, as illustrated by a contributor’s insistence to “warn readers”... At any rate, in a encyclopedia, I count on being judged for what I myself have said or done, and not for the gossip my declared enemies have come up with.
** Koenraad Elst Elst, Koenraad (May 20, 2013). The Wikipedia lemma on "Koenraad Elst": a textbook example of defamation. Blogspot. Retrieved on November 10, 2020.
* If there's one thing I learned while writing about Young, it's that editing one's own page is considered a severe violation of conflict-of-interest rules. But now I understand why so many writers can't resist breaking those rules. It's crazy making, watching total strangers pick and choose through my online detritus. The temptation to rally my own army of sock puppets and send them forth to bravely edit is difficult to resist.
** Andrew Leonard
** Leonard, Andrew (31 May 2013). My Wikipedia hall of mirrors. Salon. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.
* Key facts or relevant events in our lives or research are being omitted, efforts to include them in the articles by neutral editors are being met with harassment, defamation and personal attacks. Skeptic activists on Wikipedia are on a campaign to discredit notable biographies that deal with any form of alternative viewpoints and because I am a highly public proponent, my own article has been made into a ‘ground zero’ for these same skeptics who have sought to discredit my name and work for over 15 years.... Most have simply washed their hands of the problem, claiming that the bigotry or bias on Wikipedia is just an unfortunate side-effect that we have to accept. But this is not a trivial unintended consequence of an open source system; bias goes against the very principle of Wikipedia and must be addressed. I have to deal with this bias and misinformation every time a journalist interviews me and references my Wikipedia article. I need to spend the first 30 minutes of interviews to correct all the misleading information from my Wikipedia article. It doesn’t matter how many reliable sources are submitted, nor how well supported certain facts about my life are — if it doesn’t not fit within the narrative of extreme skepticism of the band of editors controlling my Wikipedia page it is quickly removed. And the editors who complain of this censorship are harassed or banned... Most of the skeptic editors on my article believe me to be a very dangerous man — and believe that it is Wikipedia’s responsibility to warn the world of how dangerous my ideas are.
** Deepak Chopra
** Chopra, Deepak (May 15, 2014). Wikipedia, A New Perspective on an Old Problem. Retrieved on November 10, 2020.
* The idea is that a Wikipedia page is the online front door for countless people and businesses. It is in both their and Wikipedia's interest that the page be accurate and complete, with citations. Of course, Wikipedians also want to keep self-serving pap and propaganda off the pages. But even the subjects of Wikipedia articles should share that goal, because to turn the online encyclopedia into a promotion engine risks undermining their own reputation--especially if Wikipedia editors and readers catch on.
    Dan offered to help me improve my page. This meant finding citations, organizing the different chapters of my life, and--most importantly--explaining on the talk page what we were up to, and asking people to point out any problems or shortcomings they saw.
    So now there's a better bio of me in Wikipedia. I don't own it or control it. But I contributed to it.
   * Stephen Baker
   * Baker, Stephen (June 8, 2015). Editing my Wikipedia bio. The Boost. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved on November 10, 2020.
* I stopped denying my age the day I found out I had a Wikipedia page. It was put together by some over-eager yet well-meaning cyber geek who’s apparently one of the six viewers of my TV host stint on Game Show Network. Right there on the World Wide Web is my birthdate glaringly displayed for the entire universe to see.
    It’s not hard to edit a Wikipedia page — believe me it’s not if I can do it. But every time I went online and shaved five or six years off my birthdate, this unseen “Julian Assange” went back and restored it.
    How does Mr. Wiki-Stalker know I’ve changed it anyway? And why does he care that I’m so emotionally immature I can’t bear to see the numbers 1–9–6–1 lined up in that order?
    Besides, MY Wikipedia page is about MY life. I can fake, forge or revise my own damned history, thank you very much. Who is this basement dwelling Wiki-Weirdo? This pleather-belt-wearing, mouth-breather who’s cutting and pasting my life on some makeshift encyclopedia? Who has that kind of time?
   * Marianne Curan
   * Curan, Marianne (17 June 2017). Stop Calling Me “Ma’am!”. Medium. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.
* I check it periodically to make sure it’s factually correct. It’s gratifying, to some extent, that somebody thought it was worthwhile to add a Wikipedia page about me. What helps is, when I’m giving a talk, the moderator can go to the Wikipedia page, read it, and use those comments in my introduction. So it has some value, and I think it’s fairly accurate.
** Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD on how he feels about his Wikipedia page
** Roman, Karen (May/June 2018). Mark S. Humayun, MD, PHD (in en). Glaucoma Today. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.
* My own personal experience with @Wikipedia? During Delhi Elections 2020 a well-meaning contributor warned me multiple times that my page was under severe attack to be taken down by an opposite ideology camp. And it did happen.
** Nupur Sharma, at twitter, quoted in The Print, ‘Biased, anti-Hindu’ — campaign begins against Wikipedia after it urges Indians to donate 2 August, 2020
* Facts? Jimmy Wales, your Wikipedia bio of me is a propaganda piece full of half-truths, distortions, & outright lies, & has been for years. Wikipedia does this to everyone who dares dissent from the far-Left agenda. Everyone knows this. You’re not fooling anyone.
** Robert Spencer
** Robert Spencer روبرت سبنسر रॉबर्ट स्पेंसर (August 25, 2020). @jihadwatchRS. Twitter.

