User blog comment:Toby Lee Rogers/Judgements/@comment-8-20180329172608/@comment-8-20180330155615

An example would be someone blanking a page because they think the content is bad. Not knowing that they should correct it rather than blanking.

If that happens, you might need to block for the good of the wiki. But it would be better if you could talk to them and try to understand the situation.

Toby Lee Rogers: you need to use self-control and kindness. You can have a first impression, but be sure to keep in mind that there may be more going on than you see at first glance.

On wikis we say "assume good faith" and "trust but verify".

That means you should try to be kind and thoughtful in your interactions because the person might mean well.

And it means that you should still watch for problems by newbies so that you can fix them and educate them on the wiki's policies (or block if necessary).

Note that this doesn't mean it's okay to stalk established users' contribs to try and dig up drama.