Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not about winning

This is an essay on Civility and Edit warring policies.

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.

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This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia is all about teamwork. Users must work together to build a reliable encyclopedia, not try to prove themselves to be "better" than others.

Delivering a checkmate is *not* the ultimate goal in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is not about winning. It is not a battleground, and disputes over content or behavior are not meant to be "won". They are meant to be resolved per consensus. All users involved in the dispute should be willing to yield to consensus. Ego does not matter to Wikipedia; egos are not helpful in building encyclopedia articles, and ego needs to yield to consensus if a conflict between the two somehow occurs. Any editors who feel they should win are incorrect, as there is nothing to win.

Those who think it's more important to win, rather than to help create an encyclopedia we can all be proud of, are in the wrong place. Those here to habitually win or feel the need to rule, or control, are here for the wrong reason. Those who think the purpose of the WikiCup is to score more points than anyone else, have forgotten what the exercise of the cup was, and should step back and reflect.

If you are one of these individuals, you need to lay aside the need or impulse to allow ego, pride, or winning to take precedence over collaborative construction of an encyclopedia. To quote Mr. Spock, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." Regardless of who the one is—be it an editor, a body of editors, or a group on Wikipedia—the only thing that matters is Wikipedia as a whole.

External links

"What's the cost of being right?" at Teach the Soul

See also

External links