In the Help Center's How to Answer page, under the "Always be polite and have fun" section, I suggest that we add: "don't make it personal". The use of I and You can make an answer seem more contentious.
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
3
-
2\$\begingroup\$ If you still feel strongly about this, then you may have to bring it up on Meta SE. It appears that site mods cannot edit this page, so it would have to be done by the community managers. \$\endgroup\$– Jamal ModCommented Apr 8, 2017 at 18:41
-
1\$\begingroup\$ You have made this remark before. Do you have a particular proposed wording? \$\endgroup\$– 200_success ModCommented Apr 9, 2017 at 1:00
-
\$\begingroup\$ I work on proposed wording. \$\endgroup\$– pacmaninbw ModCommented Apr 9, 2017 at 3:19
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
2
I make all my answers personal. Please don't make me delete all my answers!
Making an answer personal doesn't make the answer contentious. Neither of the following are contentious: 'I think using a generator over a list could be better here', 'Your code doesn't adhere to PEP8, Pythons style guide.' It's also easy to be contentious without being personal: "The submitted code sucks."
Making things personal doesn't mean the answerer is contentious, it doesn't make the answer; rude, unhelpful or unwelcoming. You can be an arse whilst using 'I' and 'you', and you can be an arse without using them too. Not using "I" and "you" can help people not come across rude, but to outlaw making an answer personal doesn't solve this.
-
1\$\begingroup\$ I think he meant "don't take the critique personal". We will often say code sucks. We shouldn't say a user sucks. \$\endgroup\$– Mast ModCommented Apr 8, 2017 at 20:24
-
1\$\begingroup\$ It's also possible to be personal without using "you": "The idiot who wrote this code..." \$\endgroup\$ Commented Apr 11, 2017 at 10:56