Do you have a wikipedia page about yourself?

[Morris Zapp]

Was looking for a friend's e-mail today and was surprised to see that he had a Wikipedia page about himself and his scholarship.  He's somewhat well known in the field, so I guess it makes sense. 
I've just kind of balked at doing so myself -- still uncomfortable with blowing my own horn.
How about you? Have you set up a Wikipedia page about yourself?  Would you or definitely not and why?
Interested to hear the general consensus on this topic.

[Parasaurolophus]

One day, if or when I accomplish things...

[Hegemony]

I believe it is strongly frowned upon to set up one's own Wikipedia page. You have to hope that other people will do it.

[mamselle]

An Academia (or other, similar) page might be more to the point.

M.

[saramago]

Gosh, no. Listing your publications on your web page is millions times more serious and professional.

[mahagonny]

I know a colleague who has a wikipedia entry. But I can tell he wrote it because (1) the claims are inflated, same as when you talk to him, and (2) the writing style is obviously his, and not as literate as what you'd prefer in a person who wrote about you.

[revert79]

My uncle is a famous academic and he has one of these.  It seems as though he put it together himself, although I may be mistaken.  If however my uncharitable hunch is right, it seems laughable.  And believe me I have laughed...and others probably have done, too.

[Juvenal]

My acolytes and minions do it.  I am above such personal trumpetings. 

Under several categories, of course.  A single Wikipedia entry is such small change.

Put "Majestic Academic" into the Wikipedia search box and you will be surprised...

[youllneverwalkalone]

OP, it's not really about what one wants cause Wikipedia's rules for notability will in most cases prevent you from doing that, not to mention that writing a page about yourself is highly frowned upon. So the chances of you successful doing that unless you are a high ranking Wikipedian or use a paid service are almost non-existant (unless you are genuinely famous, but if that were the case you'd probably have a page already).

[Bede the Vulnerable]

 I don't have a page.  But the character from "Sex and the City" with my name does.  So I just use that.  This makes me much more interesting than I actually am.  (Better looking, too!)

[adel9216]

I believe that if you are a woman (or a member of a minority group), you should not hesitate to create yourself one. We are underrepresented on Wikipedia.

(I say that, and I don't feel comfortable creating myself one for the same reasons as you though).

[pigou]

OP, it's not really about what one wants cause Wikipedia's rules for notability will in most cases prevent you from doing that, not to mention that writing a page about yourself is highly frowned upon. So the chances of you successful doing that unless you are a high ranking Wikipedian or use a paid service are almost non-existant (unless you are genuinely famous, but if that were the case you'd probably have a page already).

I'm not sure I completely agree with this: academic fame and general fame are quite different things. There are researchers who I think would absolutely merit a page, but don't have one -- or have one that is only very sparsely populated. In those cases, expanding on the details may be quite valuable. Even more so if you can link the profile to related research, so that people reading about topic A end up on their profile page.

I don't know to what extent it has any academic benefits, but it may have more weight with non-academic opportunities. At least in my field, there are often promising collaborations with industry partners. For the most part, they have no idea how to evaluate research publications and so this may be an easy measure for how seriously they should take someone. I'd also file it under "doesn't hurt to have."

But I do second the idea of investing in your personal website. I always see a spike after I present somewhere or a paper gets some media coverage. I'm horrified when people have websites with advertisements on them or on a domain that isn't "www.theirname.com" or close to that. It's really not expensive or technically challenging to have a legit website. Also, post your papers. If you're in a field where you have a million papers, organize them somehow. There are so many times when I remember who the author of a paper was, but not much else, and it's super frustrating when they can't easily be found on their website. If you're worried about copyright, publish the version that isn't typeset by the journal... but I never had a publisher complain.

[mahagonny]

It's like nicknames. Someone has to give you yours. If you give yourself one, even thought it's the right one, it's wrong.

[Hibush]

I believe that if you are a woman (or a member of a minority group), you should not hesitate to create yourself one. We are underrepresented on Wikipedia.

No. Don't do that. Blatantly violating the rules is not the way to get respect and representation. It is a way to get blacklisted.

Underrepresentation is because too few Wikipedia editors think you meet the notability criteria. That is easy enough to address: the notability criteria are documented and any number of your friends and admirers can be editors. They just need to get in there an represent to the appropriate degree.

[adel9216]

I believe that if you are a woman (or a member of a minority group), you should not hesitate to create yourself one. We are underrepresented on Wikipedia.

No. Don't do that. Blatantly violating the rules is not the way to get respect and representation. It is a way to get blacklisted.

Underrepresentation is because too few Wikipedia editors think you meet the notability criteria. That is easy enough to address: the notability criteria are documented and any number of your friends and admirers can be editors. They just need to get in there an represent to the appropriate degree.

I never said I would create myself a page. I don't feel comfortable doing that.

However, I do believe that if you are a woman, or a racialized women or a LGBTQ person or anyone from a minority group, the odds that someone will make you a Wikipedia page are often more scarce. You need to work 10 times harder to get the same exposure and recognition for your work.

At one of my research groups, we even have a day during the year in which volunteers create Wikipedia entries for feminist scholars, because feminist scholars are not recognized enough and do not compose a significant part of Wikipedia entries. Many very eminent or emerging scholars that have accomplished amazing stuff do not have a Wikipedia page, when they truly should. And it is unfortunate.