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 | This page in a nutshell: When a notable person comes to Wikipedia to edit, don't give them a hazing just because you can. |
From time to time, notable people come to edit Wikipedia, most often to edit articles related to themselves. As newbies, they invariably are unfamiliar with our policies and guidelines, our sourcing standards, and make many mistakes. Of course, this is our chance to put them in their place, right?
- "Hey, you are editing with a conflict of interest!"
- "Stop spamming our project!"
- "You are not really all that notable at all, are you? I am nominating your article for deletion!"
- "Your edits are all unsourced! Stop adding original research!"
- "Stop using our project as a vehicle for self-promotion!"
- "You are using peacock language!"
- "You have just made a legal threat! I've reported you to the administrators' noticeboard!"
Conflict of interest, notability and neutrality may all be genuine issues that very much need addressing, but please, let's be sensitive about how we go about it, and not abuse the relative advantage we have over notable people when they come here to edit. We should always be kind to newcomers, and be especially sensitive to the position of people whose lives are affected by our coverage of them.