Bahaipedia:Be bold
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Gateway not a destination Bahá’í point of view Verifiability |
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Project scope Article sources Citing sources Copyrights Be bold Manual of Style |
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Be BOLD![edit]
The Bahaipedia community encourages users to be bold in updating articles. Wikis like ours develop faster when everybody helps to fix problems, correct grammar, add facts, make sure the wording is accurate, etc. We expect everyone to be bold. How many times have you read something and thought, "Why aren't these pages copy-edited?" Bahaipedia not only allows you to add, revise, and edit the article — it wants you to do it. It does require some amount of politeness, but it works. You'll see. Also, of course, others here will edit what you write. Don't take it personally. They, like all of us, just want to make Bahaipedia as good as it can possibly be.
… but don't be reckless.[edit]
Though the boldness of contributors like you is one of Bahaipedia's most precious assets, it is important that contributors not edit recklessly. "Being Bold" does not excuse a disregard of Bahaipedia:Verifiability, Bahaipedia:Bahá'í point of view and other Bahaipedia policies and guidelines. But anything you end up doing that turns out badly can be reverted, often quite painlessly. Don't be insulted if that does happen; users sometimes display ownership of the articles they've written, whether intentionally or not. The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle will probably become a factor after a revert.
The unintended consequences of certain significant changes can be more lasting, for better or for worse. This includes changes that are difficult to undo for technical reasons, like renaming articles, creating new categories or other non-article pages, etc. Such edits are often warranted but please be sure you know what you are doing and feel free to ask for advice.
Being bold is generally not a good idea when applying administrative actions like deleting a page or blocking a user.
Also, substantial changes or deletions to the articles on complex, controversial subjects with long histories should be done with extra care. In many cases, the text as you find it has come into being after long and arduous consultation between people of diverse backgrounds and points of view. A careless edit to such an article might lead to misunderstandings. If you would like to make a significant edit to an article on a controversial subject (not just a simple copyedit), it's a useful idea to first read the article in its entirety and skim the comments on the talk page.
Non-article namespaces[edit]
Although it is generally fine to be bold in updating articles, it's easier to cause problems in other namespaces by editing without due care. The admonition "but don't be reckless" is especially important in other namespaces.
Being bold in updating or creating categories and templates can have bad consequences. This is because category changes – and even more so template changes – can affect a large number of pages with a single edit. Templates, moreover, may have complex source code that can easily be broken by untested changes. Because of these concerns, many heavily used templates are indefinitely protected from editing. Before editing templates or categories, consider proposing any changes on the associated talk pages and announcing the proposed change on pages of appropriate WikiProjects.
It is generally recommended that you not edit another user's user page, or comments left on talk pages (other than your own, and even then don't be reckless). Fixing vandalism is nearly always welcome, even on user pages; specific users will let you know if they find your changes inappropriate.
