Wikipedia’s standards for biographical coverage are shaped less by a person’s fame than by the availability of reliable, independent evidence. The encyclopedia has removed pages about subjects ranging from performers and athletes to nonprofit executives, while editors continue to investigate longstanding claims that may have gone unverified for years.
When a Wikipedia biography is removed
Xavier Trudeau, the teenage son of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, recently began performing R&B under the stage name Shabu. But do those facts make him noteworthy enough for a Wikipedia biography? Similar questions have been raised about Evanescence guitarist Tim McCord and 2012 Yachtmaster of the Year Rainer Holtorf.
All three have biographies on Wikipedia. All three biographies were considered for removal this year because editors questioned whether the subjects were notable enough to warrant articles. Every day, dozens or even hundreds of Wikipedia biographies—including those of child actors who became Los Angeles real estate agents, former ambassadors and soccer players who played fewer than 10 minutes of professional soccer—are removed from the free encyclopedia.
Wikipedia hosts more than 7 million articles in English, so storage space is not the issue. The encyclopedia has, however, a limited number of volunteers to monitor its content. Editors still uncover hoaxes and unsupported claims that went undetected for decades.
The argument is that the time required to confirm the release dates of Zav’s three singles might be better spent investigating whether Civil War officer Nathaniel Ryan really drank mustard in combat, as Wikipedia’s 17-year-old biography claimed. Wikipedia removed the mustard claim not because it had been proven false, but because there is no reliable evidence for it.
“We’re not looking for the truth,” Britta Gustafsson, who has edited Wikipedia since 2001, told me. “We’re looking for something verifiable.”
Notability and evidence
Wikipedia editors do not necessarily decide that a person is unworthy of attention. Instead, they decide that there is insufficient reliable evidence to support a biographical article.
Kimberly Small, the CEO of a Nevada nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual assault, recently had her Wikipedia biography removed because of questions about her prominence. The discussion took place on Wikipedia’s public pages, where difficult decisions are made about what qualifies for encyclopedia coverage.
One editor asked, “How do we judge nonprofit executives? By the nature of their work, the focus is understandably on the organization and the work it does, not on them.” Another responded, “I don’t see anything wrong with nonprofit executives receiving less personal attention. Wikipedia coverage is not a prize.”
Isn’t it? “It says something that there’s an article,” Gustafsson acknowledged. “That suggests something.”
Over a six-week period in April and May, I contacted hundreds of people who were about to lose their Wikipedia pages, and almost all of them learned about the pending removals from me. “I would appreciate it if you could write something to save the page,” a Spanish filmmaker told me.
A Wikipedia biography may not have been intended as a prize, but no one understands its value better than someone who once had one and lost it.
Martina Dimosca’s public profile
Martina Dimosca is a scientist from North Macedonia who works at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Dimosca is specifically an “analog astronaut,” taking part in missions that simulate the space environment, and is also a science communicator.
Dimosca frequently posts about her work on LinkedIn’s “must-do,” “can-do” and aspirational directories, where she cites “recognition from Forbes, Bloomberg, the United Nations, and global innovation networks.”
A Facebook reel recorded during the crew announcement for NASA’s upcoming Artemis III mission shows Dimosca alongside the text, “When you work hard, you belong in a room where history is actively written.” On TikTok, Dimosca has a paid partnership with a cosmetics brand whose products are tested for effectiveness during spaceflight.
Source: www.wired.com