User:Bmusician/Why was my AfC submission declined?

If you are here, it may be because I declined your Articles for Creation submission. I appreciate your help in making Wikipedia the best encyclopedia for everyone, and I do not decline any submission just to criticize the work involved in it, because I care about what you have written. There are many reasons why a submission would be declined - mainly because it would take a fundamental rewrite to conform to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, which are written to prevent Wikipedia to be fed with non-encyclopedic material. This page outlines many of the reasons why a submission would be declined.

After you submit an article to AfC, you may or may not receive a message on their your talk page about the outcome of your submission. If it was accepted, your submission would have already been moved to the article space – if the submission was declined, there would be a reason in the message and some links to relevant policies or guidelines.

Three quarters of AfC submissions are declined - mainly because the writer did not bother to read our policies and guidelines, or because they have difficulty understanding them.

That being said, I am human. If you feel I have declined your submission in error, please leave me a message on my talk page.

Reasons for a submission to be declined

Unsourced or only contains unreliable sources / lacks inline citations

Arguably the most common reason for a submission to be declined is for its lack of reliable sources. All information on Wikipedia must be verifiable. Reliable sources are split up into two main types.

A secondary source is a source that is independent of a subject. These sources help establish a topic's notability. All submissions should be based on reliable secondary sources.
A primary source is a source that has a connection with the subject. If the subject was about a company or organization, the company's website would be a primary source. These sources are permitted to be used, but no submission should be completely based on them - they cannot help establish a topic's notability.

Sources must also be formatted correctly in inline citations. The lack of inline citations is another reason for a submission to be declined. Please read WP:REFB for information of how to format sources in the format of inline citations.

No asserted notability

Another reason for a submission to be declined is for no indication of its subject's notability. Garage bands, a small shop down the road, a made-up game at school or in the backyard, that are not covered by reliable sources, are not notable. Please take a read at the Wikipedia article Notability in the English Wikipedia.

If I declined a submission about a person, see WP:BIO.
If I declined a submission about a website or similar web content, see WP:WEB.
If I declined a submission about anything academic-related, such as a professor, see WP:PROF.
If I declined a submission about anything sports-related, such as an athlete, see WP:ATHLETE.
If I declined a submission about anything music-related, such as a musician or band, see WP:NMUSIC.
If I declined a submission about a film, see WP:MOVIE.
If I declined a submission about a company or an organization, see WP:CORP.
If I declined a submission about anything not listed above, see WP:GNG.

Blank submissions

99% of the time, I will not view the source of submissions. I will decline blank submissions. If you have added content for real, then it may be due to a flaw in the code: if so, try to clean it up yourself. If you are unable to do so, then drop me a line on my talk page.

Non-English submissions

The English Wikipedia is in English, and our articles have to be in English as well. Declined submissions that are written in very poor English and which may take a fundamental re-write in order to be in correct English are also declined as non-English submissions. If your understanding of the English language is not sufficient enough to be understood by other editors, consider contributing at other projects in different languages, listed here.

Biography of living persons policy violations

All unsourced biographies of a living person will be blanked. Because Wikipedia will not tolerate unsourced biographies of living people that are potentially defamatory, please do not restore the content without providing reliable sources. All biographes of living people must conform to Wikipedia's biographies of living persons policy. If you would like to restore the content, it is available in your submission's page history.

If a BLP is unsourced and entirely negative in tone, it may be tagged for speedy deletion under CSD G10. Furthermore, if you persist in violating the biographies of living persons policy, you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia temporarily or even permanently.

Advertisement or spam

If you wrote an article that is advertising or reads like it – if it extolls the virtues of your product or company, uses marketing terms such as "world-leading expertise" to describe your company, or boasts about how your website is the fastest growing video-game related forum on the internet – it will be declined. Articles about products, places, and even real persons, written to promote or advertise its subject or some other entity - fall into this category as well as companies. Wikipedia is not an advertising service or a site to promote your company, and blatant advertising will be tagged for speedy deletion under CSD G11. Furthermore, if you continue in advertising, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Registered user accounts whose usernames or actions show that they are only on Wikipedia for advertising will be permanently blocked.

Not written from NPOV

All Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view. This differs from advertising and can be a more complex issue for new editors to understand. Basically, writing things like "Joe Blogs masterminded the transition to..." or "Sara Jane is one of the greatest academics of our time..." is not writing from a neutral point of view, unless a reliable source can prove those statements.

Copyright violations

Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, and free content must be used, with a couple of fair-use exceptions. Don't copy most or all of your article from another website or any other printed material, nor even re-write it. After all, with a few exceptions, text is copyrighted by the website you took it from, even if it was your own website. Submissions created in such a manner will be blanked, in addition in being declined, and/or may be tagged for speedy deletion under CSD G12. Continuing to infringe copyright is punishable by a block from editing.

What should I do now?

Knowing that I have declined your submission, try to address the issue(s) stated in the decline reason in their entirety if you want it to be accepted. If you have trouble understanding Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, I hope this page has helped a little - if not, please don't hesitate to contact me. Please note, however, that complaints such as another crap article exists will not help any reviewer accept your submission. While reviewers understand that it is upsetting to have your hard work "declined" and criticized, please do not attack the reviewer or go off on a rant. All members of the Wikipedia community are volunteers - none of them get paid, including administrators, and they don't have to do anything if they don't want to, so please remain civil when you deal with members of the community of Wikipedia.

Thanks,

B music ian