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Civility and kindness are necessary if you are editing talk pages, making edit summaries, or contributing to discussions on talk pages. Although you may dislike some of your fellow users or not get along with them, you still must make an attempt to be as civil as possible. Please try your best not to create tension whenever you are interacting with other users.
Examples of incivility
- Rudeness
- Judgmental terms in edit summaries, especially when it comes to undoing edits (please take in mind when new users edit)
- Belittling other users due to their writing style, or what they choose to include (this includes types of articles written)
Some more serious examples include
- Personal attacks
- Sockpuppetry to evade bans or to continue personally attacking the person
- Constant fighting even after being asked to stop
Why does this happen?
- During an edit war, people may be convinced they are right, and unwilling to consider otherwise.
- Genuine tension between the two users, not caring whether they insult them or not.
Most of the time insults are used in a heated conflict. They often are ways to end discussions, or a foolish way to try and get their point across.
In other cases, the editor is doing it on purpose, either to distract others from the issue, or simply to drive said user away from the Wiki. Another reason may be to push the other user to the edge where they will say something that will get themselves banned.
General suggestions
Preventing arguments and edit wars
- Prevent edit wars. If you have an edit you disagree with, contact the user who made them, or a third party, or the project where said edit would be underneath.
- Admins may lock certain pages that have edit conflicts with them.
Reducing the impact
- Please do not respond to offensive comments, even if you feel obligated to, or you feel as if you are inferior by not doing so. If you avoid answering them, you prove yourself to be stronger than said person. Forget about the edit, do not escalate the conflict even more. You are letting them win.
- Ignore incivility. It will be dealt with.
Managing incivility
Sometimes, two people may be unwilling to negotiate something that will work for the both of them. In some cases an administrator may need to intervene, but it is best if they do not. A dispute resolution may also be necessary, in which a user would post a discussion on the talk page of a project the edit would be associated with. It is best to clear the issue as soon as possible.