### 2021–Present

* Dear Wikipedia, You forgot to add ‘Islamophobia propaganda Sanghi bigot etc’. You are failing your Secular credentials. Hurry, .
** Film director Vivek Agnihotri on the wikipedia page of his film The Kashmir Files about the fate of the Kashmiri Hindus. As quoted in India Today, Times of India, and many other news sites.

### Undated

* This summer, soon after the TED controversy, a commando squad of skeptics captured the Wikipedia page about me. They have occupied and controlled it ever since, rewriting my biography with as much negative bias as possible, to the point of defamation. At the beginning of the "Talk" page, on which editorial changes are discussed, they have posted a warning to editors who do not share their biases: "A common objection made by new arrivals is that the article presents Sheldrake's work in an unsympathetic light and that criticism of it is too extensive or violates Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View policy." Several new arrivals have indeed attempted to restore a more balanced picture, but have had a bewildering variety of rules thrown at them, and warned that they will be banned if they persist in opposing the skeptics.
** Rupert Sheldrake, on his work in parapsychology being classified as pseudoscience
** Sheldrake, Rupert. Wikipedia Under Threat. www.sheldrake.org. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.

## Wikipedians with Wikipedia biographies

* The problem instead stems from the fact that administrators and longtime editors have developed a fortress mentality in which they see new editors as dangerous intruders who will wreck their beautiful encyclopedia, and thus antagonize and even persecute them.
** David Auerbach IN Wikipedia is amazing. But it’s become a rancorous, sexist, elitist, stupidly bureaucratic mess posted December 141 2014
* There's a good chance you have seen the work of Justin Knapp even if you have never heard of him. That's because he is a prolific editor on Wikipedia. He became the sites first user to make one million edits.
** Justin Knapp Makes History On Wikipedia (April 20, 2012)
* scientists should adopt best practices in protecting computerized Big Data (Code), remain completely transparent about their data management practices (Law), make smart choices when deploying digital solutions that place a premium on information protection (Market), and, critically, portray themselves to the public as seriously concerned with protecting the privacy of persons and security of data (Norms). The community of Big Data users and collectors should remember that such data are not just “out there’’’ somewhere but are the intimate details of the lives of real persons who have just as deep an interest in protecting their privacy as they do in the good work that is conducted with such data.
** Justin Knapp [Abstract https://philpapers.org/rec/KNAETP Engaging the Public in Ethical Reasoning About Big Data] (2016)
* Being suddenly and involuntarily unemployed will do that to you
** Justin Knapp Justin Knapp published May 5, 2020
* I got a lot of blocks for the first year or so, I learned the hard way about best practices, collaboration, and wars of attrition.
** Justin Knapp An Oral History of Wikipedia, the Web’s Encyclopedia (Jan 13, 2021)
* come for the articles, stay for the people
** Katherine Maher, in We stand for racial justice June 3, ????
* But it's time. As the leadership team begins to coalesce under Lila, I want to open up space for the organization to learn and explore anew—and I’d like to rediscover for myself what it means to tackle challenges outside of my areas of comfort and familiarity.
** Erik Möller in Erik Möller leaving Foundation dated April 15 , 2015
* I have my moments, I think everyone does. But then I look back on some of the articles I’ve written […] and it feels good. That wonderful feeling of having made something useful. That’s what keeps me going, often as not
** Steven Pruitt, quoted in "Meet the Internet’s unsung heroes: Wikipedia’s human collaborators" 'ZMEScience (May 5, 2020)
* The act of creating content is more codified than it was [when Wikipedia started] and I think ultimately it makes it less friendly for novice users. For the self-guided editor, it’s not as easy as it was for me.
** Steven Pruitt, quoted in An Oral History of Wikipedia, the Web’s Encyclopedia (Jan 13, 2021)
* Losing volunteers is a sign that things could be better at Wikipedia. My main interest is in writing new content. Doing that is a lot more difficult nowadays...The scope has been getting narrower. There is a truly vast library of rules and policies... The history of Wikipedia has been one of increasing barriers to changing articles
** Simon Pulsifer in Thousands of editors leaving Wikipedia November 23, 2009
* The first time an article about me appeared on Wikipedia was on the Polish edition. I felt kind of flattered. I asked the author why he had done it, and he wrote: "Because you deserve it." Quite a nice compliment, even though I really don't believe my person is so very important at all. At present I "have" an article in six different language editions. Although I am an active Wikipedia editor, I don't interfere with them. I know very well that there is no rule that would forbid me to edit them, but I elect not to do so.
** Jan van Steenbergen, a Dutch linguist, journalist, translator and interpreter, What is it like to have a Wikipedia article about you? - Quora (May 5, 2016). Retrieved on 7 November 2020.

## Former subjects of Wikipedia biographies

* last week I found out I had a wikipedia page. this week i find it's been removed, but as they say....
** Caitlin Rose in a Facebook post of a Tiny Toon Adventures cartoon titled Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow (Part 1)
** Rose, Caitlin (November 21, 2010). Caitlin Rose. Facebook. Retrieved on 7 November 2020.

## See also

* Sue Gardner
* Jimbo Wales
* w:Category:Wikimedia people