I see Wikipedia as one of those rare projects that is entirely comprised of non-selfish aims; however, I cannot emphaise enough the need for collaboration and co-operation between the editors of the encyclopedia, and the importance of the
community.
Community
However, why is Community key? Well, we must remember that Wikipedia is, first and foremost, an encyclopedia - it exists to provide free, open-source non-copyrighted articles on everything in existance. However, a quick look at these articles and you discover the talk namespace; this is filled with a collection of discussions between the
community. Each post is signed with a link to the respective Wikipedian's userpage; this often has links to locations like
GA,
FA and
DR - all pages upheld by the community, and all pages essential to the excelling and growth of the encyclopedia. We can, ergo, deduce that the functioning of the encyclopedia is dependant on the Community and vice versa.
I maintain a strict policy of neutrality, in addition to
NPOV. My personal policy basically means I don't get involved with controversial issues under any circumstances. I treat these guidelines as my core beleifs, and I am of the opinion that they are what has kept me out of
hot soup these past twelve months. Although I reserve the right to ignore the guideline, and I never apply it to my mediation/AMA cases, most of the time any invitation to comment on such issues will simply result in me directing the editor to my personal policy, located at
my essays page.
