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This page describes one of Xenopedia's policies and guidelines. All users are expected to follow policy, except where it would damage the wiki. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page. |
Editing that is disruptive or otherwise tendentious is not tolerated on Xenopedia.
What is Disruptive Editing?
Disruptive editing is any kind of editing that disrupts the wiki, included but not limited to the following:
- Edit warring (continuing to apply an edit after it has been reverted).
- Adding factually correct but irrelevant information to pages.
- Recreating deleted articles, especially under a different title.
- Refusal to leave edit summaries or use talk pages to explain changes.
- Refusal to follow talk page guidelines (sign your name, indent properly).
- Editing other users' signed comments on talk pages.
- Mechanical or "bot-like" editing (e.g. nominating a "blank" template, that wasn't actually blank, for deletion).
Disruptive editing is considered separate from deliberate vandalism.
Dealing with Disruptive Editing
Editors, both staff and standard users, should be sensitive to an editor's intent. Always assume good faith. If a user is editing in a manner that violates Xenopedia's policy, direct them towards the relevant pages so that they may learn not to make the same mistakes again. If the disruption continues after correction, bring it to the attention of an Administrator.
If a user encounters a disruptive edit, inform the individual responsible in a calm and polite manner on their talk page.
Edit Warring
Edit warring is a specific type of disruptive editing. An edit war occurs when editors who disagree about the content of a page repeatedly override each other's contributions, rather than trying to resolve the disagreement through discussion. Edit warring is unconstructive and creates animosity between editors, making it harder to reach a consensus. Users who engage in edit wars risk being blocked. Note that any editor who repeatedly restores his or her preferred version is edit warring, regardless of whether or not the edits were justifiable: "But my edits were right, so it wasn't edit warring" is no defense.
Situations will inevitably arise where editors have differing views about some aspect of a page's content. When this happens, editors are strongly encouraged to engage in civil discussion to reach a consensus, and not to try to force their own position by combative editing and repeated reverting.
If an edit you made was reverted, do not immediately reinstate it. The user who made the reversion should have given an explanation. Read this explanation and see what they had to say. If you disagree, or if no explanation was given, consider opening a discussion on their talk page to debate the issue. Remember to remain civil — just because an edit you made was reverted, that does not mean the user holds some personal grudge against you, they simply disagree with the changes you made. Provide information to justify your changes, and discuss the matter politely until a consensus is reached.
On Xenopedia, the general solution to a persistent edit war is locking the article for two weeks. Administrators are not forbidden from editing articles they've locked to prevent edit warring, but any edits to that article made during the lock period should be accompanied by either a talk page discussion or at least a detailed and thorough edit summary.