Bill Gates (final version) received a peer review by Wikipedia editors, which on 27 May 2024 was archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.
Please place new discussions at the bottom of the talk page.
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Bill Gates article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.
These questions arise frequently on the talk page concerning Bill Gates.
To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.
Q1: Can I write a message to Bill Gates here? (No.)
A1: No. That is not the purpose of this page. Your message will be ignored and removed.
Q2: Should the post-nominal "KBE" appear after Gates's name in the introduction? (No.)
A2: No. According to the Manual of Style, post-nominals should be omitted unless the article subject is closely associated with the issuing country. Gates's honorary knighthood is mentioned along with honors from several other countries in the "Recognition" section.
Q3: Is the article too favorable toward Gates? (Be more specific.)
A3: This article is about Bill Gates as a person, not Microsoft as a company. Criticism of Microsoft has a separate article, as does the Gates Foundation. If you believe the article is too favorable to Gates as a person, please be specific about what the article says or does not say. Critiques must come from reliable sources and should not be founded on speculation.
This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Microsoft, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles relating to Microsoft on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MicrosoftWikipedia:WikiProject MicrosoftTemplate:WikiProject MicrosoftMicrosoft articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Microsoft Windows, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Microsoft Windows on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Microsoft WindowsWikipedia:WikiProject Microsoft WindowsTemplate:WikiProject Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of business articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sanitation, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Sanitation on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SanitationWikipedia:WikiProject SanitationTemplate:WikiProject Sanitationsanitation articles
Rob Enderle (April 25, 2005). "IPod's Dirty Little Secret and the Power of the Internet". TechNewsWorld. While researching this piece, I once again ran into Wikipedia -- a free online encyclopedia which I think does a really nice job of summing up some of the world's most famous chief executives. If you get a chance you should read up on Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Linus Torvalds. (Linus isn't really a CEO but he may be the closest thing that Linux has).
The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to articles about living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles, which has been designated as a contentious topic.
The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to post-1992 politics of the United States and closely related people, which is a contentious topic. Please consult the procedures and edit carefully.
The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to COVID-19, broadly construed, which is a contentious topic. Please consult the procedures and edit carefully.
@MSincccc: terms are regularly being added to the first sentence of articles, sometimes with surprisingly little scrutiny. For example various people edited Steve Jobs's first sentence to say "philanthropist" (false and contradicts sources) and "industrial designer" (which he never was, despite his micromanagement of product development and design). Or Bezos being called an "industrialist" (which he isn't). There's a general lack of focus, and a tendency to cram vague terms regardless of relevance, and I'd like to address it across all these articles because it's bad writing ("written by committee"). Britannica does much better than us on this.
We should avoid overloading the first sentence, and subjective labels (like "magnate") should be avoided, see MOS:FIRSTBIO and MOS:BIO. I also think it's vague and puffery (see for example Musk happily using the term for himself). And neither "magnate" nor "billionaire" are a position, activity, or role, which are the criteria listed in MOS:FIRSTBIO.
For simplicity, I'd phrase it as "businessman and entrepreneur best known for co-founding Microsoft". "Entrepreneur" is how Britannica defines him and helps us transition to mentioning Microsoft's founding. It's what he's known for, and he's still an entrepreneur today (see TerraPower). But "businessman and entrepreneur" is redundant, so we could also say "computer programmer and entrepreneur" (also supported by Britannica), which is what this article used to say and was the formal activity/role for which he became notable. Gates, like almost every rich person, has a portfolio and hires other people to manage his investments, but that doesn't make him an investor (he's not Warren Buffett or Jim Simons), so I think that's best mentioned later in the lead as we do now, and not in the first sentence. DFlhb (talk) 17:23, 10 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@DFlhb I myself preferred "businessman" and "entrepreneur" for a long time but seeing "business magnate" being mentioned on the vast majority of well known billionaire individuals pages made me drift towards supporting "business magnate" over other terms. MSincccc (talk) 17:45, 10 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Steve Jobs' wikipedia page has in its infobox 'known for' = 'pioneer in personal computing revolution'. That's valid, I think it's equally valid in Bill Gates' as they were contemporary rivals that both had undeniably monumental impact in the PC revolution. I don't think Bill Gates' infobox merely saying 'known for' = 'co-founding microsoft' is sufficient to encapsulate what he is actually known for and achieved. While he is absolutely known for this, stating this alone trivializes the specific impact he had and reduces it similarly to any future CEO of Microsoft being known for merely their association to the company.
Is there any reason we don't have this information in the infobox like Steve Jobs'? Codeconjurer777 (talk) 13:27, 11 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Semi-protected edit request on 8 February 2024[edit]
This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.
He also made a guest appearance as himself on the TV show The Big Bang Theory. The episode on which he appeared was appropriately titled "The Gates Excitation".
and add this in its place:
He also made a guest appearance as himself on the TV show The Big Bang Theory, in an episode entitled "The Gates Excitation".
It's shorter, it combines two short sentences into one better one, and it removes the opinionated "appropriately". 123.51.107.94 (talk) 04:47, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Done, thank you, that is an improvement. ~Anachronist (talk) 07:12, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Semi-protected edit request on 14 April 2024 - Changing Incorrect Hyperlink[edit]
This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.