Wikipedia talk:Assume good faith: Difference between revisions

Voting

Moved to Wikipedia:Assume good faith/Vote

Why I am against this policy

I left the following comment on the voting page:

I'm echoing Ta bu shi da yu's criticism, except I am rather pessimistic about the abusability of this rather Panglossian rule. For an example, if a series of POV edits appear on David Irving, eulogising his skills as a historian and putting down his court defeats as part of the global left-wing conspiracy, I am not going to assume good faith, and I will not appreciate well-meant Wikipedia rules directing me to do so, particularly if, say, the edits are from an IP address listed on various anti-fascist blacklists. Be civil might be the name of a constructive policy, but policies telling me how to think are not constructive. ---- Charles Stewart 14:26, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

"Trust, but verify." (Old Russian saying, via Ronald Reagan.) "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst." "Treat people as you would wish to be treated." -Willmcw 00:27, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC)

I find it helps to think of the policy as a nicer way of phrasing "never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity." Remember that at least trolls know they're trolls; the dedicated crank doesn't understand they're a crank.

Also, "assume good faith" doesn't mean "to the point of self-imposed idiocy" - David Gerard 22:04, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Nor, one hopes, does it mean "assume you're a troll" either. Dr Zen 02:59, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

There's supposed to be a margin of reasonable doubt. Remember that we're all communicating with plain-text, and even bold and italics don't quite help convey what you're trying to say or do. Therefore you have to choose the "wrong" side with any misunderstanding. If the user was not intending it like that after all you won't feel badly for accusing them, and if their wrongdoing escalates you can stop being so forgiving and sort out a block or ban. Either way, the truth soon surfaces. And I'd say many cases of "questionable good faith" are just a user being overly bold or overlooking a rule or two, a case of recklessness rather than malevolence. Master Thief Garrett 15:54, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

12.73.201.107's recent edits

This User seems to have edited with an agenda in mind. I suggest someone else rewrite their addition rather than simply reverting it. Master Thief Garrett^Talk 02:12, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Proposal on Stalking

I would like to propose that a section be added to this guideline to resolve a recurring problem on Wikipedia and in light of recent precedents on the subject. This section should address the issue of editor "stalking" on wikipedia, applying to cases where a particular editor chooses to intentionally follow another editor around wikipedia in a harassing manner. Behavior of this type was initiated the infamous User:The Recycling Troll case in March 2005 [1] and was ultimately stated as the reason to hardban this user by Jimbo Wales, who resolved the case.[2] According to Wales "the Recycling Troll was making a pest of himself by harassing RickK," [3] who he was following around Wikipedia with the purpose of making edits - including mostly minor ones - to work completed by RickK. During the course of this dispute it was concluded that stalking of this type constituted "disruptive behavior" even when most of the stalker's edits were minor and inconsequential, and that it breached the good faith assumption by singling out an editor and subjecting his edits to harassment. Given this notable precedent, a guideline discouraging stalking seems to be appropriate. I am further suggesting this guideline from personal experience, having been the target of another editor's stalking behavior myself during the past few months. I believe that the drafting of a guideline would help to resolve this and other cases of stalking on wikipedia that have the adverse effects of disrupting the encyclopedia, subjecting victimized editors to undue harassment, and fostering an unfriendly and hostile environment. Thank you for your consideration. - Rangerdude 5 July 2005 19:31 (UTC)

ADDED: Please note that this proposal is for an additional Wikipedia guideline - not a Wikipedia policy. Sorry if there was any confusion, & thanks for your consideration. Rangerdude 5 July 2005 20:30 (UTC)

Rough Draft Proposal

Wiki-Stalking - Due to the nature of wikipedia's collaborative process, it is not uncommon that editors will repeatedly encounter other editors who share similar editing interests. Furthermore, wikipedia's editing tools permit users to view a history contributions made to the encyclopedia by fellow editors. This feature is often a valuable and useful tool for wikipedians to interact with their colleague editors, but like any other editing feature it should not be abused. While using this tool within reason is permitted, stalking other editors is generally frowned upon. Wiki-stalking entails an evidenced distinctive editing pattern in which one user intentionally follows another editor around wikipedia. Wiki-stalking is problematic as it typically violates the good faith assumption mandate by subjecting the targetted editor to harassment and unmerited scrutiny. It is considered disruptive to wikipedia even when the wiki-stalker's edits are minor, and often has the undesired effect of fostering undue hostility between editors within wikipedia's collaborative framework.

What Wiki-Stalking is -

• A distinctive editing pattern in which one editor continuously and repeatedly follows another editor between multiple articles over an extended period of time and a wide variety of unrelated subjects for the purpose of making excessive "followup" changes to the original editor's work.
• Stalking behavior can occur when the "followup" edits are both major and minor. Stalkers often make visibly disruptive changes to the edits of their subject, including vandalism, deletion of legitimate content, and reversions without reason. Minor edits, however, can also be construed as stalking when excessive and exhibited in a distinctive editing pattern that indicates their author is following another editor. This can include even minor wikilinking, grammatical changes, and unnecessary rewordings if the pattern is consistently aimed at the stalker's subject, and thus harassing to that editor.

Some editing patterns that may suggest stalking -

• Repetitive and recurring non-chance encounters with the same editor over multiple different articles
• Repetitive and recurring non-chance encounters with the same editor on multiple articles of unrelated subject matter
• Repetitive and recurring "followup" changes to an editor's work that are made within a few moments, hours, or days of the original edits over multiple articles.

