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The problem

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Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:

While the English Wikipedia is the Wikimedia Foundation's largest project, we are certainly not the only Wikimedia project in existence. In fact, there are currently over 700 active Wikimedia projects! See Special:SiteMatrix for a full list.

Many English Wikipedians serve as administrators of other language Wikipedias, sister projects, Commons, Meta, and Wikidata; some even hold advanced rights such as CheckUser, oversight, and steward. With that being said, there are some English Wikipedians (including admins and even some functionaries) who have made a bit of a faux pas at other Wikimedia wikis, or worse, have flat out behaved poorly to the point where they have been blocked by local administrators. This has tainted our reputation and our standing with other wikis, and because of this, English Wikipedians have to tread lightly when they participate in other wikis, due to those who have gone before them and caused problems.

Ten things to keep in mind when visiting other wikis

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Of course every Wikimedia site is different, but if you keep these ten things in mind, they will help you to understand how other Wikimedia sites work.

  1. The policies are different. Sure, it is true that since we were the first wiki, some policies are imported from us. But many other wikis have consciously chosen to go in a different direction from the English Wikipedia. Sometimes, their methods work better than ours. But going to other wikis, expecting them to work like the English Wikipedia, and then complaining loudly and insulting the local editors (and saying that they're stupid for not working like the English Wikipedia) when you find that their policies are not the same is the quickest way to alienate that wiki, and to risk getting blocked.
  2. Being an English Wikipedia admin does not mean an automatic pass for advanced rights elsewhere. Okay, there are a few rare wikis where it does, such as the test Wikimedia sites. But most Wikimedia sites expect you to edit there for a while before applying for adminship, and show some understanding of local policies. Now, sometimes the requirements will be lower for English Wikipedia admins, and sometimes they will automatically give lesser flags like rollback or autopatrolled just because you are an English Wikipedia admin, but that's not everywhere. Oh, and about global rollback, global sysop, and steward: those have requirements too, even if it seems that an English Wikipedia admin would be overqualified for global rollback (in fact, the ratio of successful to total global rollback requests is below 50 percent!)
  3. Canvassing on the English Wikipedia for discussions taking place on other wikis is usually frowned upon, and is detested on "global" wikis such as Meta, Commons, and Wikidata. Sometimes wikis will have minimum criteria required in order to vote; sometimes bureaucrats or stewards will invalidate votes of canvassed editors; sometimes the votes will be allowed to stand, but engender bad feelings at that wiki towards English Wikipedians.
  4. Being an English Wikipedia admin does not grant you immunity from following local policies, or prevent you from being blocked. In fact, several English Wikipedia administrators have been blocked on other projects, some of them major.
  5. The English Wikipedia is not superior to other Wikimedia wikis, and it does not control other Wikimedia wikis. While we have the most articles, that does not automatically make us "better" than other wikis, and certainly some other wikis do certain things better than we do. Also, we cannot control goings-on at other wikis; we cannot write RFCs on the English Wikipedia that affect other wikis, nor can we request sanctions at other wikis at WP:ANI or WP:AN. Not even the Arbitration Committee can order sanctions to be placed on other wikis, or require other wikis to do something, though of course they can politely make a request and see if that other wiki acts out of their own initiative. Any attempt to change the state of affairs at other wikis should be made (after great consideration, see point number 1) at that wiki, and if that fails, at Meta-Wiki; yet even at Meta, there is only so much that stewards have the mandate to do to resolve a situation, even after local dispute resolution has failed. Oh, and by the way: while global blocks and locks can be requested at Meta, they can only be done in certain situations, per policy; not every troublemaker who gets banned on several wikis can be locked, unfortunately.
  6. When communicating with other users on other projects, keep in mind that they may not watch their English Wikipedia talk page; demanding that they come over to the English Wikipedia to talk to you gets frustrating after a while. Be willing to go to their home wiki, or at least Meta-Wiki; it won't hurt you.
  7. For as much as some English Wikipedians detest IRC, that is how cross-wiki work takes place, such as antispam and countervandalism that spans multiple projects. If you urgently need to get the attention of a steward or global sysop (especially on projects that have no local admins, bureaucrats, CheckUsers, or oversighters), you will have a higher chance of success trying #wikimedia-stewards connect rather than posting on Meta.
  8. Your record follows you. It is just a click away, at Special:CentralAuth and on several tools like sulutil: and luxo:. If you have a bad record on the English Wikipedia, expect it to follow you, and if you misbehave on other projects, expect people to catch wind of it here.
  9. It really is possible to navigate other wikis. This is especially true now that there are global preferences (off Special:Preferences). Moreover, all Special: namespace pages work, regardless of the language; they serve as redirects to whatever the localized name is. For example, Special:ListAdmins, Special:Log/block, etc.
  10. Language difficulties can be overcome. English is the most common language on Wikimedia wikis; on all the big wikis, there are usually several admins who can speak English. If you make a request on the administrators' noticeboard in English, usually someone will be able to assist you, even if the native language is not English. Even at the smaller wikis, someone had to know enough of a language that stewards speak to navigate over to Meta and request adminship; that language is usually English.

Pledge

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I recognize that my method of conducting myself on other projects, good or bad, reflects on my home wiki, the English Wikipedia. Therefore, I endeavor to conduct myself honorably on other Wikimedia projects.

  1. I've written this essay in response to several events, some of them recent, some of them not so recent. These are all events that I've witnessed as a (newer) global editor who serves as an admin on other projects, and who hears about mumblings on other projects. By signing here, I realize that I've definitely made some of the mistakes on this list, so I can't claim that I'm perfect here either. But we can do better, and I can do better. Rschen7754 07:24, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
  2. --Jasper Deng (talk) 09:33, 2 October 2013 (UTC)
  3. Perfection, as Rschen said, isn't possible. Mistakes will be made. However, I will behave myself as well as I can on other wikis. Sidenote: I'm not even completely sure I'm eligible to sign this. My home wiki as defined by the software is Wikidata. :p TCN7JM 01:06, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
  4. While I am not the most active user here, I still do exist here and this is a principal signing really. I have dealt with a Wikipedia administrator who felt they were immune to policies elsewhere and even citied Wikipedia policies to make me the bad guy. Such behaviour is not acceptable and it did badly reflect on the English Wikipedia, in my opinion. You may have immunity from some people in some places, but a block button does not disappear because you think you are immune. It exists, it is used. John F. Lewis (talk) 14:43, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
  5. Well-said. Liz Read! Talk! 12:58, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
  6. Irondome (talk) 00:39, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
  7. Agree; although my home wiki is :ml and I'm mostly active in Commons. JKadavoor Jee 15:14, 15 November 2013 (UTC)
  8. I agree in theory. But given what a ghastly edit-warring place English Wikipedia actually is, would it not be preferable if we behaved just as badly on other Wikis, in the hope that this will deter them from imitating us by adopting the kind of rules and guidelines that have helped to make us what we are? I am of course joking, but many a true word is spoken in jest :) (: Tlhslobus (talk) 23:11, 9 February 2014 (UTC)
  9. Jianhui67 T★C 18:06, 12 July 2014 (UTC)
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