On 10/1/06, Phil Sandifer Snowspinner@gmail.com wrote:
One major problem - to my mind, an article written by the subject that is notable, sourced, etc ought not be deleted.
[snip]
With 'only' 1.3 millionish articles I suppose it's not TOO unlikely that there are still some seriously notable living people without articles who might want to start one themselves...
BUT...
If a person is notable, then some unrelated person will eventually come by and write an article.
Thus, while the deletion of a self authored article about a notable person might be a loss, it isn't much of a loss. Wikipedia won't be done in a day.
Also: an honest and sincere person probably would have a hard time figuring out if they, their company, or their client is notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia (since we, often, can't figure it out without a poll) ... notability just isn't a good criteria to direct people about self authored articles. ... But no-self-articles is clear and can be followed by anyone who is acting honestly.
Some basic thoughts: 1) There are more non-notable people than notable by far. 2) The desire to have a wikipedia article about yourself is at best weakly and more likely *inversely* related to your actual notability. 3) If someone/thing is really notable a mostly disinterested third party will eventually want to write about it.
Given the above it would appear that a solid rejection of self-initiated articles is sound policy.