The Harry Potter Compendium:No personal attacks

Do not make personal attacks anywhere on the Harry-Potter-Lexicon. Comment on content, not on the contributor. Personal attacks will not help you make a point; they hurt the Harry-Potter-Lexicon community, and deter users from helping create and maintain a good encyclopedia.

Do not make personal attacks
There is no excuse for personal attacks on other contributors. Please do not make them.

Consequences of personal attacks
Users who engage in personal attacks on other users will be blocked according to policy.

Being reasonable
Different contributors may not agree on the content of an article. Members of opposing communities reasonably wish to express their views. Integrating these views into a single article creates a better, more NPOV article for everyone. Remember to accept that we are all part of the same community as we are all Harry Potter fans.

Examples of personal attacks
Specific examples of personal attacks include but are not limited to:


 * Racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, religious or ethnic epithets directed against another contributor. (Disagreement over what constitutes a religion, race, sexual preference, or ethnicity is not a legitimate excuse.)
 * Using someone's affiliations as a means of dismissing or discrediting their views — regardless of whether said affiliations are mainstream or extreme.
 * Profanity directed against another contributor.
 * Threats of legal action.
 * Threats of violence, including death threats.
 * Threats of vandalism to userpages or talk pages, or engaging in such vandalism to personally attack a user.
 * Posting a link to an external source that fits the commonly-accepted threshold for a personal attack. Suggesting a link applies to another editor, or that another editor needs to visit a certain link, that contains the substance of an attack.
 * Accusatory comments towards editors that can be considered personal attacks if said repeatedly, in bad faith, or with sufficient venom.
 * Negative personal comments and "I'm better than you" attacks, such as "You have no life."

Examples that are not personal attacks
Users engaging in debate is an essential part of the culture of the Harry-Potter-Lexicon. Assume good faith, be civil and adhere to good wiki etiquette when stating disagreements to avoid personalising them and try to minimise unnecessarily antagonistic comments. Disagreements with other editors can be discussed without resorting to personal attacks. It is important not to personalise comments that are directed at content and actions, but it is equally important not to interpret such comments as personal attacks. Specific examples of comments that are not personal attacks include, but are not limited to:


 * Disagreements about content such as "Your statement about X is wrong" or "Your statement is a point of view, not fact" are not personal attacks.
 * Personal attacks do not include civil language used to describe an editor's actions, and when made without involving their personal character, should not be construed as personal attacks. Stating "Your statement is a personal attack..." is not itself a personal attack — it is a statement regarding the actions of the user, not a statement about the user.
 * A comment in an edit history such as "reverting vandalism" is not a personal attack. However, it is important to assume good faith when making such a comment — if the edit that is being reverted could be interpreted as a good-faith edit, then don't label it as vandalism.

Alternatives

 * Discuss the facts and how to express them, not the attributes of the other party. This does not mean that you have to agree with the other person, but just agree to disagree.
 * Never suggest a view is invalid simply because of who its proponent is.
 * Explore issues in a less public forum like e-mail if a debate threatens to become personal.

Resolutions
If you are personally attacked, you should ask the attacker to stop and note this policy. If they continue, contact an Administrator and clearly state the problem.

In extreme cases, an attacker may be blocked under the "disruption" clause of the blocking policy, though the practise is almost always controversial. Personal attacks should be reported at Harry-Potter-Lexicon:Requests for administrator attention or on IRC.

Equality
There may be certain users who are unpopular, perhaps because of foolish or boorish behaviour in the past. Such users may have been subject to disciplinary actions by the administrators. However, this is no excuse to engage in personal attacks against them. NPA applies to everyone, including the administrators.

Be civil
Maintain a civil atmosphere towards fellow users at all times, including in edit summaries (i.e. do not write removing crap, or undoing pointless info). Assume good faith, and remember that we were all new here at one time.