UESPWiki:Archive/CP UESPWiki:Etiquette

This is an archive of past UESPWiki:Community Portal discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

UESPWiki:Etiquette

I've written a draft for a proposed revision of UESPWiki:Etiquette, which can be found in my sandbox here.

This draft incorporates some content from the existing etiquette page as well as UESPWiki:You Are Valuable, which is an orphaned policy page that seems to fit with the general content of an article on etiquette.

Please keep in mind that this page is essentially just a list of things I could think of that seemed to be commonly accepted here, plus some advice that is often given to newer users. I would love to know what people think of this article (as a set of guidelines rather than cold hard policy, really), so please leave feedback if you get a chance to look at the page. Thanks! –Eshe^talk 01:02, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Looks good, Eshe. It's certainly a big improvement over the "soon to be replaced" current one that's getting close to 3 years old now. :) You may want to have a look at Wikipedia to see if there's anything there that jumps out at you (though they have so many guidelines it's not funny). Also, one small point that occurred to me in light of recent events is what to do if your conflict is with an Administrator. That would, I assume, be to contact a different Administrator, although even a Patroller or Mentor would probably be sufficient. Of course, in that event, we'd want to also make some allusion to the fact that admin-shopping is not generally a good idea, but maybe that's just getting too rule-heavy. —Robin Hood (Talk • E-mail • Contribs) 06:03, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

I think it is good as well; however, it could be expanded upon. Looking at WP's version, they seem to nip everything in the butt. And maybe we should look at common issues within the wiki here and try to incorporate them into the guideline. –Elliot ^talk 18:13, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

OT, Elliot: That's "nip it in the bud". ;) See Urban Dictionary, for instance. As I recall, it comes from pruning roses or some such thing. —Robin Hood (Talk • E-mail • Contribs) 22:55, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll take a look at the Wikipedia page and see if there's anything there that would be helpful. However, I'd really like to avoid writing a book about etiquette, particularly since I don't think we need anything that extensive.

Regarding the "conflict with an administrator" bit, I did actually have that in mind when I said anyone having a conflict should ask anyone else for help. I don't have any interest in establishing some sort of hierarchy for who can help who. If two administrators are fighting and a patroller steps in, fine. If an admin and a patroller are fighting and a random user helps out, fine. If two IPs are fighting and...well, you see where I'm going with this. It's true that admins can kind of establish a "final say," if you will, if the argument gets to the point where blocks are needed, but I think anybody with a level head should be encouraged to help with conflicts. It's worked incredibly well before, after all ;). –Eshe^talk 23:06, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

@RH Not when you live in the Midwest.

@Eshe We could always set up an Arbitration System with the administrators (and perhaps patrollers if needed), where three uninvolved admins assume the roles of arbitrators to discuss and make a final decision on a conflict. This would obviously be a last resort system, but it could help. –Elliot ^talk 23:23, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

I really don't think we need to make it that official. Considering we've already seen pretty much the whole spectrum of the best and worst in people and handled it well enough, I think setting up something that formal would be overkill. In any case, like I said, I have no interest in forming a hierarchy. Users are users. All users should be awesome at all times. Yes, admins and patrollers tend to help mediate more than others, but it's not a rule and there's no reason for it to be. –Eshe^talk 23:46, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

If two people are fighting, I'd rather have that anyone feels comfortable jumping in to save the day.

As for the etiquette, nice work! I don't think we need to copy all of Wikipedia's items, as that list seems a bit too long. We prefer to allow readers to memorize the points, rather than having to look them up all the time (and make sense of them). --Timenn-<talk> 10:10, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Couldn't agree more ;). Anyway, I made a couple of small revisions to the page (here) since it was originally posted. Much of it is simple rephrasing, but I also added a short bit on IRC and attempted to clarify what we consider to be a personal attack. Again, if there's anything people would like to see changed, just let me know. I'd like to get this up within the next week or so...y'know, before I see something shiny and forget about it ;). –Eshe^talk 15:55, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

Looks good to me. I'm glad we're including ill intentioned sarcasm.--Ratwar 06:18, 29 September 2009 (UTC)