Wikipedia policy on editor conduct
| This page documents an English Wikipedia
policy
.
It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should
normally
follow. Changes made to it should reflect
consensus
.
|
|
| This page in a nutshell:
Don't use edits to fight with other editors. Disagreements should be resolved through discussion.
|
An
edit war
occurs when editors who disagree about the content of a page repeatedly override each other's contributions. Editors engaged in a dispute should reach
consensus
or pursue
dispute resolution
rather than edit war. Edit warring is unconstructive, creates animosity between editors, makes consensus harder to reach, and causes confusion for readers. Users who engage in edit warring risk being
blocked
or even
banned
. An editor who repeatedly restores their preferred version is edit warring, regardless of whether those edits are justifiable. Claiming "My edits were right, so it wasn't edit warring" is not a valid defense.
There is a
bright line
known as the
three-revert rule
(
3RR
). To
revert
is to undo the action of another editor. The three-revert rule states that an editor must not perform more than three reverts, in whole or in part, whether involving the same or different material, on a single page within a 24-hour period. Any appearance of
gaming the system
by reverting a fourth time just outside of the 24-hour slot will usually be considered edit warring. There are certain exemptions to the three-revert rule, such as reverting vandalism or clear violations of the policy on biographies of living persons; see
below
for details. The three-revert rule is a convenient limit for occasions when an edit war is happening fairly quickly; it
is not
a definition of "edit warring", and it is absolutely possible to engage in edit warring without breaking the three-revert rule, or even coming close to doing so.
What edit warring is
Wikipedia encourages editors to
be bold
, but while a potentially controversial change may be made to find out whether it is opposed, another editor may revert it. This may be the beginning of a
bold, revert, discuss
(BRD) cycle. An edit war only arises if the situation develops into a series of back-and-forth reverts. Nevertheless, not every revert or controversial edit is regarded as edit warring:
When reverting, be sure to indicate your reasons. This can be done in the
edit summary
and/or
talk page
. Anti-vandalism tools such as
Twinkle
,
Huggle
and
rollback
should not be used to undo good-faith changes in content disputes without an appropriate edit summary.
The three-revert rule
Editors who engage in edit warring are liable to be
blocked
from editing to prevent further
disruption
to the affected page. While any amount of edit warring may lead to sanctions, there is a
bright-line rule
called the
three-revert rule
(
3RR
), the violation of which will usually be considered edit warring, and often leads to the user engaging in the behavior to be blocked.
The three-revert rule states:
An editor must not perform
more than three reverts
on a
single page
?whether involving the same or different material?within a
24-hour period
. An edit or a series of consecutive edits that undoes or manually reverses other editors' actions?whether in whole or in part?counts as a revert. Violations of this rule often attract blocks of at least 24 hours. Fourth reverts just outside the 24-hour period will usually also be considered edit-warring, especially if repeated or combined with other edit-warring behavior. See
below
for exemptions.
The term "page" in the three-revert rule above is defined as any page on Wikipedia, including those in talk and project
spaces
. The term "revert" is defined as any edit (or administrative action) that reverses or undoes the actions of other editors, in whole or in part, whether involving the same or different material, and whether performed using
undo
,
rollback
, or done so completely manually. A series of consecutively saved reverting edits by one user, with no intervening edits by another user, counts as one revert.
The three-revert rule applies per person, not per account; reverts made by
multiple accounts
operated by one editor count together. Editors violating 3RR will usually be blocked for 24 hours for a first incident.
Even without a 3RR violation, an administrator may still act if they believe a user's behavior constitutes edit warring, and any user may
report edit warring
with or without 3RR being breached. The rule is
not an entitlement
to revert a page a specific number of times.
If an editor violates 3RR by mistake, they should
reverse
their own most recent reversion. Administrators may take this into account and decide not to block in such cases?for example, if the user is not a habitual edit warrior and is genuinely trying to rectify their own mistake.
Edit warring and 3RR violations are not detected automatically. Either wait for an administrator to take action, or take any of the steps suggested in the
§?What to do if you see edit-warring behavior
section below.
Exemptions
The following reverts are exempt from the edit-warring policy:
- Reverting your own actions ("self-reverting").
- Reverting edits to pages in your own user space, as long as you are respecting the
user page
guidelines.
- Reverting actions performed by
banned users
in violation of a ban, and
sockpuppets
or
meatpuppets
of banned or
blocked
users.
- Reverting
obvious
vandalism
?edits that any well-intentioned user would agree constitute vandalism, such as
page blanking
and adding offensive language.
- Removal of clear
copyright violations
or content that
unquestionably
violates
the non-free content policy
(NFCC). What counts as exempt under NFCC can be controversial, and should be established as a violation first. Consider opening a deletion discussion at
Wikipedia:Files for discussion
instead of relying on this exemption.
- Removal of content that is clearly illegal under U.S. law, such as
child pornography
and
links to pirated software
.
- Removing contentious material that is libelous, biased, unsourced, or poorly sourced according to Wikipedia's
biographies of living persons
(BLP) policy. What counts as exempt under BLP can be controversial. Consider reporting to the
BLP noticeboard
instead of relying on this exemption.
