Wikipedia talk:Guidance for younger editors

For the sake of conversation

Has there been a case of kids handing out information on Wikipedia? Just curious. I don't see most Wikipedians nowadays being social enough to where they could, without looking like a weirdo, ask for personal information like addresses and phone numbers. SpartaN (talk) 09:56, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

@SpartaN: hi. The essay is not about only "upon being asked". Most of the young editors tend put their personal info on their userpage. Like, "hello, I'm SpartaN. I live just beside the Wayne manor in Gotham city. In the photo below, it's me and my friend, hanging out at Knightsdome Sporting Complex". As to have they done it? Yes. I have notified admins through emails of a few incidents, and the info was rev-del'ed or suppressed. —usernamekiran(talk) 22:13, 26 January 2018 (UTC)

Wikiproject Schools

Since the start of this essay mentions that younger editors should never give out personal information, wouldn't the suggestion of encouraging younger editors to write about their school contradict that? The banner even mentions not to give out information about your school. Clovermoss (talk) 00:43, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

A very good point, Clovermoss. I have added a warning to that paragraph...and have also deleted mention of WikiGuides as this is no longer active. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nick Moyes (talk • contribs)

Young editors and COI statement

The nutshell states that young editors should never give out any personally identifiable information (name, age, location, school, IP address) on Wikipedia. On the other hand, WP:COIEDIT states that you should disclose your COI when involved with affected articles. Yound editors can't really follow both of these they have a Wikipedia article about themselves and their name is in the article. —Happy New Year from Biscuit-in-Chief :-) ^{(/tɔːk/ – /ˈkɒntɹɪbs/)} 19:33, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

You seem to have a valid point, though it appears this would only come up infrequently. On the other hand, there is no demand that an editor declare the precise nature of their relationship to a subject. "Has a conflict of interest" does not mean "is a member of the subject's immediate family" or "is the article subject". It appears to me that we are able to nail them down on COI the same way we would any other editor. Rebuttal?--Quisqualis (talk) 23:24, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

"Don't share your location" is ambiguous.

"Location" could be as specific as your exact address (which for sure is oversightable) or as broad as the continent you live on. What does "location" specifically refer to? Does it mean a minor shouldn't share their neighborhood? Their city? County? State/province? Country? Or what? interstatefive  16:10, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

@Interstatefive: I haven’t found those exact words, but I personally think that it’s fine to share the country you live in, not recommended to share state/province, and it’s too risky to share your city or neighborhood. I definitely agree with not sharing your address. As a minor myself, I haven’t posted any information about my location. Hope this helps. LPS and MLP Fan (Littlest Pet Shop and My Little Pony Fan) 05:19, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

I mostly agree with you on that except for the state part. Almost every state/province in the world has at least 100k people, and its very hard to isolate one person out of that many. Larger states such as California or Texas have populations of over 10 million, which makes it even harder to find one specific person. interstatefive  15:05, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

I guess it depends on where you live and how dense the population is. If you live in Nunavut, for example, there's ~39,000 people that live there. Sharing neighbourhoods is definitely a bad idea. Cities... maybe. Saying you're from Toronto isn't as big of a deal as saying you're from Alymer because again, it's easier to narrow you down. Clovermoss (talk) 16:02, 7 June 2022 (UTC)