Talk:Editing Guidelines

Note on Dishonesty [by Margaret]: I certainly agree that dishonesty, or flat out saying p when one believes that p is false, is usually a bad policy, and that it is almost always a bad policy in the context of presenting reasons and evidence (like that of this wiki and the views of others it is evaluating). That said, I think it is pretty clear that accusations of dishonesty without sufficient evidence tend to do more harm than good. I take it to be pretty obvious that being called dishonest by others (especially without but even with sufficient evidence) makes one much less receptive to their message, and that others seeing one call someone dishonest without sufficient evidence will make these others less receptive to one's message (especially but not only if they are either neutral or somewhat sympathetic towards the accused). I actually believe that this has been empirically documented by sources on effective advocacy such as those listed by the Center for Effective Vegan Advocacy (http://www.veganadvocacy.org/), but I lack specific sources at the moment. I would only emphasize, as Melanie Joy has recently, that these lessons about effective communication generalize from communicating with carnists to communicating to our fellow vegan advocates - including the importance of avoiding insufficiently substantiated accusations of dishonesty.