User:Vassyana/insanity/Civility 001

Changes made in sandbox

This page in a nutshell: Participate in a respectful and civil way. Do not ignore the positions and conclusions of others. Try to discourage others from being uncivil, and avoid upsetting people wherever possible.

Civility is a code of conduct stating plainly that people must act with civility toward one another. "Incivility" is roughly defined as personally targeted behavior that causes an atmosphere of conflict and stress. Civility is necessary for a respectful and productive editing environment.

Problem

Anyone may edit Wikipedia and sometimes editors may disagree about how to best improve an article. It can be difficult to criticize text and edits without offending other users. Insults, rude implications and other uncivil commentary unnecessarily increases this difficulty and alienates editors. Silent and faceless words on talk pages and edit summaries do not transmit the nuances of verbal conversation, leading to small, facetious comments being misinterpreted. One uncivil remark can easily escalate into a heated discussion which may not focus objectively on the problem at hand.

Engaging in incivility

See also: Wikipedia:Wikiquette alerts

Insults (such as name calling), profane snipes and general rudeness are clearly uncivil. This includes using a judgmental tone in edit summaries ("snipped rambling crap") or talk page posts ("that's the stupidest thing I've ever seen"). Comment on the content, not the editor. Belittling contributors because of their language skills or word choice is also an example of such inconsideration.

Personal attacks, taunting, goading or baiting are all more serious examples of incivility.

This style of interaction between Wikipedians drives away contributors, distracts others from more important matters, and poisons the editing atmosphere.

When and why does incivility happen?

See also: Wikipedia:Wikiquette

When the community grows larger, it becomes more difficult for editors to establish personal relationships with all of the editors they encounter. It is easier to become heated and/or insult other editors when a contributor is not familiar with them, which is failure to assume good faith.

Most of the time, editors use insults in the heat of the moment during a longer conflict. During an edit war, when people have different opinions, the participants may become frustrated and even angered. Often the person who made the insult regrets having used such words afterwards. This is a often good reason to remove (or refactor) the offending words.

In other cases, the offender is doing it on purpose: either to distract the "opponent(s)" from the issue, or simply to drive them away from working on the article or even from the project, or to goad someone into a more serious break from the rules. Some editors deliberately push others to the point of breaching civility, without seeming to commit such a breach themselves. This may constitute a form of trolling, and is certainly not a civil way to interact.

Wiki editors are human. It is reasonable to assume that incivility results because of external variables, such as lack of sleep or general stress. Such editors should be gently discouraged from the incivility and encouraged to take a break and/or seek less contentious wiki activities.

Why is incivility inappropriate?

Incivility escalates disagreements by putting people on the defensive, preventing a consensus from forming, and goading others into further incivility. It can cause an inability to solve the conflict and inhibit the resolution of future conflicts. It can cause a loss of good faith in the offender and the community, even leading to an editor's departure from Wikipedia.

Wikipedia editors form a community and incivility generates a hostile and unwelcoming atmosphere, impeding collaboration and cooperation.

Outing and harassment

Harassment occurs when a particular editor is "targeted" by another user. This includes untoward attention and contacting others (on or off wiki) in order to cause harm and stress to an editor. Repeated incivility and threats also constitute harassment.

Editors are encouraged to bear in mind their privacy, not revealing details such as home address, to reduce the threat of spamming and harassment. If private information is released in a way that may cause harm, it may be deleted or oversighted. An editor "outing" another in such a way, or assisting in such activities, may be blocked.

When information is legitimately available about an editor, such as by reference through their blog or a reliable source, it should only be discussed on-wiki if it assists in building the encyclopedia and there is no reasonable doubt regarding the accuracy of such data. An editor may be an established expert or the subject of a Wikipedia article, for example.

Dispute resolution

Consider discussing heated disagreements on that user's talk page, politely explaining your objection. Diffs of the specific uncivil statement can be used to identify specific instances. If the incivility is unresolved, a request for admin assistance and further dispute resolution assistance (such as RfC) may be helpful.

Considerations concerning civility

See also:Wikipedia:Etiquette

Preventing incivility within Wikipedia

Use positive feedback when editors are productive and helpful.
Use negative feedback, encouraging breaks and discouraging incivility. It may be worthwhile making such suggestions to all conflicting parties.
Pursue, and encouraging others to seek, dispute resolution.
Have certain users refrain from editing heated topic areas.
Do not respond in kind or justify incivility based on the actions of others.

Reducing the impact

Provide encouraging or constructive comments.
Try to not answer offensive comments.
Respond to perceived incivility with greater civility and respect.
Walk away. Just edit somewhere else for a while and return when tempers have cooled.
Please. Thank you. I'm sorry. You're welcome. You're a good person and I know we'll work this out. Treat your fellow editor as a respected and admired colleague, who is working in collaboration with you on an important project.

Removing uncivil comments

Outside of vandalism, only in the most serious of circumstances should an editor replace or edit a comment made by another editor. Only in the event of something that can cause actual damage in the real world should this be the first step (i.e., disclosing the name, address or phone number of an opponent). In the event of rudeness or incivility on the part of an editor, it is appropriate to discuss the wording with that editor and to request that editor to change it.

Suggest apologizing

Mediation regularly involves disputes in which one party feels injured by the other. An apology is often the key to the resolution of a conflict. For some people, it may be crucial to receive an apology from those who have offended them. It is recommended when one person's perceived incivility has offended another.