Wikipedia:Mistakes are allowed

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

As editors work on Wikipedia, mistakes are not only allowed, but are inevitable. Perfection is impossible.

Mistakes may not be acceptable if:

They are purposeful (meaning they are not mistakes)
They occur a reasonable period of time after one has been warned that similar actions were mistakes
If they regard biographies of living people

However, mistakes may not be used to:

Prove that someone is unqualified to edit pages regarding a topic

Mistakes should be met with counsel, not criticism. Before banning or blocking someone, ask that user what happened, and look at how long that user has been an editor. If that user is new, it might have been a mistake.

See also