Talk:Biographies

Let's think about this. Different kinds of biographies have appeared on Wikiversity. Most, if anyone noticed them, have been deleted. My intention in suggesting a biography project was to encourage the craft of writing biography (as well as creating wiki content). The nature of what is to be learned may vary with the condition of the student. For a very young student, simply putting together materials from sources (perhaps including Wikipedia), could be educational. Editing wikitext to make a page with good presentation is educational.

Now, we have typically allowed biographies in user space, even for totally non-notable people, even for the students themselves. I suggest that for a biography to be here, it be so placed to make it subject to criticism and editing by anyone. So, you can write a bioraphy in your user space, and with an exception, we won't be concerned about it. Users who want comment on their user space biographies can place a link to their own biograph subspace, on a subpage of this resource that I will create.

(The exception is if the biography contains copyright violations or is defamatory. In user space, a biography could generally be excessively laudatory (by Wikipedia standards) and not be a problem. However, in mainspace, that could be a problem.

I'll create some additional structure to this project. See if it works for you. —Abd (discuss • contribs) 01:33, 5 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Note added. The robelbox may not be necessary, but I wanted to try it that way first and see what it would look like.
 * I'm not sure your last sentence is necessary. If it is, perhaps it should be located above with the biography projects rather than in the individual section.
 * Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 03:17, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Main Space vs. User Space
I'm wondering if the default location for new biographies should be user space, and we move them to the Biographies learning project when a user wants to collaborate with others on the biography. The reasoning is primarily one of search characteristics. Pages placed in user space do not appear in either default Wikiversity searches or on Internet searches. Pages placed in main space, even as subpages, do appear in searches.

Putting new biographies in user space would typically be more appropriate in terms of what the user wants in terms of editing. in other words, it's a personal project and they are not seeking editing collaboration. At the same time, it removes some of the potential abuse opportunities regarding notability issues.

I propose moving individual biography stubs to User space unless collaborative efforts have been documented in history.

Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 12:55, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

Discussion about users with content questionable to Wikiversity
Could one or both of you explain what I am supposed to do with this page? --Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 01:33, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * It's a biography, what else is there to it? Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 02:21, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * there was a request to delete it. Is there any reason why I should delete it?--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 03:15, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Ok... now I see. I'd rather have FrankyLeRoutier to state why he wants this to be deleted. But as far as I know, there is nothing to be deleted here, as this (seems) to be a biography of someone. Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 13:53, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Other wikis don't allow this type of contribution. The question we should consider is whether to allow them here in this project, or only in user space.  -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:08, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I like the way Dave posed it as a question. Let me propose a temporary answer:
 * 1) Demand that the writer of such pages defends it, on their own talk page, and make a link to that defense on the talk page of the article in question. Then we make a "snap-judgement".  Even a "bad" page can be pedagogical if we demand that the student write an essay defending it.
 * 2) Insist that marginal pages be put into user space. Now that all users have sandboxes, this should be very easy to organize:  The user's sandbox should be the node for such pages.

I would be happy to put some of my own resources into user space to remove the stigma (in fact I have already done it a couple of times). In the long term, we might need a space limit on how much can go into these sandboxes.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 14:47, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * I doubt the author would communicate with us, imo Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:07, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * I agree. So, is the essence of contributing to Wikiversity engaging with the community and responding to the concerns of others, or should users be left alone to create content however they feel is appropriate to their needs?  -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 17:37, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * I could go either way, but if we are to become a host for peoples personal websites, we need to allocate space for educational purposes. If there are no objections, I will delete the page soon.  In the future, I will make a template to place on the page that is like   but targeted to pages that make no effort at education.  If this policy doesn't create a large number of attempts to justify, I like it better than a simple deletion of such pages.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 17:40, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * This isn't the first time we had contributors not respond to concerns. So we should go with a template or policy? New policy maybe? Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 17:46, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * In this case, since the user is known, I would be inclined to move the page to user space rather than delete. IP edits can be deleted when there is no response.  But yes, creating some type of template to make this consistent and easier would be a good idea.  -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 18:35, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I am also inclined to move it to user space. Do you want me to do that?--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 22:11, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * I moved it. I recommend deleting this talk page, unless someone wants to save it somewhere else.  There's no reason to keep it tied to the user page.  -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:50, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't this be saved for later discussions? If so, I'll save this talk page discussion... Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 22:52, 19 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Go ahead and move it wherever makes sense to you. You could also put it under a Biographies talk page somewhere if you'd like.  -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:56, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Biographies Project Ended
Per RFD, the Biographies project has ended. Biographies with significant user contributions have been moved to user space. Anonymous biographies have been deleted. This page now lists learning projects which contain biographies. Individual biographies meeting Wikipedia notability guidelines should be posted there. Biographies which are not notable should be moved to user space or deleted. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 01:38, 12 June 2019 (UTC)