Wikipedia:Compassion

Other editors are people too. Sometimes we will be generous, and let certain things be ever-so-slightly removed from view or glossed over when it is clear that pain will result otherwise. This is not licence to hide abusive behaviour, it is merely the courtesy extended to other human beings when they have made an error and someone else gives them a graceful exit from the situation.

We should always err on the side of being decent to other people, and understand that just as we may wish to have a moment of misjudgement not laid out bare for the world to see, perhaps others therefore deserve the same treatment.