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After a couple of failed attempts on getting our band Georgia Wonder on Wikipedia, we finally succeeded and learned a bunch of stuff on the way. It's really not as hard as you think to get yourself on there, but there are a few things you need to know to make sure your content stays there once you've put it up. It would haven't been possible without friends on Twitter, so come follow us over there if you find this useful. It turns out the main reason we kept getting a 'speedy deletion' (which is a kind of instant no-comeback deletion by a Wiki editor) is simply because we hadn't created an entry that explained why we were notable. It turns out that 'being notable' is the number one criteria that Wikipedia places on any entry - notableness. A good way to understand what this is about is to read about what it's not. If you read the Wikipedia guidelines for speedy deletion, the simplest thing that can trip a band or artist up on is simply not telling Wikipedia what's so special about themselves. You can be deleted simply because: 7. An article about a real person, organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content does not indicate why its subject is important or significant. This means you can't just type up a small biog about your band and post it up. It will be taken down immediately for not stating, with references, why your band is notable or special. Do not fear - your band probably IS notable or special for something. In fact, anything that's happened to you that is remotely interesting and can be backed up with a web link could be considered notable. You just need to remember contests you've won, appearances you've had, mentions you've had in the press, on websites, pretty much anything you can think of which can be VERIFIED by a Wikipedia editor. So, the first thing you should do is gather together a list of all the mentions there are of your band across the internet. Make an exhaustive list, and with each mention take down the date it went live, the name of the article, the name of the site, and anything else you can find. You're going to need this to build your story and create reference links. The mindset you need to get into is this - every single sentence you write about your band is going to have to be backed up with some evidence - and we're not just talking about a link back to your own site here - we're talking hard facts from a reputable source. OK, some sources are more reputable than others, but the difference between quoting yourself from a BBC website article or the same thing from something you wrote on your own site is night and day. Try and collect a list of the most influential links you have, and create sentences based on those links - then you can refer back to them, meaning that each 'claim' or sentence you have written can be checked by a Wikipedia editor. At the end of each Wiki page are a list of all the references that the main body of the page takes it's content from. Understanding that every single sentence has to be backed up in this referral list is the key to understanding how Wikipedia polices itself. If you can't back it up, don't bother writing it - it will end up being deleted at some point. If you haven't registered at Wikipedia then now is a good time to go do it! So when you've collected a list of stuff, you're ready to build your Wikipedia page. To see how a Wiki page is constructed, have a look at ours and press the EDIT THIS PAGE tab at the top. The first and easiest block of code you're going to want to copy and put into your own Wiki entry is the block of code which creates the Infobox (the box to the right of your Wiki entry). Stick this at the top of your entry and change all the info over to your own band: {{Infobox musical artist | Img = GWblackwhite.jpg | Img_capt = Stephanie Grant, vocalist with Georgia Wonder | Name = Georgia Wonder | Background = group_or_band | Genre = [[Folk-rock]]
[[Rock]] | Origin = [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], England | Years_active = 2002 - present | Label = Georgia Wonder Records | URL = [http://www.gwonder.com/gwonder/ http://www.gwonder.com] | Current_members = Stephanie Grant (vocals)
Julian Moore (music) }} That's all fairly easy to follow. Unfortunately, creating references to each sentence is a bit of a chore and can make for some nasty looking mess - the references are actually written in the middle of the pages and it is the Wikipedia website that takes them and makes them appear nice and neat at the bottom of each Wiki entry. Wikipedia uses the 'ref' tag to create a numbered referenced link, as you can see in the following code we used on one of our sentences: Their song ‘Girl You Never Knew’, taken from their debut ‘Hello Stranger’ [[EP]] was named “Song Of The Day” by [[PopJustice]] on 6th August 2008 who said it was "one Grey's Anatomy soundtrack appearance away from being an international hit single."(ref name="PopJustice Song Of The Day"){{cite web |url = http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2824&Itemid=243 |title = Song Of The Day: ''Georgia Wonder: Girl You Never Knew'' |publisher = [[Pop Justice]] |date = 2008-08-06 |accessdate = 2008-12-20 }}(/ref) (NOTE: All normal brackets ( ) in the code above should be < > and had to be replaced to show you this example - copy and paste the code from our own entry to keep things simple) This ends up looking like this on the Wiki page: Their song ‘Girl You Never Knew’, taken from their debut ‘Hello Stranger’ EP was named “Song Of The Day” by PopJustice on 6th August 2008 who said it was "one Grey's Anatomy soundtrack appearance away from being an international hit single."[2] With a pretty entry at the bottom of the page referencing the number 2: 2. ^ "Song Of The Day: Georgia Wonder: Girl You Never Knew". Pop Justice (2008-08-06). Retrieved on 2008-12-20. So, at the end of each sentence you write, you need to add this code and fill in all the relevant details of the reference. The reference numbers are generated from the ref name of each entry - if you use the same name as a reference then the same number will be generated and you could find duplicate numbers on your page, so keep an eye out for that. That's pretty much it for creating reference links, it's really not that difficult - it's actually more important to be prepared with all the relevant links, names and dates beforehand. To make everything a bit more readable you're going to want to put your stuff into sections. This is very easy and simply requires the addition of some equals signs like this: ==History== ===Awards and achievements=== Words like ==History== enclosed in pairs of equals signs become headings, and words like ===Awards and achievements=== become subheadings. It's very easy to create these and is fairly intuitive. The last thing to consider is what to do if your Wiki entry is tagged for quick deletion. Well, it actually has to be deleted by a real human being, and you can see who deleted or tagged it for deletion. If you are still constructing your page and want a bit more time to sort it out, JUST ASK the person for a bit more time, citing your reasons, and you will be moved to his sandbox - somewhere you can get your page looking right AWAY from the main site before he reconsiders it and moves it back over to the main Wikipedia site where you can be searchable. This is exactly what happened to us. So, rather than being the impossible to fathom how the heck do we get on there it's only for the bigger bands problem that we thought Wikipedia would be, it turns out that the only thing stopping most bands and artists from getting themselves on Wikipedia is a small misunderstanding about what it is that actually keeps things from being deleted. Gather the links about yourself from the internet, write sentences that reflect each one, and you'll be up on Wikipedia in no time. That is, if you're notable.
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