[Foundation-l] Etiquette, Civility

[Ray Saintonge]

Cormac Lawler 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).
>
>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?
>
As I see it civility is a matter of how we express things; inappropriate 
name calling would be uncivil. 

Etiquette is a series of often unwritten rules that define interpersonal 
protocol.  No single breach of etiquette is significant by itself, but 
cumulative breaches contribute to a negative view of the person.
.
There's nothing wrong from deleting questions from one's own user talk 
page after they have been there for a reasonable amount of time.  One 
should strive to answer questions as much as reasonable possible.  But 
there's a limit to how much can be answered, and some question can't 
easily be answered.

Ec