The Ethnologue is a scholarly reference work and thus the editors make the final decisions about what is published. However, users with Contributor accounts are able to participate in that process by making comments to the editors and by responding to comments made by others.   The Contribute pages are the place where these contributions are made. The user community is made up of a variety of people with different backgrounds and perspectives. While most interactions will be between a user and the editors, we do encourage lively discussion.

The following norms are provided to guide our interactions with each other.

(1) Be polite. Comments and responses should be civil.  Personal attacks and profanity are prohibited and the editors will remove them. Repeated lack of civility may result in your registration being cancelled.

(2) Be relevant. Your comments should address a particular topic.  We welcome corrections and additional data about languages and countries.  Questions are also welcomed but read the introductory material and the FAQs before posting.  Many questions are already answered in those resources. Frivolous and irrelevant comments will be deleted and may result in your registration being cancelled. Needless to say, advertising and promotional posts will be deleted immediately.

(3) Be thorough. Proposed changes should be documented. If you propose a change based on published research, the entire community is best served if you provide the source of your information (a bibliographic citation).  If the source is your own firsthand observation or a personal communication with someone who has firsthand knowledge, be sure to explain that.  This helps the editors evaluate suggested changes.