Zelda Wiki:Community Pillars
Overview
These are community pillars that we should take into account when contributing to the wiki or making decisions. The goal of these pillars is to minimize harm and to emphasize respect and collaboration. Many of these relate to each other and occasionally overlap.
Unity of Purpose
Our goal is to curate a high-quality fan-operated wiki for The Legend of Zelda that is editorially independent. We strive toward this goal with the virtues of respect, honor, and sensitivity in mind, and with the intention to minimize the harm that we cause through our actions.
Wikis are a collective experience, and no one person is responsible for a wiki. Each edit we make is a conversation and interaction with other editors past, present, and future, and we all in turn build upon each other's legacies as we contribute. It is thanks to each other that we can achieve greatness, and nothing about who we are or what we do exists in a vacuum independent from each other.
It is important to understand that our contributions are collaborations, not competitions. Possessiveness over the wiki and projects that we work on runs counter to the goal of collaborating with each other and stifles our collective ability to make something greater than the sum of our parts.
Because of this, it is impossible to uphold one right way of doing things as that idea prevents the introduction of new ideas from others and causes us to stagnate. We owe it to each other to be open to new ideas, to respect and trust each other's contributions and wisdom, and to not be controlling over the things that we make together. It's difficult for some to let go of control and give autonomy to others, but the results from doing so are worth the discomfort.
Our goals should be set and achieved together, and we must try to ensure that those around us feel comfortable and able to contribute alongside us. At every step, we should look to build power in the margins so that everyone stands on equal footing and can contribute in equal measure.
Conflict is an inevitable aspect of collaboration, but we can resolve it in ways that emphasize mutual respect. When we make mistakes and do wrong by each other, we owe it to each other to have the heart to work through these issues together. Strong emotional intelligence is key to being accountable with others and working through difficult situations.
Finally, our goals should be sustainable with respect to each other. We should be aware of the impact of what we ask from each other and respect that the way forward together isn't necessarily by adding more work or content. It can instead look like ensuring that the needs and satisfaction of the community are realistically met. The wanton pursuit of profit and growth disconnects us from each other and is why we strove for independence. Growth for the sake of growth is meaningless, especially if it comes at the cost of the community.
Self Empowerment
All editors should be empowered to contribute to the wiki in the ways that they can. To this end, we do not foster attitudes of perfectionism and we assert that contributors have a right to make mistakes without judgment. We always strive to be as accurate as possible, but we acknowledge that perfection is impossible and do not ask for this. When mistakes are made, contributors are welcome to hold a space with other contributors to reflect on them and discuss them to identify what can be learned and to safely practice what has been learned. In addition, we should remember to appreciate and to share success.
Active editors also have the right to take part in making decisions for the wiki. In order to maintain a level of quality and to facilitate the amount of work we undergo to do this, we agree upon article standards to follow when constructing and maintaining articles. However, these are not set in stone and our active editors may collectively choose to adapt them and agree to implement new standards. These standards should not be weaponized against others and we should be open to feedback on alternative methods.
While we strive to be accurate in our documentation, the strict adherence to objectivity may in turn restrict us from providing a full picture and thus our content quality can diminish by uncritically striving toward it. What one person may find objectively true based on the conditions that they've agreed upon, they lack the perspective of another whose own experiences and education contradict those standards. We must be careful and humble to not hide behind our standards of "objectivity" to mask our own biases, inexperience, and ignorance in a subject.
Trust
Trust is the key component to overcoming and preventing issues that can arise in our community. It is impossible for us to know or be able to do everything individually, so we must be able to ask for and offer help when needed and give space to others when our own knowledge and expertise is lacking. However, we can know ourselves and identify what we have to share and what we can learn or improve about ourselves. Those of us with positions and responsibilities of power need to be ready and willing to let go of it and entrust it with others.
Our vulnerability is a strength that we share together. Feedback is an invitation to vulnerability, and therefore trust. With this in mind, we can match the intent and not signal to each other that what we have to say will be shot down out of defensiveness. We should be attuned to when we start to become defensive so we can step back and reevaluate a situation to determine what we actually need. From here, we can consider different approaches that take others into account.
