Wikipedia:Revert only when necessary: Difference between revisions

Explaining reverts also helps other people. For example, it lets people know whether they need to even view the reverted version (in the case of, e.g., "rv page blanking"). Because of the lack of [[paralanguage]] online, if you don't explain things clearly people will probably assume all kinds of nasty things, and that's how [[wikipedia:edit warwarring|edit wars]] get started.

If your reasons for reverting are too complex to explain in the [[WikipediaHelp:Edit summary|edit summary]], drop a note on the Talk page. A nice thing to do is to drop the note on the Talk page ''first'', and ''then'' revert (referencing the talk page in your edit summary), rather than the other way round. Sometimes the other person will agree with you and revert for you before you have a chance. Conversely, if someone reverts your change without apparent explanation, you may wish to wait a few minutes to see if they explain their actions on the article's talk page or your user talk page, or contact the editor and ask for the reason for their revert. Do not engage in discussions in edit summaries. Doing so is a hallmark of edit warring; instead, stop editing and use the talk page.