Welcome!

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Hello, Mlemon03, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask for help on your talk page, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! —    Bill W.    (Talk)  (Contrib)  (User:Wtwilson3)  — 16:31, 21 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Help me!

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So, I want to make a post about Amanda Holley--a rising popstar who has become notable in the music industry over the past couple years, is developing a substantial following, and is one of the top artists in the legendary record company, Tommy Boy Entertainment. The thing is, the information in the article would be facts collected from an interview with Amanda Holley herself and the information is not too widespread on the internet. I am concerned about citing sources in all of this. Could I cite an interview with the artist herself that I personally conducted? There aren't very many alternative options of locations online that I could cite for factual information, which is why I would be resorting to the interview--I really think this is an important, noteworthy name that should be included on your website. Ideas, thoughts, suggestions?

Marian Lemont Mlemon03 (talk) 16:20, 21 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

The article would have to be written using reliable sources as defined here. Also the subject of the article would have to be notable as defined here and here. I'm going to put a "welcome" message at the top of this page with more useful links about writing your first article. This information should help. —    Bill W.    (Talk)  (Contrib)  (User:Wtwilson3)  — 16:30, 21 June 2016 (UTC)Reply
(edit conflict) Welcome to Wikipedia. No, I'm afraid information from a personal interview is not usable. Wikipedia has a fundamental policy Wikipedia:Verifiability, summarised as: "any material challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed to a reliable, published source." The point of published is that a reader should, in principle, be able to check the source of Wikipedia's information.
In any case, if there is little published information available, it is unlikely that she (yet) meets Wikipedia's quite demanding test for inclusion, called Wikipedia:Notability, which is not a matter of opinion but has to be demonstrated by references showing "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject." Significant means more than just listing-type mentions; reliable excludes Youtube, Facebook, blogs, places where anyone can post anything; independent excludes the subject's own website, affiliated ones and anything based on press releases. The test is, have people not connected with the subject thought her significant enough to write substantial comment about? See also Wikipedia:Notability (summary) and, for the particular criteria for a musical performer, WP:MUSICBIO.
Regards, JohnCD (talk) 16:38, 21 June 2016 (UTC)Reply