AssumeGoodFaith
Revision as of 20:32, 20 July 2007 by Blake Hinckley (talk | contribs)
Good Faith Never Fails
Assuming good faith is a core value at AboutUs. It means that we act on the assumption that everyone who makes an edit or creates a page is doing so to provide relevant, accurate information. No matter the change, we give people the benefit of the doubt and trust that they have come to build, not break, AboutUs.
We realize that everyone makes mistakes, but the nature of a Wiki makes it easy to correct them. In fact, a wiki cries out for that kind of attention. It's how wiki pages become self-organizing. To assume good faith means that when we find an error and work to correct it, we remember that the person who made the error was also working to improve the resource and build the commons.
Because there is a history of all edits made to AboutUs, it is easy to find edits that constitute vandalism or spam. To assume good faith in the face of evidence to the contrary, we assume that they don't understand the rules or social norms of AboutUs. Perhaps they are excited by the ability to edit, and are unintentionally spamming. We must engage people to try to understand their intent and then explain our standards and acceptable practices.
Check out our editing guidelines on what constitute good edits at this wiki.
Connecting to the Core
AssumeGoodFaith represents a vital link in our core values at AboutUs. By acting openly and honestly in accordance with RealPeople, we demonstrate our good faith in the community. Working to BeABuilder is another manifestation of good faith because we trust the community to move forward with our work and to respect our contribution. AssumeGoodFaith is closest linked to the idea that ItsAboutUs: that wiki-work is community work, and in order to participate in that process you must trust the community.