How to Assume Good Faith While Patrolling wikiHow

Assuming good faith is a core wikiHow value. New editors quickly get discouraged by well meaning patrollers rolling back edits. When patrolling good faith but somewhat imperfect edits you may come across an edit that you're not sure about. The edit may also have a good and a bad change, such as misspelling a word but adding a legitimate step. Read on to find out how to assume good faith while patrolling.

[edit] Steps

  1. Scan the edit thoroughly. You can't very well determine what a good and bad edit is without reviewing the entire thing. Also note the last version to the left of the Current Version. Did the user remove content, add content, correct mistakes, or make minor edits?
  2. Assume good faith. Try to see how the edit was done in good faith, by an editor who simply didn't know how wikiHow works. Is the edit out of format? Format it. Is misspelled? Correct the spelling. Make the corrections so the new editor can learn how to do it better next time.
    • Resist the temptation to hit rollback on a good faith, but imperfect edit. Instead find a way to perfect the edit by working it into the page in a tidy manner.
  3. Edit it. For example if an edit has mixed good and bad elements such as blanking a good paragraph but correcting spelling in another. Put the paragraph back, but leaved the corrected spelling.
  4. Leave a nice note on the user's talk page welcoming them to wikiHow. Notify that their edit had some imperfections that you fixed , but that you have still included their good contribution to the article.
  5. Resume patrolling wikiHow, to keep the site an open, high quality source of information !


[edit] Tips

  • Rollback edits only as a last resort. Your first option should be to fix imperfect edits. Doing the revert with page history technique can enable you to better pick exactly what you want from the new edit a bit easier than a ham-fisted rollback.
  • Remember the "three-revert" rule. If they continue to revert your edits after you revert theirs, take a time out and leave a message on their talk page and ask a third editor to take a look.
  • Assume that every change is a good edit, but then follow these steps.


[edit] Warnings

  • If you are not positive on what to do, ask for help. You can usually find RC support in the wikiHow IRC channel


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Categories:Patrolling

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SudoKing, Jack H, Rob S
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