How to Create a Wikipedia Page for an Athlete
Creating a page on Wikipedia is more challenging than one might think it is. Most beginners usually fail to get their wikis approved by the volunteers after they submit them. The reason seems to be quite simple for this, it is not the lack of experience rather, and it is a lack of knowledge about what Wikipedia actually, is all about.
Wikipedia experts, who are known for their skills as people, who can easily get their pages or articles approved, are able to do it only because they understand Wikipedia. Having a deep understanding of this platform and having insight about what can be or can’t be done, can help you a long way in the creation and approval of your Wikipedia pages or articles.
Beginners usually don’t have this insight about Wikipedia and this is what creates an issue for them. They might not be able to figure it out because frankly, most beginners do not understand why their wiki pages or articles are not going live. However, usually, it is because they do not recognize Wikipedia for what it really is. Therefore, if you wish to learn how to make a Wikipedia page for an athlete or about any other topic, then the first order of business for you should be to learn as much as you can about the platform, where you want to publish your work.
About Wikipedia
So, how do you define Wikipedia? What comes to your mind when you think about Wikipedia? Well, it is an online encyclopedia. However, it is unlike every other website in the world. See, Wikipedia is a collective effort by people across the world through which they gather a pool of information about various topics. Now, Wikipedia is a free of charge platform, which offers authentic and verifiable information to people across the planet.
Furthermore, there hasn’t been a greater collection of information than Wikipedia, in the world. Wikipedia has more than 53 million pages, which are loaded with reliable information. This virtual encyclopedia offers information in more than three hundred languages with English language as the most prominent one, on the platform. English articles make around 11% of the total Wikipedia pages, which have now crossed 6.3 million in number.
In addition to everything above, Wikipedia is expanding and growing at an exponential rate. At present Wikipedia stands tall with a total number of admins of 1086 and total users of more than 41 million. Moreover, every month Wikipedia adds over 17000 new articles to its platform, which went even up to 50000 articles per month back in the year 2006.
How to Make a Wikipedia Page for an Athlete – Required Steps
Before diving into the steps, you need to understand that Wikipedia is not only considered as a platform, which only provides information. For many business organizations, it serves the purpose of an amazing marketing tool. Now, it is not only the business organizations, which are benefiting from creating pages or articles on Wikipedia but in fact, many individuals such as athletes, entrepreneurs and celebrities, who are looking to create awareness and engage their target audiences effectively. Now, undoubtedly, Wikipedia is a far more effective marketing tool than many others out there but, its main purpose has always been to offer facts in the utmost neutral manner, facts which can easily be verified and which come from authentic and reliable sources.
Now, moving onto the steps, which are required to create a Wikipedia page for an athlete or even a business organization for that matter, there are certain well tested steps, which have helped thousands of Wikipedia experts to, not only, create wiki pages but also in getting these pages or articles approved.
· Step # 1 – Registering on Wikipedia
· Step # 2 – Choose Your Page title
· Step # 3 – Research Your Facts
· Step # 4 – Write the Content
· Step # 5 – Review & Submit
Step # 1 – Registering on Wikipedia
Creating an account on Wikipedia, even though it is not a necessity, is extremely beneficial for the person, who is writing or editing on Wikipedia. Now, when you are writing or editing an article or page on Wikipedia, then you need to understand that the Wikipedia community can be a lot of help. This help can only be taken if a Wikipedia writer is registered on the virtual encyclopedia.
See, when you create an account on Wikipedia then you are given the access to creating your own user page, which allows you to introduce yourself and tell people about your work. In addition, an account on Wikipedia also provides access to a user talk page, which helps a Wikipedia expert in communicating with other Wikipedians. These talk pages are a perfect platform for debates and discussions, which can lead to a better quality of information on your Wikipedia page. Furthermore, registering on the platform is something, which can help you in getting access to the advanced editing tools as well along with many other pages, which you may not have access to before registering yourself on the virtual encyclopedia.
Moreover, creating an account on Wikipedia is extremely easy thing to do. What you simply need is to visit Wikipedia and after you have selected the language you prefer, you simply, need to click on the “create account” option, which is available to you on the top right side of your screen. After that, it is just a matter of following the instructions and filling in the information fields, just like when you are creating an email id for yourself.
