Forum:How do we respect others point of view on a central wiki

I ask this question since this is a central point in which all wikis come for answers. The solution is mostly code to give crats, admins, and users to use on thier wiki. The smarter ones search for answers to questions that are close to what they seek. The more bold ones (who actually ask questions) are the ones who get beat down because they don't know the answer.

The biggest problem is that the ones that have the knowledge do not and will not emphasize with what a wiki might be going through. Instead a judgement can be made. Even though the actual question might be answered, it can be answered in such a sarcastic form that people will not really want to participate in this community central.

Is this what we really want as a community? The prime example is here. Are we to really treat others that come to this community asking for help in such a way? Or can we say as a community that this is sarcastic vandalism?

I for one do not think that we should treat those that come to this community asking for help in such a manner.

This is just my opinion, and I would like to hear what the community thinks about disrespecting wikis that could be considered vandalism. 13:39, June 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't understand your point, especially with the link to the forum you referenced. The user who answered gave an example template in reply, he didn't say anyting that would imply sarcasm in my mind. --  Random Time  13:58, June 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * Best, the user likely used 'Blah blah' as a placeholder for where text should be inserted. -- BobNewbie  ∞(Talk)∞  14:12, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

I would have taken offense at the bla bla bla bla bla bla BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA bla bla bla bla bla BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA More BLA BLA BLA remark, maybe it is just a standard on this wiki to do that, I have no idea. Either way, it is not a good thing to negate what someone is trying to say. If it is standard practice then I would not call it vandalism, however, I would at least make you think why it IS standard practice. 14:15, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

Edit conflict: Bob, I realize that now, however, it might not be the best way to greet someone. 14:15, June 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * "You mean something like this?" doesn't seem like a rude, sarcastic or unkind greeting at all. BobNewbie   ∞(Talk)∞  14:19, June 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * I think the "blah blah blah" made it very clear that it was "filler text" - I have no idea why you'd think that using something like that would be considered vandalism --  Random Time  14:20, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

Ok, since I got offended, I have checked the history of the author, and already come to some of the conclusions that you have. I am not extremely familiar with wiki jargon and did not know that bla bla bla means. Thus being said, bla bla bla could mean many things to many people. I was actually thrown off by capitalizing of the BLA BLA BLA after the lower case bla bla bla. To me, it seemed like the author was being very sarcastic. I realize that this is not the case, however, I do know for sure that the capitalization was totally unnecessary, which threw me off in the first place.

It seems that an accepted wiki jargon can be taken wrong (if only by me). Should we push for something better? or just let people find out that it is part of wiki? 14:35, June 21, 2011 (UTC) We have a lot of 'standard practices' which we don't write down becuase they are that obvious. Of course 'blah' is placeholder text, just like pointless blogs should be deleted (but I'm not going there now). Best Robot, may I suggest that you just 'go with the flow', instead of questioning everything that isn't documented in policy. Everyone else doesn't, and it works just fine. People pick thigs up as they go along, they don't need policy to tell them things. (Rant over)
 * I don't think this is an issue. "Blah blah blah" and so on is commonly held to be a substitution for some length of words. No offence, but I think this was simply you misinterpreting the answer you recieved. Simply assume good faith next time around.  Nayayen &mdash; TALK  15:17, June 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * No offense, but you seem to read into things way too much.
 * Agreeing with the above often people when using examples ie templates use blah blah blah because there is no point in using up time and in the template do you expect the helpful user who gave a fellow user in need help to create a whole essay to fit in an example template
 * Agreeing with the above often people when using examples ie templates use blah blah blah because there is no point in using up time and in the template do you expect the helpful user who gave a fellow user in need help to create a whole essay to fit in an example template

--Tama63 Talk Twitter 15:28, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

Commentary
This is more of an aside than directly responding to the topic of the thread...

This forum is basically a way for Wikia to use the labor of the community as a voluntary support resource for other members of the community. The many helpful people here who often give extensive answers and multiple responses do so out of their desire to help the community. The people asking questions need to remember, they are the ones asking for help. If an answer doesn't suit their needs or isn't delivered in a fashion they like, they are perfectly free to go somewhere else for support.

Those of us who try to help people and answer their questions are limited by the information Wikia gives us or allows us to glean. Special:Contact is always available to those Wikia users who want support directly from Wikia.

All that said, it is fine to point out when any forum poster is being harassing, impolite, or rude, but one should not expect a higher standard of behavior from those who answer questions compared to those who ask questions unless they are Wikia staff (who I believe should be held to a standard of professionalism, since most are being paid by Wikia). If you really want, I can dig up many forum posts where the askers were being quite impolite, rude, or not following the basic guidelines asked above the forum list.

/rant. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 21 Jun 2011 1:56 PM Pacific

Yes, it was a misinterpretation. I often stick my foot in my mouth :D no biggy.

I realize that it is more or less common practice to replace text with bla bla bla (although I did not before).

It is an interesting (to me) turn of thoughts though... The use of bla bla bla CAN be misinterpreted as "Used to refer to something that is boring or without meaningful content".

I am not overly concerned about it. But, at least, I can say that would probably be better.

There is no way to change common practice, however, those that wish to change their own practice now has something to think about.

The whole "perfectly free to go somewhere else" thing would be coming from someone who doesn't care?

I personally wish to grow and include others as much as possible.

That might just be me though :D 08:39, June 22, 2011 (UTC)