To help build and maintain trust, we must be ready to admit when we are wrong. We must also be ready to concede when we can't speak with epistemic authority. Self awareness and emotional maturity are strong tools for collaboration.
Transparency is another effective tool for trust. We should avoid pretending to know what we don't know, and be clear about what we do know as well as how we know it. When we need to have a difficult conversation, it helps to be forthcoming about our anxieties or nervousness.
Conflict Resolution
If a problem arises between people, we should be prepared to turn toward each other to resolve it. Conflict should not be resolved without the relevant parties present. Resolving conflicts can often require a tremendous amount of bravery from each party involved, as vulnerability and openness are difficult virtues to learn. Mistakes will happen and it is impossible for us to perfectly avoid doing things that can hurt other people, so we should not attempt to run from confrontation and discomfort when we may have caused harm. It can also be uncomfortable to express that one has been hurt by someone's actions, but this should be seen as an invitation to work through a problem together free of guilt.
Issues can be complex, so we should take care not to simplify them if it could hurt our ability to resolve them. Solutions do not necessarily need to be decisions between two absolutes. Composing and iterating on new ideas unlocks our potential to reach better and more equitable outcomes.
When conflict arises, our initial reaction should be to step back and:
- assess the situation for what is needed or wanted for a favorable outcome
- reflect on what behaviors may get in the way of this goal
- repeatedly ask what other factors may be involved in the situation
- identify what we could do to adapt to reach this goal
When we have done this, we can more safely approach others about our issues, offer feedback on the situation, and mutually work through possible and actionable solutions to an issue. Saying "I'm sorry" is a powerful skill to learn, and being able to effectively work through problems requires us to be attuned to how we are feeling and to recognize the sources of our feelings. If we feel hurt, frustrated, or rejected after receiving feedback, it is important to analyze why. If we become defensive, we can end up shutting down conversations and halting our progress and ability to work together.
If we decide to call on someone to learn from a mistake, we owe it to them to give them support to work through problems. None of us are disposable, especially when we all act in good faith. We should be patient and withhold judgment from each other when we make mistakes and in return we should be earnest when we agree to improve our behavior.
Respect of Cultural and Personal Differences
We acknowledge that societal power imbalances exist and shape our lives. We resolve to address and confront these to minimize harm done and ensure a safe, informative community and resource for all fans, even when it is expressed in the source material.
Subjects in the Zelda series can be unexpectedly complex. While groups of people are not monoliths, belonging to certain cultures as well as individual life experiences offers unique insight and calling upon it from others can allow us to explore and document these subjects in nuanced ways. When we are disconnected from the subject material, we can sometimes make flawed observations even—and especially—when we falsely try to remain objective.
Objectivity can often be an impossible goal to achieve in the greater scope when real-world subjects and human identities and experiences are brought into consideration, despite what our policies and guidelines may suggest. When real-world subjects come up, we should take care to include the perspectives of those most closely related to those subjects so that we can take an informed stance in our documentation.
Patience
Urgency is the enemy of inclusion. When we are acting urgently, we risk sacrificing input from our community and our allies. It can alienate people who require time to come up with brilliant solutions, and exclude people with valuable insight but whose lives may restrict their ability to regularly offer that insight. Urgency can cost us unique and powerful solutions in the interest of a quick but fleeting victory. If we don't take the time to involve everyone we need, we can end up fostering resentment or discourage them from healthily participating in the community.
When we are faced with a sense of urgency, we should pause to collect ourselves, figure out if the pressure is real or if we are unduly creating that pressure for ourselves, restate our goals, and remain open to alternative solutions. Things can often take longer than people expect, so we should plan and work realistically with the people that we involve ourselves with.
We pride ourselves on the quality of our work and what we are able to offer each other, and we should be careful to not pursue quantity for the sake of short-term growth. Doing so can leave us overwhelmed and cause us to lose our focus. We can afford to make decisions and carry out our actions at a healthy pace with concern for fellow contributors in mind.
