Author Topic: New Policy for Consensus: Information should be moved, not deleted.  (Read 6323 times)

Zombie Man

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Proposed policy:

If editors find information in an article which they think should not be in that article, they should try to find some other home for that information, even if it means creating a new article. Or, they should ask the editor who placed it their to find a better place for it. That information should not be deleted while waiting for the original editor to move it.

Of course, information not pertinent to the Wiki at all can and should be removed. But if it's information that could be part of the Wiki in some way, it should be moved and not deleted.

eabrace

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Re: New Policy for Consensus: Information should be moved, not deleted.
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2011, 02:22:21 AM »
Proposed policy:

If editors find information in an article which they think should not be in that article, they should try to find some other home for that information, even if it means creating a new article. Or, they should ask the editor who placed it their to find a better place for it. That information should not be deleted while waiting for the original editor to move it.

Of course, information not pertinent to the Wiki at all can and should be removed. But if it's information that could be part of the Wiki in some way, it should be moved and not deleted.

I don't disagree with any of that.

However, keep in mind that if the removal of the information that should remain is part of the same edit that adds or modifies other information in the article, simply hitting the "revert" button is committing the same offense, and is no more excusable.

It would be better to bring the initial offending edit to the attention of an admin to handle rather than putting yourself on the radar for the same offense.
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Zombie Man

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Re: New Policy for Consensus: Information should be moved, not deleted.
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2011, 05:43:49 PM »
I don't disagree with any of that.

However, keep in mind that if the removal of the information that should remain is part of the same edit that adds or modifies other information in the article, simply hitting the "revert" button is committing the same offense, and is no more excusable.

It would be better to bring the initial offending edit to the attention of an admin to handle rather than putting yourself on the radar for the same offense.

Last time I tried to have a discussion about it, but the editor in question didn't partake in the discussion, and a Sysop, you, simply defended him and never acknowledged the problem. So, last time, I had to take a scapel to someone's wholesale deletion of blocks to text and recover them from the edit history.

I want this as a stated policy so that a Sysop will indeed side with 'don't delete it' side of the discussion and the offending editor will know that they are the one that needs to go back and edit correctly rather than someone else having to fix it.

With a policy in place, then it will matter not who did what when. Instead, we just follow the policy.


Sekoia

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Re: New Policy for Consensus: Information should be moved, not deleted.
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2011, 08:51:28 PM »
I do not like the policy Zombie Man proposes. The principle is okay, but I think it's too broad as stated. And frankly, it's addressing two instances of a problem caused by one player (Guy Perfect) and responded to by one other player (Zombie Man). It seems excessive to me to craft such a broad policy simply due to what looks to me to be primarily an interpersonal dispute between two editors.

I propose this more focused policy instead:

    If someone deletes something from an article that you think should be kept, restore that information to the article and open a discussion. That information may not be removed again until consensus is found to remove it. (However, moving it to a different article is permissible.)

That doesn't necessarily mean you should revert. If it's a complex edit, please copy and paste the information in question from an earlier revision so that you're not throwing away other changes, if possible.

TonyV

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Re: New Policy for Consensus: Information should be moved, not deleted.
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2011, 10:54:31 PM »
Or hey, maybe we can just start a Skype or Gtalk conference or something and hash it out?  You'd be amazed what can get done with a little realtime conversation versus post-wait-read response-wait-post...  But in any event, yeah, try to avoid edit wars when possible.  If there's something under your skin, post it here and let's hash it out.  Everybody's hated Guy at some point ;D so I promise there won't be any kind of automatic rush to one side or another, if there's any worry there.