Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers

Please do not bite the newcomers

• Even if you never were a newcomer, try to understand that they are a precious resource.(*)
• When they don't bold titles or link dates in stubs, correct it if you feel energetic enough. You may add an explanation of what you are correcting in the summary line, with the view that the newbie may thus get clued in. Do not (if you can avoid it) scream out "Another Newbie Without A Clue Forgot To Bold The Title!!!!! If you feel such errors frustrating, don't correct them, just let them pass (but silently). In many cases the newcomer who turns into a contributor will be the most diligent in hunting down all his early misformattings. And if that does not happen, there will still be someone who actually gets satisfaction out of wikifying "pathetic stubs".
• When you give advice to newcomers tone down the rhetoric even a few notches down from the usual mellow discursive that dominates wikipedia.
• Assume that the newcomer knows nothing and understands nothing, but is willing to learn.

(*) It is possible for you to have never been a newcomer. Frex if you had already been on wikies that worked on the same principles or if you were so afraid to edit that you RTFM'd everything in sight before adding a comma. Neither is a cause for such pride as to look down on enthusiastic newcomers.