The "Be Nice" Policy

Question

At this point in the (young) history of our site, I would like to remind all users of the Be Nice policy that we have instituted on the site. This is of course a general policy that is germane to all sites in the Stack Exchange network.

The following is a summary of our policies. (Some of this is directly from the Be Nice page).

These guidelines may help:

Rudeness and belittling language are not okay. Your tone should match the way you'd talk in person with someone you respect and whom you want to respect you.

Be welcoming, be patient, and assume good intentions. Don't expect new users to know all the rules — they don't. And be patient while they learn. If you're here for help, make it as easy as possible for others to help you. Everyone here is volunteering, and no one responds well to demands for help.

Don't badger people endlessly if you disagree with their answer. (This gem comes from a discussion on the English Language Learners site, who cited it from somewhere else). Badgering includes commenting with repeated comments until the user changes an answer or question to your liking.

Don't insult someone's intelligence just because you speak Korean better than they do. If you find something disagreeable about a question or answer, leave a brief and pleasant comment on how you feel the question/answer could be improved. Do not just say something like "This is a bad answer. Please fix it." The best fix for an incorrect answer is to answer the question yourself. It is that easy. If you cannot answer the question yourself (or refuse to do so), then moving on to a different question is your best method of recourse.

Keep in mind that (most) users (including the mods) have a life outside of Korean.SE. If you make their life on Korean.SE a bad experience due to constant bickering, badgering, and general abrasiveness, they will just move on with their lives. Then we are out a user, which is bad for all involved.

If someone is being mean to you, report it and move on. Avoid getting in fights with people. In fact don't do it at all. There is no cause on Korean.SE that is worth becoming irate over.

Above all else, mind your own business. Seriously folks. The mods ain't your mamma. Don't make us separate you like bickering 2-year-olds.

Overall, I hope we can all get along here and find it within ourselves to be nice. It is regrettable that we need to preemptively place ourselves on record on this topic of being nice, but after a lengthy session of pondering, this seemed to be a necessary evil.

Thanks to all who continue to use this site with dignity and respect.

Answer 1

Thanks for the timely reminder - one that I'm sure we can all benefit from sometimes.

We are all fellow volunteers trying to build a resource - for ourselves and for others. We deserve each other's appreciation and help in doing so.

We are all here to learn and to teach; we would all do well to to find out what we can learn from each other, as well as what we can teach each other.

I do think that if we can each communicate compassionately, and assume good faith on the part of other users, this will give rise to a community that is able to act with collective intelligence, solve problems quickly and practically - and lead Korean.SE itself to be a nice place to be.

Answer 2

Do not just say something like "This is a bad answer. Please fix it."

I think you missed one very important point. Korean SE (KSE) is only 3 months old. There are not many users who can tell the differences between a good and well-researched answer and wrong or poorly-researched one. There have been users who kept posting unhelpful questions and answers that have not been improved and got blindly upvoted by users. Let's say, if you find a blatantly wrong answer, what are you going to do? If you don't leave a comment, the behavior will be repeated. Worse, if you upvote it, they will think they are doing the right thing. I believe a question is better left unanswered than with a blatantly wrong answer that doesn't show any research or reference especially when KSE is incapable of upvoting and downvoting posts properly. Answering a question should not be used to improve your Korean. If you want to learn and improve your Korean, you should ask, not answer. Of course, non-native Korean speakers can answer a question if they can include some supporting references and research that makes sense. There are answers that are partly or entirely wrong.

The best fix for an incorrect answer is to answer the question yourself. It is that easy.

What if you don't have time to write the full answer? What if the answer posted is 70% right and you don't want to repeat what is said in another answer? What if the existing post can be improved by removing 30%? Your solution seems to be very ideal and easy, but obviously it is not. I can give you more than 100 examples on KSE that show how questions and answers have been improved by helpful comments. I can give you more examples on English Language and Usage where they were improved by helpful comments, downvotes, or even such an advice as "Please consider deleting your answer if you don't want to edit it". Does it sound against "be nice policy"? I don't think so. What is wrong with "This is a bad answer and please fix it"? The bigger problem is the community is upvoting those answers without leaving a comment to fix it.

Also, you need to note that under the circumstances where a wrong or poorly-researched answers get more upvotes than better-researched one, there is no or little motivation to write a better answer.

If you make their life on Korean.SE a bad experience due to constant bickering, badgering, and general abrasiveness, they will just move on with their lives. Then we are out a user, which is bad for all involved.

Nobody asks users to stay here, if they don't like it, they can move on. Recently there was one guy who kept complaining without editing a post and finally said after asking just one question, "I disappointed and I think italki.com is better place and I'll move to it". Well, go. Nobody begs you to stay here. That should be the policy of KSE. If you like it, stay. If you don't like it, you don't have to stay here. Some left KSE and I don't see any negative impact because I think the overall quality and number of questions and answers improved over the past few months or so. People come and go.

If you think KSE needs to implement "be nice policy" more, compare the first 100 or so questions and answers with the rest 200 or so questions. You will see what I mean. What KSE needs now is more dedicated users who should lead by example, leave a helpful comment, respond to a helpful comment, close-vote, flag, upvote and downvote in accordance with the Stack Exchange guidelines.