diff --git a/memos/memo-good-faith b/memos/memo-good-faith new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f37578d2bb9ad3b674270dd50e03e7bac4b9a402 --- /dev/null +++ b/memos/memo-good-faith @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +# Good faith + +Good faith is a term used by the Wikipedia community itself. +Most prominently in the phrase "Always assume good faith". + +As I recently learned, apparently this guideline (Gebot!) arose/took such a central position not from the very beginning of the existence of the collaborative encyclopedia. +It rather arose at a time when, after a significant growth in Wikipedia, it wasn't manageable to govern the project (and most importantly fight emergent vandalism which grew proportionally to the project's growth) manually anymore. +To counteract vandalism, a number of automatic measures as applied. +These, however, had also unforseen negative consequences: they drove newcomers away (quote literature) (since their edits were often classified as "vandalism", because they were not familiar with guidelines / wiki syntax / etc.) +In an attempt to fix this issue, "Assume good faith" rose to a prominent position among Wikipedia's Guidelines. + +Today, in vandalism comabting (?), there are cautious guidelines and several escalation levels, before an editor is banned. +Users are urged to use the term "vandalism" carefully, since it tends to ofend and drive people away. +Not all disruptive behaviour is vandalism, the guidelines suggest (quote)