CIS-A2K/Documents/Say "yes", say "no"
CIS-A2K (Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge) is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape.
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Before we begin this essay, we'll recall/mention two basic facts/information about Wikipedia (or any other Wikipedia projects)—
- Wikipedia is a collaborative project. To improve the project or its content we should try to collaborate with others and join in teamworks.
- Wikistress is a problem regularly faced by Wiki-editors (specially by active editors).
That's why—
- However our general and over-all target/aim should be responding positively ("yes") if someone wants us to join their works/projects.
- We should also remember that none of us can work on every portal of Wikimedia. Over-working may lead to Wikistress, health and real-life negligence issues.
We always want you to work on Wikipedia projects. But we also care for you. So sometimes you need to say "no". Specially when you are realizing you can not physically/mentally afford working somewhere, say "no" (if possible "directly, and not by some fake promise "I'll see later"). Saying "no" is not a crime. [Note: This point is explained in details in #Say "No" section below]
This is the topic of our "essay"— Say "yes", say "no"
Say "Yes"
[edit]Being Wiki(p/m)edians our aim should be improving the project by creating and expanding articles and adding/modifying content. And to do this work we may often need to collaborate with other community members and work in/as a team.
So id we are asked/requested by other community members to join any work they have started, we should answer positively, i.e. "yes".
It should be kept in mind that if we do not help in other peoples' works, they may not join us too, which will gradually destroy/harm many projects.
Say "No"
[edit]Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.
We feel that it is much better to work on 2-3 projects with full energy, stamina and attention than to join 100 initiatives and working haphazardly with little or no energy and enthusiasm, stamina and interest.
In your day-to-day Wiki-life you'll often be be invited to join or work on various portals, such as—
- Copyediting articles
- Creating/expanding drives
- Joining drives or events (such as "assessment drive, 100wikidays, image uploading event)
- Participating in or organizing workshops, events, seminars
Your time is limited, so is your energy or working capabilities. That's why you may not work on everywhere on Wikimedia. Much worse than that you may find that after promising many people that you would join all their initiatives, you are almost suffocating (or you have got some health issues like hypertension or your spouse and family are unhappy as you can't give them much time).
So you should think about it— can you really afford working on another (or another another) project? If you feel you can not afford it, say "no". Saying "no" is not a crime.
Many times you'll find people are promising that they would "definitely" work on something but later fail to keep the promis or somehow forget about it.
Don't say "No" to . . .
[edit]While saying "no" we should be truthful and should not say "no"—
- As we don't like the person.
- Don't want the project to suceed
etc.
We must not say "no", if we can clearly and easily help someone.