User:Andrewa/lazy

In that all pages belong to the whole project, any user may edit this one. But it's generally more helpful (and polite) to discuss the proposed change on its talk page first.

Child psychologists tell us fairly consistently not to tell a child that they are naughty or bad. Far better to describe the action as bad. And the same applies to laziness, even in Wikipedia. Discuss the contribution, not the contributor.

So, some principles:

• Hard-working people sometimes do lazy things, just as we all sometimes do stupid things and it doesn't mean we're stupid (not necessarily, anyway). Get over it.
  • Don't accuse anyone of being lazy. It's the action that is lazy.
  • If you are accused of a lazy action (or even of being a lazy slob), remember what we're here for. It's not to become famous or even immortal, although that may be a by-product. It's to build an encyclopedia.
• Assume that every contributor's time is valuable, not just yours. It's not true but it's a convenient fiction. It's true nearly all of the time, fortunately.
• Remember we are a collaboration. Not everyone works the same way, and that's good.
  • A contribution doesn't need to be perfect to improve Wikipedia.
  • Reverting should be a last resort, it means at least two editors have spent time on the contribution, for no net gain.
  • Tagging is a little better. It means that Wikipedia may be improved... someday...
  • Fixing the problem is awesome.

For example, removing unsourced text is permissable. Tagging it as unsourced is a little better. Checking the material, and either providing a citation if it's true, or removing it if it's untrue, and explaining your action on the talk page, is awesome.

Many Wikipedians are awesome. Give it a go.

More to follow probably, see the talk page...