 | This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
For many editors, the goal of editing is to improve and not worsen, but some editors may go overboard and react negatively to their own good faith mistakes and possibly beg that action be taken; this practice is known as perfectionism, a personality trait characterized by striving for perfection and often feelings of needing to be "punished" or similar actions after failing to achieve perfection.
Because perfection is an impossible state for humans to achieve, there is always no need to be overtly critical over insignificant and unintended mistakes. In fact, it is actually a good thing that humans make unintentional mistakes every once in a while because that gives them the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, and being pro-perfectionism tends to be counterproductive and possibly lead to disruptive editing (but not necessarily vandalism because the editors really want to do the right thing) in order to receive the desired action.
If you have problems with trying to be perfect on Wikipedia, remember these things: perfectness is impossible, perfectionism is counterproductive, and no one deserves punishment after making an accidental mistake.
| This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
For many editors, the goal of editing is to improve and not worsen, but some editors may go overboard and react negatively to their own good faith mistakes and possibly beg that action be taken; this practice is known as perfectionism, a personality trait characterized by striving for perfection and often feelings of needing to be "punished" or similar actions after failing to achieve perfection.
Because perfection is an impossible state for humans to achieve, there is always no need to be overtly critical over insignificant and unintended mistakes. In fact, it is actually a good thing that humans make unintentional mistakes every once in a while because that gives them the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, and being pro-perfectionism tends to be counterproductive and possibly lead to disruptive editing (but not necessarily vandalism because the editors really want to do the right thing) in order to receive the desired action.
If you have problems with trying to be perfect on Wikipedia, remember these things: perfectness is impossible, perfectionism is counterproductive, and no one deserves punishment after making an accidental mistake.