User:Valjean/Draft



Due to stalking of my user space and draft creation of articles and other research I do in my user space, I'm working on a policy-based approach to the problem

This is for a section at Harassment.

Generalization of userspace
With certain exceptions, covered here and other places, editors have wide latitude in how they use their user pages, including all subpages, talk pages, sandboxes, archives, notes, research dumps, essays, drafts, and other content in their userspace. Wikipedia is not a free web host, but the process of building an encyclopedia entails the creation of user "office" pages to organize their thoughts and collaborate. Some amount of generalization is respected in userspace provided it is appropriately labelled and removed from search engine indexes.

While there can be legitimate reasons for editors to watch another editor's userpages, and sometimes cleanup of userspaces of banned or blocked users may be helpful, discussing or treating an active editor's use of those private spaces should be circumspect and in good faith, with care taken not to make editors' experience here unpleasant, or make them feel unwelcome or "in trouble." Take care that the editor does not get the impression that you are hounding, stalking, or harassing them. Remember you can contact editors directly either by email or talk, before, for example, nominating a user subpage for an MfD.

When content is clearly labeled as user content, not article content, it should be treated as such. To treat it otherwise shows bad faith and is considered poor etiquette. Negative epithets such as "fake article", "bizarre pseudo article", can be considered hurtful or incivil. Always assume good faith. Editors are different, have different working and learning styles, and preferences, and are not required to act in the same way or use only one method for creating article content. Wikipedia is not paper, and tolerance, civility, and respect are key among WIkipedia's core tenets that are non-negotiable.

If an editor believes another editor is misusing their userspace, they should first civilly approach the editor and ask for clarification. If, after they have calmly discussed the matter and there is still deemed to be a problem, then, and only then, should the complainant bring the matter to an admin or a noticeboard. Note that bad faith discussions about such content in off-wiki forums can be seen as uncollegial behavior and lead to sanctions.