[WikiEN-l] On politeness

[Peter Mackay]

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Matt Brown
> Sent: Saturday, 28 January 2006 19:18
> To: English Wikipedia
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] More on WT:AFD
> 
> On 1/27/06, Tony Sidaway <f.crdfa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Agreed. There have been tentative advances on this front, 
> for instance 
> > in the recently concluded webcomics case where two issues were
> > addressed: attempts to alter deletion policy without 
> discussion, and 
> > alienating newcomers by smearing them as trolls and ridiculing them.
> 
> The alienating newcomers part is what particularly concerns 
> me.  I think those on the 'front lines' of fighting vandalism 
> and spam get very rapidly jaded and cynical, and start 
> assuming bad faith automatically.  In truth, I find, most 
> newcomer editors are operating in good faith.  Not being that 
> familiar with the Wikipedia project, of course, many are in 
> good faith attempting to do things we don't want or in ways 
> that aren't the ways Wikipedia uses, but that should not 
> allow us to think they mean any harm.
> 
> It is a mistake to put these people on the defensive, to make 
> them feel attacked.  Not all of them are capable or 
> interested in being Wikipedia editors, but some of them will 
> be - among whom may be many people capable of being excellent 
> content editors once they understand the project better.  It 
> is not in our best interests to burn these people.
> 
> Even if their ultimate goals are not compatible with the 
> Wikipedia project and they won't make useful contributors, we 
> should endeavor to handle them politely.
> 
> Of course, some contributors are not acting in good faith.  
> However, we should keep in mind that they may simply be 
> misguided.  Those adding spam links, for example, may not 
> realise how much this is frowned upon here; seeing external 
> links in many articles, they might simply have assumed that 
> linking to on-topic external sites is acceptable.

Hear hear! During my all too brief stint on the help desk (before being
kicked off by Mr Wales for being too obviously Skyring) I saw any number of
people whose hearts were firmly in the right place but just needed a bit of
guidance. A lot of them weren't game to hit that "edit" button and wanted
someone to correct mistakes on their behalf. I felt myself warming to these
folk and did my best to encourage them to dive in. I told them that they
would be met with mutual respect and a helping hand.

And I truly hope that they find this to be so.

But I fear that all too many of these bright new editors will run into
people who resent them, people who have been here for a year or two and have
staked out their own little bit of content or stylistic territory and stand
ready to bark and snarl at any interloper. Do you know, I found one new
editor who was brutally reverted and abused because he had the temerity to
put full stops on the end of section headings? An admin simply picked up the
Manual of Style and swatted the poor guy flat, repeatedly using the edit
summaries to label him a numbskull.

I couldn't help feeling that a little politeness and gentle guidance would
have gone a long way there. Ignorance of the finer points of wikistyle
doesn't make a well-intentioned new editor a "numbskull".

I found a few angry people who had had bad experiences. One or two of them
were obviously pushing some sort of agenda and were smarting because they
had been legitimately seen off, but on checking the stories of others, I
couldn't help but feel that things could have been done better.

I spent a couple of days manning the helpdesk and enjoying it, but I've got
to say that the workload is huge, and more volunteers are sorely needed.

Peter (Skyring)