English Wikipedia's community comprises editors from around the world, offering diverse viewpoints, experiences, and knowledge in service of creating a general encyclopedia with broad coverage. Its success relies on editors working collaboratively to add new content and edit each others work to evolve and improve its articles. It is essential that the community supports productive collaboration between its members. To achieve this, there must be an underlying framework of respect among all participants.
Respect is multi-faceted edit
An essential element for successful co-operation is for each person to feel valued for their efforts. Editors should be able to disagree in good faith and still feel that their time and contributions are appreciated. Although a lot of people focus on using constructive language, respect extends beyond words and includes many aspects, such as the following:
- Respect for the time of others. For example:
- making a concerted effort to be up-to-date on discussions when making a comment
- copy editing one's remarks to be concise
- avoiding comments that aren't germane to the discussion at hand
- being understanding if no one responds to your inquiries
- considering how your actions affect the time spent by others on Wikipedia. For example, avoid instituting change that create unwanted tasks for others without significant justification and community consensus
- Respect for the collaborative process. For example:
- giving others the opportunity to consider your comments and to reply
- complying with consensus agreements, including their spirit. Don't look for loopholes in community processes or guidelines to circumvent community wishes.
- being understanding when others are imprecise in their wording or otherwise fall short of crafting a perfect response
- allowing editors with a common set of interests to decide for themselves how to organize their tasks, when it does not impose upon you
- Respect for the views of others. For example:
- avoiding comments that disparage the reasoning abilities of others. Genuine disagreement is a frequent, normal event. Many disagreements arise because of different underlying assumptions, not because one view is wrong.
- being willing to accommodate the language preferences of others; however, also being understanding of those who don't remember your personal preferences
Giving respect is beneficial for everyone edit
It's easy to think that persons X and Y aren't respectful of, say, my time so why should I be respectful of theirs?
- Acting with respect sets the standard by which you and everyone else will be treated
- Remaining respectful provides a path to depersonalize and thus de-escalate disputes. Disrespecting others is an arms race as people ratchet up the insults. Staying considerate of others untriggers the trap.
Being respectful doesn't mean you have to let others take advantage of your good faith. You can still disagree vehemently or otherwise not get along. You can be frank about your opinions without belittling others.