- Reverting unambiguous
spam
, where the content would be eligible for page deletion under criterion
G11
if it were a standalone page.
Considerable leeway is also given to editors reverting to maintain the quality of a
featured article
while it appears on the
Main Page
.
If you are claiming an exemption, make sure there is a clearly visible edit summary or separate section of the talk page that explains the exemption. When in doubt, do not revert. Instead, follow the guidance below in
§?Handling of edit-warring behaviors
.
Other revert rules
"WP:0RR" and "WP:1RR" redirect here. For zero-revert rule for administrative action (no wheel-warring), see
WP:0WW
.
Additional restrictions on reverting may be imposed by the
Arbitration Committee
, by admins under
contentious topics
procedures, or by the community under
General sanctions
. These restrictions include:
- one-revert rule
(
1RR
): The one-revert rule is analogous to the three-revert rule as described
above
, with the words "more than three reverts" replaced by "more than one revert". There may also be a requirement to discuss each reversion on the talk page, and sometimes the phrase "24-hour period" is replaced by some other time period, such as "one week" or "one month". The rule may be applied to either pages or editors.
- zero-revert rule
(
0RR
): The zero-revert rule means a complete prohibition on reverts (as defined for the purpose of the three-revert rule) applied to one or more editors.
An imposed rule does not apply retroactively. That is, if an editor has reverted in the past 24 hours before a 1RR has been applied, their first subsequent revert is not a violation, although editors in these instances are strongly encouraged to discuss instead of revert.
Editors of policy and guideline pages are strongly encouraged to follow 1RR or 0RR (see
Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines §?Bold
). Editors may also voluntarily agree to abide by stricter reverting standards on other pages in response to problems in a particular area or as a general editing philosophy. For more details, see
Wikipedia:Revert only when necessary
.
Handling of edit-warring behaviors
What to do if you see edit-warring behavior
It is better to seek help in addressing the issue than to engage in edit warring. When disagreement becomes apparent, one, both, or all participants should
cease warring
and discuss the issue on the associated talk page or seek help at appropriate venues. Other alternative approaches recommended within the community are suggested in
§?How to avoid an edit war
.
If the edit warring user(s) appear unaware that edit warring is prohibited, they can be told about this policy by posting a {{
subst:uw-ewsoft
}}, {{
subst:uw-ew
}}, or {{
subst:uw-3rr
}} template message on their user talk page. Avoid posting a generic warning template if you are actively involved in the edit war yourself; it can be seen as aggressive. Consider writing your own note to the user specifically appropriate for the situation, with a view to explicitly cooling things down.
If several days have passed since the last edit action, consider doing nothing?our primary objective is to stop
active
edit wars.
If, despite such efforts, one or more users fail to cease edit warring, refuse to work collaboratively or heed the information given to them, or do not move on to appropriate dispute resolution, then consider making a request for administrative involvement. The standard way to do this is to add a report at
Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring
.
How to avoid an edit war
Once it is clear there is a dispute, avoid relying solely on
edit summaries
and discuss the matter on the associated
talk page
, which is where a reviewing administrator will look for evidence of trying to settle the dispute. Instead of reverting, add an
appropriate cleanup tag
and keep in mind that
there is no due-date
.
See also
Wikipedia:Reverting § Avoid reverting during discussion
.
Some experienced editors deliberately adopt a policy of reverting only edits covered by the
exceptions
listed above or limiting themselves to a single revert; if there is further dispute, they seek dialog or outside help rather than make the problem worse, i.e., they
revert only when necessary
. This policy may be particularly appropriate for
controversial topics
where views are polarized and emotions run high, resulting in more frequent edit warring.
When discussion does not produce a conclusion, bringing wider attention to a dispute can lead to compromise. Consider getting a
third opinion
or starting a
request for comment
. Neutral editors aware of the dispute will help curb egregious edits while also building consensus about the dispute. If these methods fail, seek informal and formal
dispute resolution
.
Rather than reverting repeatedly, discuss the matter with others; if a revert is necessary, another editor may conclude the same and do it (without prompting), which would then demonstrate
consensus
for the action.
Request page protection
rather than becoming part of the dispute by reverting.
The bottom line:
use common sense, and do not participate in edit wars
.
Administrator guidance
Administrators decide whether to issue a warning or block; these are intended to
prevent, deter, and encourage change in
disruptive behavior, not to punish it. Where a block is appropriate, 24 hours is common for a first offense; administrators tend to issue longer blocks for repeated or aggravated violations, and will consider other factors, such as
civility
and previous blocks. Where multiple editors engage in edit wars or breach 3RR, administrators should consider all sides, since perceived unfairness can fuel issues.
According to
WP:Administrators
, "Administrators should not normally use their tools in matters in which they are personally involved (for example, in a content dispute in which they are a party)."
See also
Further reading
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Content?
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Conduct?
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Deletion?
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Enforcement?
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Editing?
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Project content?
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WMF
(?)
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