[Foundation-l] Etiquette, Civility

[Cormac Lawler]

On 3/20/06, Angela <beesley at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/20/06, Cormac Lawler <cormaggio at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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).
>
> What about when the question is from a troll? Would the advice about
> [[don't feed the troll | not feeding trolls]] mean might actually be a
> good idea in some cases?
>
> Even if the question wasn't from a troll, should people be forced to
> communicate with others when they really don't want to? If there's an
> issue with an article, that can be brought up on the article talk
> page, where it would be wrong to delete it, but I think users should
> have some control over whether or not they want to respond to messages
> on their talk page.
>
> Angela.


Yes, I agree that we cannot *force* people to answer other questions.
But what I am saying is that we should be encouraging as *good
practice* a spirit of listening. In the case of a troll, I fully
reserve the right to ignore that person. But in the case of a lengthy
question posed directly to a person (deliberately avoiding the
particular page I was disputing to avoid people thinking badly of this
person while we debated a point), and then that person simply deleting
my question, I think this is very bad practice. It smacks of someone
holding their hands over their ears and shouting "I'm not listening".

I agree that we can't decree "Thou shalt answer all questions put unto
ye". That's why I see this as a guideline, not a policy - we enforce a
code of civility, but encourage an attitude of etiquette.

Cormac


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