H-minus

Helen Oyeyemi

Hi, am wondering why you've reverted my edit on this page adding information about the author's place of birth. I see you've previously reverted similar but more detailed edits as well. This seems useful information to the reader (in fact I came to the page looking for it and was surprised not to see it there, leaving the impression she was born in Britain), is well cited, and doesn't seem controversial or private in any way. --Zeborah (talk) 10:50, 20 January 2018 (UTC)

Hi Zeborah- i’m the author and much prefer focus to be on the work itself rather than birthplace if possible (i understand such matters are significant to others but they aren’t to me, especially when presented as one of the most important things about a person.) all best, h

Helen Oyeyemi

H-minus: Hello Helen! I'm really quite glad you've taken an interest in Wikipedia and want to improve the article about yourself, and I'd like to help you. I understand it can be frustrating to have an article about yourself that contains inaccuracies but is outside of your direct control.

Wikipedia has a dense thicket of rules, policies, and guidelines, which include conflict-of-interest guidelines that strongly discourage people from editing articles about themselves (see: WP:AUTO#IFEXIST). This is a hassle, for sure, when inaccurate information is present, but these guidelines provide a "fair" way that the subject of an article can address problems or gaps in their page, while ensuring the general reliability of the information in Wikipedia (e.g. so articles about celebrities are not written by their PR consultants). These guidelines usually boil down to making suggestions or edit requests (WP:EDITREQ) on the Talk page (Talk:Helen Oyeyemi), except for removing obvious vandalism. All information on Wikipedia should be verifiable and attributable to reliable sources. If you have an official twitter or facebook account, for non-controversial claims (WP:ABOUTSELF), the information you post there can be used as a source for the article.

If you're not a fan of the 2012 photo, I recommend uploading one (whose copyright you own) to Wikimedia Commons here or on Flickr with an appropriate license (Creative Commons-BY-SA), which makes it available for Wikipedia to use.

Wikipedia has an enormous amount of rules, and I know I've only scratched the surface, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ping me here or reply on my talk page.-Ich (talk) 10:49, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Futhermore: There are policies addressing privacy concerns of public figures (WP:BLPPRIVACY): even if it's known, not every page needs to display someone's date of birth. If you're more comfortable only showing your year of birth, that falls within the guidelines.-Ich (talk) 10:58, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Hi, Ich- thank you for the kind and informative notes. is it also a rule that every Wikipedia entry must be accompanied by a photograph? non-existence of this entire article would be the ideal scenario (for me) but failing that, i’m hoping to to avoid adding any content. i have taken note of your suggestion re: uploading a photo i own the copyright to, and will do so if/when another decision is made to add a photo. all best, and thanks again-

H-minus A goal of Wikipedia is providing verifiable information about notable topics. As you observed — that goal may be in tension with the goals of the persons Wikipedia covers. As far as photos go, most people here would consider an article better for having a "quality" photograph of its subject.

In my judgement, you fulfill at least one of the notability guidelines for WP:AUTHORs (having a "major" publisher, winning awards, and being and the subject of non-trivial press coverage), so deleting the article probably won't fly. Sorry.

I'd argue that a Wikipedia page is "good" for self-promotion, because it establishes an author's credibility and notability (if this is measurable in book sales or paid speaking engagements, you'd know better than I). If you're uncomfortable with your full birthdate being listed, please say so and I'll take the steps to remove it. I see the article on the whole as broadly benign, and your work seems well-received. If there's anything else particularly false (or WP:LIBELous), the talk page is a good avenue to addressing it. Otherwise, I guess living with and ignoring it will have to suffice.-Ich (talk) 12:20, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Ich- i don’t have any public social media accounts or a website- self-promotion isn’t a concern. i appreciate the information that neither a photo nor full birth date are compulsory elements of a Wikipedia entry (unless i’ve misunderstood either point?) but have no issue with the information currently displayed.

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. BrokenSegue 22:16, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Managing a conflict of interest

Hello, H-minus. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a conflict of interest may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for organizations for more information. We ask that you:

• avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, company, organization or competitors;
• propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (you can use the {{request edit}} template);
• disclose your conflict of interest when discussing affected articles (see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest#How to disclose a COI);
• avoid linking to your organization's website in other articles (see WP:Spam);
• do your best to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you are required by the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use to disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution which forms all or part of work for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. See Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure.

Also, editing for the purpose of advertising, publicising, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you. El_C 22:21, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

thanks. are you an admin? could you delete the entire article? H-minus (talk) 22:48, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Let me check. If it is borderline notable, I might be able to do so. El_C 22:53, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

thank you. that would be wonderful.

Sorry, Helen. At a glance, you seem to be an author who is just too well-known for me to be able to grant the borderline-notability deletion courtesy. Is there something in particular about the page which gives you pause? El_C 22:58, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

the article is continually being updated, either with a view to some category of identity the editor has in mind (invariably a category i don’t conform to) or with some attempts at definitive interpretation or analysis of stories that are very much open to interpretation. many of the times i’ve been told what my ‘themes’ supposedly are, a version of this article has been the source. the current version is ok, but that’s just for now. thanks for looking into the borderline notability courtesy, anyway. are there any other options i can pursue in terms of requesting article deletion? H-minus (talk) 23:13, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Unfortunately, no. If there are reoccurring problems, the protection can be upgraded so that only the most trusted users would be allowed to edit the page. You can request that here, by attaching a WP:PING for me. Or at a noticeboard like the Biographies of living persons noticeboard. Wikipedia policy on reliable sources can get a bit counterintuitive, though (just preparing you for the possibility). Because someone can say 'her theme for this or that work was X according to this book review.' Now, even if you, yourself, protest by saying 'no, I would know, I'm the author and my theme was Y,' we still wouldn't be able to accept that. I know, super-weird. Anyway, again, please feel free to query the article talk page (Talk:Helen Oyeyemi) with any concerns. You are always welcome to contact me personally (User talk:El C), as well. Best wishes, El_C 23:22, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

thanks. wishing you all the best too- H-minus (talk) 23:35, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Partial block from Helen Oyeyemi

You have been blocked indefinitely from editing the Helen Oyeyemi article (but not the talk page) for a conflict of interest violation.

If you think there are good reasons for being unblocked, please read the guide to appealing blocks, then add the following text below the block notice on your talk page: {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}.  El_C 22:38, 30 January 2021 (UTC)