Communicating via Email and IRC
Besides posting to a talk page, you have two other optionsâemail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC)âto interact with other editors. In such cases, youâre taking the conversation outside Wikipedia and communicating with fellow editors just like your friends and coworkers. All the warnings about contacting strangers via the Internet apply.
Wikipedia has no policy or guideline about when itâs appropriate to email another editor. In Wikipediaâlike other wikisâthe culture dictates that conversations about articles, behavior, policies and processes, selections of administrators and other functionaries, and so on, be done on wiki pages, so that everyone can see who said what. Still, email may be better sometimes: a friendly suggestion about behavior to a long-time contributor, an invitation to meet face to face, or perhaps a query as to whether an editor would be interested in being nominated to be an administrator.
To email another editor, both you and the other editor must have turned on email in Wikipedia. If you didnât enter an email address and turn on email when you registered, (5), or want to change your email address, see the instructions on Email Address on how to change your preferences so that you can email other editors.
To find out if the other editor has also enabled email, you need to go to his user page or user talk page, and, in the âtoolboxâ set of links on the left side, find the âE-mail this userâ link (Figure 8-5 ...
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