| See also Terms of Use |
| See also Content Standards |
| See also Editorial Policy |
These guidelines are the courtesy and interaction code for all WiserEarth users. If you have any questions or would like to add to these guidelines, please post your comments at the bottom of this page.
WiserEarth shares information across geography, culture, and language. We encourage individuals and groups from different parts of the world to contribute their knowledge to the WiserEarth 'digital commons' (WISER Platform) and to work together so that we can become more intelligent and humane in our practices and more effective in our use of resources.
Be Polite and Civil
Remember that the WiserEarth community consists of people from all over the world with different native languages and varying degrees of technical knowledge. Please be polite and civil with other people and assume good faith at all times.
Question
We encourage active discussion around any subject that may be of interest to you. We also support comments, questions and discussions relating to the organizations, resources, events, and activities featured on WiserEarth. However, we ask that your comments relate directly to the page of content you are commenting on.
WiserEarth comprises a myriad of individuals and groups working on many different issues relating to ecological and social restoration. Should somebody else have motivations that conflict with your values or ideals, please do not attack them. While we have different motivations and agendas, overall we share similar principles about the necessity for fairness and equity for all partaking of the Earth's systems.
Do Not Infringe Copyright
WiserEarth is a free, community-driven website based on open source software protocols which means that anyone can use or modify the content and resources included on the site. Submitting resources (beyond reference) or content which are not yours will infringe copyright and may incur legal problems. It will also limit our ability to share and redistribute content and features across the community.
Build Community and Visibility
The success of WiserEarth is based on an active user community. Encourage your friends, colleagues, and associates to become involved, network with others, and help us build awareness and visibility of this amazing movement. You can do so by linking back to the site. Give feedback whenever you can.
Write From a Neutral Point of View
Write from a neutral point of view. This means that there must be no incentivized or 'paid for' content on WiserEarth. This includes buzz marketing or other artificial marketing activities. Neutral does not mean 'without feeling'; you may feel very strongly about a particular cause, but your writings must not be incentivized in any way.
Community Guideline Infringement
Repeated infringements of these community guidelines will result in the deactivation of your account.
Comments (1 - 3 of 3)
|
|
Glad to see someone starting a discussion around our guidelines.
I think the 'Question' part of the guidelines already encourage discussions (which by definition should cover critiques/disagreement to an idea?). The "clearly exhibit goodwill" should also be covered by the "Be Polite and Civil" part? --> "Please be polite and civil with other people and assume good faith at all times."
I think the issue is not so much in the critique-ing/disagree-ing (which is human nature and a social necessity, and thus, common to all cultures?), but more in the style/language/manner of doing so? Perhaps we should modify the 'Question' part instead? I wonder what others think... |
|
It might be important to be more clear about the guideline for being polite. Some people, depending on culture and upbringing, might feel that it is impolite to openly critique someone's ideas. However, avoiding meaningful critique is not very conducive to a free, open, and productive discussion of issues. Perhaps it should be made clear that clear and direct critique is not being discouraged. Here's a place where this issue came up. (Of course, it is always easy to dance around issues and never bring up a ping of discord, but is that an efficient or productive way to discuss something?)
I suggest adding something like the following sentence to the Be Polite and Civil section. "To help cultivate understanding and friendship in the WiserEarth community, try to clearly exhibit goodwill when you feel you need to provide a clear and direct critique of an idea." |
Hi, thanks for this suggestion Bret. A great point of discussion.
I agree that 'politeness' (politesse) can be difficult to define and is the product of the culture that you grow up in. For example, in France (where I currently live), it is very normal to have an opposite opinion to someone else and to debate one's different opinions (as opposed to the US, where Americans (sorry about the cultural generalization but this is my experience) tend to (but not always) look for points of similarity between each other. In fact, the tendency in France is to often start a conversation around a debate over something.
However this begs the question whether being polite means that you are "avoiding meaningful critique'. However, I see a critique and being polite as 2 separate things. Indeed, I see this all the time in France where the French (again, sorry to generalize - but this is based on my experience) tend to be extremely polite and civil yet can have diametrically opposing opinions on something and still end up being friends at the end of the day.
I would add that in any social environment (regardless of nationality), erring on the side of being polite and civil is always going to be the best approach in an online community such as this one.
What are other people's opinions on this one?