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Wikiquette 202
editCivility | Consensus | Edit warring | Editing policy | No personal attacks | Ownership of articles |
Civility
edit"Civility is to human nature what warmth is to wax." |
—Arthur Schopenhauer |
Here are some more pointers on civility and better communication:
- Explain yourself. Not sufficiently explaining edits can be perceived as uncivil, whether that's the editor's intention or not. Use good edit summaries, and use the talk page if the edit summary doesn't provide enough space or if a more substantive debate is likely to be needed.
- Someone may very well be an idiot. But telling them so is neither going to increase their intelligence nor improve your ability to communicate with them.
- No matter how frustrated you are, do not tell people to "grow up" or include any wording along the lines of "if this were kindergarten" in your messages.
- Be careful with edit summaries. Edit summaries are relatively short comments, and thus potentially subject to misinterpretation or oversimplification. They cannot be changed after pressing "Save", and are often written in haste, particularly in stressful situations. Remember to explain your edit, especially when things are getting heated; to avoid personal comments about any editors you have disputes with; and to use the talk page to further explain your view of the situation.
Edit summaries
editEfficent use of edit summaries is considered one of the hallmarks of a good wikipedian. Aspirants applying for promotion to administration are expected to approach 100% (i.e. 95% or higher) of using edit summaries per edit. An empty edit summary will often be interpreted as a flag of possible vandalism by spam fighting robots. Since you do not want to increase the work of spam fighters - and certainly don't wish them to revert your work - be a good communicator.
- When you make a copy-edit, leave a note in the Edit summary field detailing your changes.
- Summary notes for copy edits should be concise but should to mention whether the edit is a correction or an enhancement.
- Spelling and grammar corrections generally count as minor edits, which you can denote by checking the box labeled "This is a minor edit";
- Stylistic corrections are generally major and call for written summaries.
- It is essential to keep edit summaries civil.
- It is not helpful, nor necessary to comment on the previous editor's language skills. (Most wikipedians are not native english speakers).
- If you are doing a follow-up copy-edit, it is usually best to stay silent about previous copy edits; instead, you may want to refer to your work as follow-up edits or additional improvements.
- When working with pages of new editors - e.g. at articles for creation - using long form of edit summaries or better yet comment on the talk page.
Some examples of acceptable edit summaries:
- Copy edit: Fact-checked names of ships
- Copy edit: Reworded introductory paragraph for clarity
- Copy edit: Reworked history section for encyclopedic style
however most editors abbreviate edit summaries:
Edit summaries are the only record many wikipedians will see of your work. Particularly those who are carrying maintenance task using semi-automated tools. Due to their concise nature, edit summaries are often a prefered means of quick communicating between experienced editor.
Making Better Edit Summaries
editFull Term | Abbreviations | Description |
---|---|---|
add | +, add, addition | Addition of something |
alphabetization | alpha, abc | Alphabetization of a list |
capitalization | cap, capital, cpt, lc, lcase, uc, ucase | Fixing of capitalization |
category | +cat, -cat, cat, recat, re-cat | Addition, subtraction or fixing of a category |
cleanup | cl, clean, tidy | Many different kinds of small changes in a single edit. |
comment | cm, cmt, re | Addition of comment or reply |
copyedit | cpyed, ced, c/e, ce | Copy edit |
creation | creation, new | Creation of a new article |
disambiguation | disambig, disamb, disam, dab, byp disambig | Addition of disambiguation or removal of ambiguity |
duplication | dup, dupe | Removal of duplication |
external link | EL, xl, ext lk, ext lks, ext lnk, ext lnks, ext link, ext links, URL, http | Addition of external links |
formatting | fm, fmt, frmt, MoS, mos, MOS | Formatting, per Manual of Style |
short new text (full text) | ft | Addition of short new text, which is fully given in this edit summary |
grammar | gr, gm, grmr | Fixing grammar |
headers | head, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 | Fixing header markup or changing header wording |
interwiki | iwk, iw | Addition of interwiki links (between Wikimedia projects) |
links | lk, lks, lnk, ln, wikilink, wl | Addition of internal (Wikipedia) links |
merge | mrg, mrgd, merged in | Article merge |
miscellaneous | misc | Use only when a more specific and more useful edit summary is not practical. |
move | mv, mov | Article move |
null edit | null, nx, ø | Saving the page without changing anything, see Null edit. |
punctuation | punc, punct, pct | Fixing punctuation |
redirect | rd, rdr, redir | Article redirect. Specify what article it redirects to. |
redirect fix | snap dbl rdr, fix redir | "Snapping" a double redirect: turning a double redirect into a single redirect. |
references | ref, refs | Adding or fixing source citation. |
remove/delete | -, rm, rmv, del | Removal of something |
revert | rv, rvt, rvrt | Revert to a previous edit |
talk | see talk | Explanation of edit on the article's Talk page |
spelling | sp, typo, typos | Fixing of typos or incorrect spelling. |
wikify | wfy, wky, wkfy | Formatting using wiki markup (as opposed to plain text or HTML) and add internal links to material, incorporating it into the whole of Wikipedia |
Edit summary best practices
editRemember you can't go back and change your edit summaries.
- Do:
- Be clear about what you did, so that other editors can assess it quickly.
- Use neutral language.
- Be calm.
- Don't:
- Make snide comments.
- Make personal remarks about editors.
- Be aggressive.
See also
editDiscussion
editAny questions or would you like to take the test? The test is pretty brief...consisting of only three questions!