EOB:About biographies

Common questions

• How do you decide on what biographies to include?

Generally, we are interested in including biographies of:

• Major historical figures (within the context of Buddhism)
• Buddhist writers who have been influential in their own traditions or across traditions
• Writers and/or academics who are frequently cited in other articles

We also still have a number of biographies that were imported via a mass import. We will eventually review these and delete bios that don't match our criteria.

• How do you create your biographies?

If the subject has a biography page on Wikipedia, we will generally start by importing the bio from Wikipedia, and then vet and edit the article as needed. We might tag a new biography/article as a clone if we have not had a chance to vet the article.

If there is no biography on Wikipedia, we will develop the biography from other sources.

• Do you verify the information in biographies that you import from wikipedia?

When we import biographies from Wikipedia we will check for accuracy. See EOB:Vetted

However, sometimes this proceess may take awhile. If the article is tagged as a clone, it means we have not completed the vetting.

• Your biographies are shorter than those on Wikipedia. Why is that?

Generally, we remove much of the personal information from the biographies that we import from Wikipedia, especially for living persons. Personal information for living people becomes stale fairly quickly, and we don't have the resources to keep this type of personal information up-to-date.

We focus on the subject's professional resume; particularly on information that is not likely to change in the near future.

• Do you welcome feedback?

Yes. We welcome feedback. If you spot any errors or inaccuracies, please let us know.

• Can I have my biography removed?

We will remove any bio on request from the subject of the bio.

Sample biography

The page for the 14th Dalai Lama provides an example of a biography of a major figure. In this case, some personal information is included, because it is a key part of the subject's biography. This bio includes:

• Place and date of birth
• Minimal basic chronology of the subject's life
• Honors and titles
• List of published writings