[Foundation-l] Etiquette, Civility

[Cormac Lawler]

Hi all, as the title suggests, I'm writing about etiquette.
Specifically, whether it's ok to delete  valid questions or comments
from a talk page (in the particular case I'm talking about, deleting a
question from their own user talk page).

Personally, I think this is highly uncivil. "Sorry, I am just going to
ignore you, no, in fact, I am going to pretend you never asked the
question in the first place" (without even the "courtesy" of saying
this). However, there is scant mention of this in policy or guideline
pages (admittedly, I've only looked at English Wikipedia and
Wikibooks). Why?

Is it not considered rude to ignore someone? Is refusing to answer
questions not an ominous sign in a collaborative environment? (Ok,
when someone has just asked their umpteenth ignorant question, it
might be understandable, but this was my first contact with the
person.)

For what it's worth, the only mention I found was on either project's
policy pages was on [[w:en:Wikipedia:Etiquette]], which says "don't
ignore questions". Etiquette isn't even a policy or guideline on
Wikibooks - I'm addressing that at the moment.

So, has anyone else had a similar thought or frustration? And while
I'm asking about this, I'll also ask: what's the difference between
Etiquette and Civility? As far as I can define it (in Wikimedia
terms), etiquette is about specific instances of niceness or rudeness,
whereas civility is about a whole attitude, comprised of etiquette, no
personal attacks etc. Or what do you think?

Cormac