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* Try to say something positive for each complaint you make. A few compliments can proactively smooth feathers and make the author less likely to simply take offense at the criticism. A safe approach is to "sandwich" the complaint between compliments, with something positive at the beginning and end of your commentary. Remember what your mom taught you: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." :-) * Once you are fairly certain the person you're critiquing has seen your complaint (e.g., they've responded to it), be honorable about removing or summarizing it. Sometimes the author will feel reluctant to remove criticism out of fear it will make them appear afraid of criticism. You can go even a step further and thank them for addressing (or at least considering) your issue. * Do not assume that by not complaining, the author "ought to know their work is ok". If you like what you read, tell them so. Typically, people only bother to use /Talk? pages when they have an "issue" with the article, thus automatically giving a negative connotation to them, and making it inevitable for arguments to arise on the pages. Remember that when training an animal (and humans *are* animals), positive reinforcement is vital. If 9 out of 10 monkeys do what you want, in the long term rewarding the nine can do more than punishing the one. Isn't there a fable or saying or something about "the carrot is more powerful than the stick"? * Try posing comments as questions, especially if you're not totally sure. Instead of saying, "Everyone knows abortion is murder of the innocents," you could say, "Isn't abortion just murder of the innocents?" and it comes across as less like pure flamebait, as though you're willing to allow for other points of view. * Limit your statement. Blanket statements or statements asserting the truth of opinions can inflame the reader, and sometimes if you identify it as your own personal point of view, it can help make it seem less insulting to those who disagree. For example, instead of saying, "Isn't abortion just murder of the innocents?" it could be better to say, "Certainly I am not the only person who believes abortion is just murder of the innocents?" In this way, you can still emphasize your strong feelings on the topic, and communicate exactly the same opinion, but do so in a less inflamatory way. * Acknowledge that you understand the other point of view, by showing yourself able to restate it fairly. "I understand that you feel a woman's freedom of choice in the matter of abortion is important, but certainly I am not the only one who disagrees with this and thinks that abortion is just murder of the innocents." * Help in moderating other people's disagreements, when you come across them. Same concept as pulling two people engaged in a fist fight apart. Sometimes just pointing out that the discussion has gotten too heated and that they need to chill out can help a great deal to tone things down and to emphasize that in this community, public verbal sparring is _unacceptable_. "Hey guys, you're going around and around on this abortion debate; it seems illogical that we could solve this issue here on wikipedia when it's been fought over for years. Both of you seem to have strong opinions on this matter -- perhaps we should remove this debate and make room for someone with less bias." * Finally, avoid writing on topics you are overly passionate about. The rule here is to write articles neutrally. It's hard to be unbiased when you're biased. ;-) |
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* Try to say something positive for each complaint you make. A few compliments can proactively smooth feathers and make the author less likely to simply take offense at the criticism. A safe approach is to "sandwich" the complaint between compliments, with something positive at the beginning and end of your commentary. Remember what your mom taught you: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." :-) * Remove or summarise old complaints. Once you are fairly certain the person you're critiquing has seen your complaint (e.g., they've responded to it), be honorable about removing or summarizing it. Sometimes the author will feel reluctant to remove criticism out of fear it will make them appear afraid of criticism. You can go even a step further and thank them for addressing (or at least considering) your issue. * Say nice things when you can. Do not assume that by not complaining, the author "ought to know their work is ok". If you like what you read, tell them so. Typically, people only bother to use /Talk? pages when they have an "issue" with the article, thus automatically giving a negative connotation to them, and making it inevitable for arguments to arise on the pages. Remember that when training an animal (and humans *are* animals), positive reinforcement is vital. If 9 out of 10 monkeys do what you want, in the long term rewarding the nine can do more than punishing the one. Isn't there a fable or saying or something about "the carrot is more powerful than the stick"? * Try posing comments as questions, especially if you're not totally sure. Instead of saying, "Everyone knows abortion is murder of the innocents," you could say, "Isn't abortion just murder of the innocents?" and it comes across as less like pure flamebait, as though you're willing to allow for other points of view. * Limit and qualify your statement. Blanket statements or statements asserting the truth of opinions can inflame the reader, and sometimes if you identify it as your own personal point of view, it can help make it seem less insulting to those who disagree. For example, instead of saying, "Isn't abortion just murder of the innocents?" it could be better to say, "Certainly I am not the only person who believes abortion is just murder of the innocents?" In this way, you can still emphasize your strong feelings on the topic, and communicate exactly the same opinion, but do so in a less inflamatory way. * Acknowledge that you understand the other point of view, by showing yourself able to restate it fairly. "I understand that you feel a woman's freedom of choice in the matter of abortion is important, but certainly I am not the only one who disagrees with this and thinks that abortion is just murder of the innocents." * Help in moderating other people's disagreements, when you come across them. Same concept as pulling two people engaged in a fist fight apart. Sometimes just pointing out that the discussion has gotten too heated and that they need to chill out can help a great deal to tone things down and to emphasize that in this community, public verbal sparring is _unacceptable_. "Hey guys, you're going around and around on this abortion debate; it seems illogical that we could solve this issue here on wikipedia when it's been fought over for years. Both of you seem to have strong opinions on this matter -- perhaps we should remove this debate and make room for someone with less bias." * Finally, avoid writing on topics you are overly passionate about. The rule here is to write articles neutrally. It's hard to be unbiased when you're biased. ;-) |
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Most of the above suggestions can be summarized very succinctly: Be Polite. It's more important (and useful) than you may think. |
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Most of the above suggestions can be summarized very succinctly: Be Polite. It's more important (and useful) than you may think. |
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