Wikipedia:Avoid personal remarks
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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it. It should be read in conjunction with Wikipedia:Civility policy. |
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The purpose of talk pages is to discuss how to improve articles. If you have opinions about the contributions others have made, feel free to discuss those contributions on any relevant talk page.
But if you have opinions about other contributors as people, they don't belong there — or frankly, anywhere on Wikipedia. Wikipedia prospers on people working together toward improving articles. Anything else – especially attacks directed specifically at users – detracts from the wonderful thing that we are creating here.
Some people feel they must retaliate against – or at least suppress – annoying personal remarks directed against them. But the great writers of bygone years recommend against this (and recall that we all remember the great writers far better than their critics).
[edit] Quotations
Abraham Lincoln wrote:
"If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference." [1]
Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote:
Walter Winchell once consoled a victim of criticism and slander by saying: "Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants." It is a physical impossibility.
