Misplaced Pages

:Call a spade a spade - Misplaced Pages

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JzG (talk | contribs) at 18:40, 30 November 2006 (duck test). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 18:40, 30 November 2006 by JzG (talk | contribs) (duck test)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Essay on editing Misplaced Pages
This is an essay.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.		Shortcut
  • ]
It's not a "non-agricultural manual earth-turning implement"

Users too often cite policies, like our policy against personal attacks and our policy against incivility, not to protect themselves from personal attacks, but rather to protect their edits from review.

Users who consistantly engage in disruptive editing are disruptive editors. Users who consistently push a POV are POV pushers. Users who consistently vandalize are vandals. There is no need to dress up the way we address such users. While we must remain civil, calling a spade a spade is part of a reliable editor's job.

This, on the other hand, is not a spade, and may be offended by being called a spade

Note, however, that although it is generally not uncivil or a personal attack to do so, calling a spade a spade may not be the most productive course.

First, it is possible that you might be mistaken. For example, many editors make accusations of vandalism regarding good faith edits. While those edits may be objectionable for a host of other reasons, incorrect accusations may harm your long term prospects of working constructively with the editor with whom you disagree.

Second, even in cases where you are correct about another user, accusations of POV pushing, tendentious editing, bad editing, and the like, while perfectly correct, may nevertheless lead to sufficient antagonism that constructive collaboration becomes impossible. While there is no policy against calling a spade a spade in most cases, consider whether civility, even if unearned, may help meet your goals.

The duck test

This line of thinking is sometimes referred to as "the duck test" after the aphorism If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck...

Category: