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Every day, dozens, sometimes hundreds, of Wikipedia biographies—of child actors turned LA realtors, retired ambassadors, obscure soccer players—are purged from the world’s free encyclopedia. How do these poor souls take the news?

This year, a Wikipedia biography of NASA scientist Martina Dimoska was created—and nominated for deletion soon afterwards. Economist and Wikipedia editor Kiril Simeonovski argued the entry read mostly as self-promotion.

Dimoska’s biography was eventually retained on the site, after lengthy discussion and examination of her achievements and their notability. It now carries a disclaimer that it contains “promotional content.” www.wired.com/story/the-tr...

Wikipedia editors do not themselves decide that a person is not notable, only that there is a lack of reliable evidence to support the claim. www.wired.com/story/the-tr...

When an editor proposes a Wikipedia article for deletion, they append a caveat to the marked page: “If you created this page, please don’t take offense.” This courtesy is not extended to the subject of the article.