What Wiki-Stalking is NOT -

• Chance repeat encounters between two or more editors on articles of common interest between them. Many wikipedians share in a wide range of interests and thus will likely encounter each other more than once on a common subject.
• Repeat encounters between editors on articles of an unrelated subject where the encounter is a chance event, or where a "followup" edit is not a recurring and repetitive pattern of behavior covering multiple articles over the course of several weeks or even months.
• Following an editor engaged in a pattern of disruption and vandalism to existing article text, other bad faith editing practices, or other violations of Wikipedia policy, for the purpose of correcting the damage done by that editor.
• Viewing another editor's contributions page for informational purposes and to assist in good faith collaborative contributions to wikipedia.

Wikipedians who feel that they are being "stalked" by another editor are encouraged to politely address their concern with that editor. Sometimes an editor may be unaware that his or her edits are being perceived as stalking, or create an uncomfortable editing environment for another, and simply addressing this concern can resolve the issue.

Precedents

• Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/David_Gerard,_Neutrality,_Cyrius
• Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-03-14/Recycling Troll

Comments

Please post and sign editor comments here

• Sometimes good cases make bad precedent. There's nothing inherently wrong with checking up on a particular editor's contributions. Many RC patrollers do so often because behind a bad edit one often finds many more. And many editors, once they become aware of a novel POV promulgated by a particular user will check to see if the same POV is present in related articles. There are certain editors that I watch very closely and I doubt if I am alone in this regard. The "Recycling Troll" never made any substantive contributions to the project, and so there was nothing to lose by banning him; I believe that the ban was motivated by the overall pattern of participation not merely the "stalking" aspect of it, and I doubt if Jimbo intended to create any sort of broader policy. The Uninvited Co., Inc. 5 July 2005 20:01 (UTC)

• TRT actually did make many useful edits. Minor corrections mostly, but positive. What freaked RickK and others out was simply that TRT followed Rick's edits almost article-by-article. The whole thing was blown out of proportion and a clear example of why you shouldn't feed trolls. -- Netoholic @ 5 July 2005 20:14 (UTC)

• The key here is that TRT's edits, though useful in some cases, weren't substantive. Was it blown out of proportion? Perhaps. As for "you shouldn't feed trolls," I personally have found that to be a highly ineffective strategy, and the available sociological analysis agrees. The Uninvited Co., Inc. 5 July 2005 21:06 (UTC)

• UninvitedCompany - Thank you for your comments. Part of my intent here is to separate and distinguish between legitimate simple cross-checkings not unlike those you likely reference and the abusive cases of stalking in which an editor is singled out for following not because of anything wrong or problematic with the edits he or she makes but rather due to who they are. You are certainly correct that there's a time and place for a certain degree of cross checking and that should be reflected in the guideline. Stalking, however, is still a problem that should be dealt with in some fashion as it occurs when editors take things above and beyond simple legitimate cross checking edits. "Recycling Troll" did that and indeed his main pattern of participation that got him banned seems to have been stalking RickK. Sadly there are plenty of others like him on wikipedia who do the same thing, and as a result end up driving away decent editors and disrupting good faith attempts to develop and expand the encyclopedia. Also note that this proposal is intended to create a guideline that discourages the abusive forms of following editors around that constitute stalking, not a policy that prohibits following other editors in general. This was done intentionally and I invite any suggestions you or others may have to make this distinction better represented in the proposal. Thanks again. Rangerdude 5 July 2005 20:28 (UTC)

• While I understand your intent and can sympathize with your concern and with the case of TRT and RickK in particular, I believe that the problem is one of proper management of problem users rather than a problem of "stalking" in particular. TRT was an obvious sock, because by their editing pattern it was clear that they had been here before. TRT was also smart enough to game the system and avoid any bright-line rules violations. My view is that when an obvious sock shows up and starts harrassing a long-time user, we should respond quickly and decisively regardless of the means of harrassment. As written, your proposal is wide open to abuse by ruleslawyering users whose weak edits are being checked and reverted by seasoned Wikipedians with similar areas of interest. The Uninvited Co., Inc. 5 July 2005 21:06 (UTC)

Would you mind proposing revisions, or an alternative, then that you believe would avoid ruleslawyering abuse? I would not be opposed to adding a section stating to the effect that sourced and legitimate checks of weak edits are not stalking when done within reason (and I qualify that "within reason" as like everything else, even seasoned editors can become abusive if they take things above and beyond a reasonable level - e.g. biting the newbies and chasing otherwise potential editors away from wikipedia). Also, the fact that this is a guideline on etiquette etc. that editors should follow rather than a policy should substantially limit ruleslawyering. The problem is, and TRT's case illustrates this, that often simply managing problem users as they emerge isn't enough and it's a pain to have to go through arbitration etc. for each and every similar case just to get a simple, common sense result of stopping them. IOW, the strongest means to problem user management is to clearly define what's acceptable and what's not. It's a simple matter of being able to differentiate between the good and the bad. Right now there's very little in terms of guidelines that sufficiently do that in stalker cases, and as a result problem users slip through and do far more damage than should've ever been the case - especially when they are skilled at drawing the entire thing out through arbitration etc. By defining the issue more clearly we can avoid future situations of this sort. Thanks again. Rangerdude 5 July 2005 21:38 (UTC)

A problem with this proposal is that it assumes bad faith on the part of the accused stalker. That seems entirely at odds with the overarching policy. It goes to the intent of the user, which is unknowable, rather than the value of the edits themselves. We already have a policy about personal attacks that covers incivility. If being simply being corrected is harassment then everybody on Wikipedia is continually harassed. If an editor is making substantive contributions in a civil manner it should not matter what articles are being edited. -Willmcw July 5, 2005 22:00 (UTC)

Revisions

Please post and sign revisions, changes, or alternate versions to the draft above here