Step # 2 – Choose Your Page title
When it comes to the second step, where you have to choose your page title then you need to understand that there are certain Wikipedia policies, which come into play as well. For example, you cannot create a page title, which already exists on Wikipedia because if there is a page already present on Wikipedia with the same title then you can only edit the information on it. Furthermore, you also need to take into account the notability criteria of Wikipedia as well. The notability criteria of the platform, is basically, a test, which Wikipedia volunteers use to decide whether your topic has the merit to be visible on Wikipedia or not. Moreover, every piece of information on this platform needs to be easily, verifiable and if your information does not come from independent and reliable sources then according to the notability criteria of the virtual encyclopedia, your topic does not have merit to have its own separate article or page on Wikipedia.
Step # 3 – Research Your Facts
Now, there are two aspects to research, when it comes to researching for a Wikipedia page or article. The first aspect is quite simple, which simply, points towards the fact that you need to conduct thorough and comprehensive research before you can start presenting information on your Wikipedia page or article. Moreover, this aspect of research is also looking after the fact that you must collect information only from reliable sources, which can be verified by the readers at any given time they want.
The second aspect of this step is to follow the research policy of Wikipedia. Now, according to the content policies of Wikipedia, the virtual encyclopedia does not allow any original research on the platform. This means, that if you are trying to create a page, which refers to a theory or an original idea, which has not been published anywhere else before, then you are simply, not allowed to use Wikipedia as a platform to float such theories or research work through the platform.
Step # 4 – Write the Content
This step is by far, the most difficult step in the whole page creation process. See, everything you write needs to be according to the content policies of Wikipedia. Now, the content policies are divided into two sections, core content policies and other content policies. The core content policies are extremely important to follow. Talking about the essence of the core content policies, there are three of them:
- Neutral point of view
- No original research
- Verifiability
Now, if you wish to get a detailed insight about these policies then you can always follow this link, core content policies. Now, just an overview, you can see from the headings of these three policies and make sense as well. You must create content, which is unbiased and free from any opinions or personal inclinations. This is why, if you have a conflict of interest then it is better to have someone else write the content of the page or article. Moreover, you already understand the no original research policy of Wikipedia because it has already been mentioned above in the research step as well. Furthermore, you must make sure that your content can be verified by your readers, which leads to the necessity of you using citations and references, so that it is easier for the readers to find the source of your information as well.
There are other content policies as well, which you also need to follow as well such as:
- Article titles
- Biographies of living persons
- Image use policy
- What Wikipedia is not
Now, these four policies, even though they are not the core content policies, are quite important as well. They will allow you to structure your Wikipedia article or page in a manner, which is acceptable by Wikipedia itself.
See, following these policies will ensure that the content of your Wikipedia article or page is acceptable by the virtual platform. The more closely you follow these policies, the higher your chances are of getting your pages or articles published on Wikipedia officially.
Step # 5 – Review & Submit
Now, comes the part where you are done with your page creation. You have written the content and there is only one thing left to do, which is to submit your page or article to Wikipedia for the final review process, which is done by the Wikipedia volunteers. However, before you can start thinking about submitting your Wikipedia page or article, you must make sure that your Wikipedia article or page is written exactly, in the way, which is acceptable by Wikipedia. Therefore, before you can submit your work for the final review, you should thoroughly check and recheck your page for any mistakes and correct them. This will ensure the submission of a page, which is perfectly done and which merits to be published live on the official platform.
However, once you submit your page, everything you have written will be scrutinized carefully and if no mistakes are found by the volunteers, then your wiki page may go online after being accepted by the platform. Furthermore, you must also keep in mind that if your Wikipedia article or page gets rejected due to some mistake or error, which you have made then it will become more difficult for you to get it accepted afterwards as well because then it will be reviewed even more strictly than before. This is precisely why you need to make sure that your pages or articles are perfect when you submit them in the first attempt.
FAQs
How much time does it usually take for a person to create a Wikipedia page?
Normally, it may take somewhere between 3 and 5 weeks for a person to create a Wikipedia page from scratch. However, this is the timeframe, in which an expert creates a Wikipedia page or article. Now, when page creation is concerned, the skills and experience of the page creator or writer influence the time considerably. Furthermore, it also depends on the topic as well; if the topic demands a lot of thorough research then it may take more time as well.
Do people need permission from Wikipedia to start creating pages or editing articles on Wikipedia?
No, you do not need any kind of permission for creating or editing pages or articles on Wikipedia. However, in order to maintain its standards, Wikipedia reviews the work of every writer before the page or article can go live on the platform.
