[WikiEN-l] People editing their own Wikipedia articles.

[Fred Bauder]

Editing you own article is not forbidden but is strongly discouraged.  
There is no problem with Charles or William correcting an error of  
this nature anonymously. A problem could arise if they begin  
intensive editing in order to remove negative information or add  
positive information. As the article is watched there is little  
danger of plainly false negative information remaining anyway. In  
more ordinary situations, as no one may be watching the article false  
negative information may linger for a very long time and the  
temptation will arise to remove it themselves or try by complaining  
to get it removed. If basically the only published material about a  
person is some negative incident they are in a bad fix. Other facts  
about them are not sourced or notable.

One usual problem of autobiographical articles is not present here.  
Charles is notable so the vanity page problem doesn't arise. Their  
problem is quite different. If they are caught editing their pages  
especially with respect to point of view they will look bad, not  
dignified, and dignity is their prime asset.

Fred

On Nov 16, 2005, at 10:53 PM, Tom Cadden wrote:

> I just thought of a real example. According to websites the world  
> over the Prince of Wales's name is Charles Windsor. In reality, as  
> his own office confirmed when it was being checked for Wikipedia,  
> it is actually Charles Mountbatten-Windsor. We are one of the few  
> correct sources of information on the net about it.
>
>  Every so often someone comes along and does one of those damned  
> google searches (god but those things 'prove' such crap!) and  
> changes the article to say he is Charles Windsor. Before those of  
> us who constantly correct it find the change, Charles himself or  
> William (both of whom surf the net) find the mistake. Would WP  
> allow them to correct the error?
>
>  BTW Wikipedia HAS been read in Buckingham Palace, as I found when  
> checking with BP about something for an article here. I mentioned  
> us but before I even got a chance to say who what we were, the  
> person I was speaking to came back 'oh yes. The big online  
> encyclopædia. It is really quite good. We've seen it here.'
>
>  BTW the Queen is an avid net surfer. Who knows? She may be one of  
> our anonymous Wikipedians. Maybe she is on this list for all we  
> know. (If she is, Hi Ma'am!) lol
>
>  Thom