Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
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 Wiki's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This page in a nutshell: Help newcomers when they need it, but don't spoon feed them - if they didn't specifically ask. |
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Though it is perfectly fine to help new editors edit pages, don't correct them every time they do something wrong. Let them figure it out themselves, or wait until they ask for help. If they give up, you can fix the error they made and tell them what they did wrong. But if they keep trying to solve the problem, there's no reason to solve it for them. Leaving a courtesy clue is enough in problematic cases. If someone else solves the problem for you, you didn't learn anything, and are less likely to keep using Wikipedia in the future.
Don't abide by this rule blindly. Assume good faith when deciding whether or not to help new editors, and review this essay if you are unsure. Wikipedia editors are usually good at following this rule, so don't worry and just edit like you usually do.
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