CZ:Professionalism

The Citizendium differs significantly from other online communities in its low tolerance for incivility and disruption. It is essential, for there to be efficient content production and motivated contributors, that authors (i.e., everyone playing the author role) treat each other, and each other's work, respectfully.

The importance of civility to the success of this project is such that uncivil and disruptive behavior can be quite quickly punished with banning. See Constabulary Blocking Procedures.

Use the talk page

A great many problems could be avoided if people were to use the "talk" pages--i.e., the pages you arrive at by pressing the "discussion" tab--before making any potentially controversial changes.

Rudeness and personal attacks

The victims of ongoing bad treatment, such as rudeness or personal attacks, do not have to tolerate this behavior. This is not behavior we would tolerate from colleagues in a face-to-face situation; we will not tolerate it on the Citizendium, either.

How to respond

Most of us are polite, so much so that we are willing to put up with considerable abuse without much of a reaction. It is too easy to be inured to such treatment and tolerate it uncomplainingly, or learn to respond in kind. We wish to nip the problem in the bud, however. It is essential that, rather than escalating the situation, you report your difficult situation to the constabulary (a mail to constables@citizendium.org will do the trick), and respond to poor behavior collegially. Please do "take the law into your own hands" by criticizing others for their poor behavior. Constables may replace criticism, even perfectly justifiable criticism, with the {{nocomplaints}} template, which reads:

A comment here was deleted by The Constabulary on grounds of making complaints about fellow Citizens. If you have a complaint about the behavior of another Citizen, e-mail constables@citizendium.org. It is contrary to Citizendium policy to air your complaints on the wiki. See also CZ:Professionalism.