User blog:LostInRiverview/My guidelines

I've been thinking a bit about what, in my own opinion, should be de facto policies of this wiki. Consider them my personal guidelines, if you will... these are in no particular order.


 * There is such a thing as too much debate. I love how so many TSWers are willing to have discussions about actions before getting into edit wars. However, I feel this is getting a bit out of control, for three reasons.
 * People are debating things which really don't need debate. If you feel a page or a feature should exist, then create it! You have the power! If the community hates it, you'll know. It's better to apologize for being bold than to wait and ask for permission.
 * Regular users are debating things which they shouldn't debate. This is a touchy one, since it's important that we keep user-admin relations as positive as possible. However, I think it's really in bad practice to have users commenting on the nominations of people for rollback and admin positions - My feeling is that the decision of picking new personnel belongs to the Bureaucrats alone, based on their own judgment (Bureaucrat selection is obviously different). Even worse, in my opinion, is the idea that users can go around saying negative things about users who have been given rights. To this I say that if a user has abused their position, a bureaucrat should be notified, but rights should not be revoked for trivial reasons.
 * Users are becoming upset when users act boldly. Again, this goes back to it being better to act bold and to apologize, than to wait for someone to agree with you. Please, if you see a discussion about something that, to you doesn't need much discussion, consider that you don't have to discuss everything. If, on the other hand, you act and someone reverts your edit citing a need for discussion, kindly accept that and enter into a discussion.


 * We don't need to be critical of each other. This is meant to be a casual community of people working together, not tearing each other apart! If you have an issue with someone's grammar or personal activities, discuss it with them calmly and try to help, rather than posting all over the wiki how users have bad grammar, spelling, or otherwise don't deserve user rights.


 * Keep non TSW stuff OFF TSW. This one's obvious; The Sims Wiki has enough drama as it is, and we don't need more of it spilling over from other Wikis and other communities. Even on user talk pages, it becomes a distraction and leads to negativity. In short, if you have an issue with someone else on a different wiki, don't talk about it here.


 * Please PLEASE be smart with featured articles! Seriously, Sarah Crittur is not Featured Article material. The purpose of the Featured article is NOT to pick your favorite Sim, game, neighborhood, pet, etc. - its purpose is to choose WELL-WRITTEN ARTICLES! 


 * Other pet peeves. I really wish when users would leave comments on talk pages that they would make use of the colon indent system. Allow me to demonstrate:

Hi. This is Tom. -- Tom(talk)
 * Hello Tom. -- JimBob(talk)
 * Hello as well, Tom! -- Suzy(talk)

...produces this:

Hi. This is Tom. -- Tom(talk))
 * Hello Tom. -- JimBob(talk))
 * Hello as well, Tom! -- Suzy(talk))

Otherwise, the talk pages end up looking like a huge mess... such as this:

Hi. This is Tom. -- Tom(talk)) Hello Tom. -- JimBob(talk)) Hello as well, Tom! -- Suzy(talk))

It's much much worse when looking at real conversation on talk pages, but I hope you see what I mean.


 * Not everything needs to be voted on. This hinges on one core fact - The Sims Wiki is not a democracy. This also is somewhat connected to my points regarding over-debate of some issues. Voting should be used only when it is apparent that there is not community consensus and it's equally apparent that there is no way to compromise in order to reach consensus. Even in those cases it's customary to wait a while before starting a vote - a good rule of thumb is at least 2 weeks from the start of discussion, so that all viewpoints can be heard. I've made a point of deleting unnecessary votes due to our policies as they already exist, which stipulate that votes shouldn't start until ample time is given to discuss.

Other than that, I really don't have much else to add. I'll maybe add to this list as more things irritate me come to mind.

Thanks for reading -  LostInRiverview talk · blog 06:07, October 14, 2010 (UTC)