User blog:PyroNacht/What Constitutes As A Good Edit?

''Hi guys! So, lately, I was going through my older contributions on my home Wiki- we're talking basically 2012-2013 here. Anyway, so I was going through some of my edits, and I realized that many users share a similar situation to mine: they were either reverted or modified often, sometimes even removed completely in later times. I know some people have the habit of taking these circumstances personally, so why not write a blog about it?''

What Is Editing?

 * When you edit on your Wiki, what do you usually do? Do you find yourself adding a citation to a previously-unknown mention with a needed source? Do you find yourself reverting edits of mass vandals? Or maybe even, do you find yourself placing your own input on discussion and whatnot? Either way, regardless of what you are doing, you are still contributing to your Wiki in some form. I wrote a blog about different ways of contributing a while back, but today, I wanted to go over the specifics of editing.

Why Do We Edit?

 * Many people often ask me, for instance, why I write so many blogs. Whenever people on Central mention my blogs, I'm always questioned as to why I do what I do. And that goes hand-in-hand when it comes to editing. I don't write all these massive blogs simply because I get passionate over small topics (although that's a piece of the puzzle). I write the blogs I write primarily because I've been told it helps others. But in a sense also, helping others helps me as well, considering the nature of my individuality. So, essentially, I edit because I find not only a form of peace in doing so, but also because it emphasizes that I'm involved and I want the best for a particular community.

Modifying An Edit

 * I used to get extremely bothered whenever people modified- especially removed- my edit. In some scenarios, my edits were minor tweaks of what I believed was better wording, but somebody else disagreed. As time has gone on, I've come to accept that edit warring is not necessarily the answer, because truth is, we all have our own opinions as to what constitutes as a good edit. For instance, a couple of users I know (myself included) enjoy writing pages and pages of a book summary, whereas others will do anything they possibly can to condense the article.


 * That is perfectly okay. We all have our own personal thoughts regarding what an edit should be. However, what is more important is that we remember that we are all collaborating in developing a better article for the community we care about. Of course, people will always defend their opinions and edits, but like I said in a previous blog post, we need to remember that other people have their own free minds. We cannot control their thought process, but we can learn to understand it and adapt.

In Conclusion

 * Do not take the reversion of your edits personally!
 * Remember that helping the community can be done in different ways.