User:Littleolive oil/Civility artifacts

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[edit] Civility artifacts

Kirill Lokshin on civility and professionalism [1]

Civility from Civility discussion page: Sunray, Dreadstar, GTBacchus, Olive [2]

Discussion Low Sea on respectful treatment:[[3]]

[edit] On Civility and lies

I think most of us think of ourselves as standing outside of Wikipedia right now trying to fix the problems, trying to make it work well. Now turn that inside out or "inside in" and put us all, all of the editors, inside Wikipedia. We are now Wikiepdia, Wikipedia's "heart", and as that heart we create the articles. Wikipedia flows outwards from us and that heart. We are also, the problems. Outside of Wikipedia, we can allow ourselves to be separate from the problems, and from each other. We can isolate ourselves, and our thinking. Inside of Wikipedia we are the functioning unit, and are responsible for having created whatever happens in the encyclopedia including its problems. This isn't a physical shift obviously. This is a shift in our own way of seeing ourselves in relation to Wikipedia and in our habitual ways of thinking.

At the heart of the encyclopedia are also the hearts of the editors. At the risk of sounding trite, damage one heart and you damage the whole. If we think as Wikipedia as a whole that gives rise to the parts of the encyclopedia,that's the picture. The heart of the encyclopedia, and the hearts of the editors are influenced by every single aspect that protects or damages it. Damage one heart in any way, and lies of any kind are a lack of openness in the heart, and you damage the whole. Does an editor who lies, for any reason, whether the lie is found out or not, experience damage in his or her own heart? Possibly the editors who deal with the lie can also be damaged, and that damages the whole larger heart of Wikipedia. This isn't just about lies obviously, but is about anything that damages or supports.

You can't tell people this necessarily. Many would scoff, but you can begin to shift the paradigm, by saying lets look at ourselves as the functioning "heart" inside of, and of, this encyclopedia, and not as on lookers looking in.

This paradigm is becoming known in other collaborative environments, and is an obvious movement toward the better functioning of a global sustainable world where we are connected to each other, and to the world we are destroying/creating.

Parameters then have to be as holistic as we can make them, I suspect, and based on the sense that every editor is an important functioning internal aspect of the encyclopedia just because each is inside there with us. Each editor is an integral part of the heart. We have to begin to design parameters based on this paradigm, it seems to me.