Essay on editing Wikipedia
| This page in a nutshell:
Don't get frustrated over a dispute. Get over it and move on.
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After it has been
determined
, often through multiple
processes
, that a certain result will stand, it makes no sense to continue fighting. Editors feeling the need to continue fighting after the result has been settled need to
get over it
and work together to improve the encyclopedia.
Not everyone "gets over it", though. You may feel frustrated in a short-term sense, because you "lost that round". Or, you might have a deep sense that your beliefs or views on a certain matter are the best way of improving the Wikipedia project. You do not view yourself as a dark-cloaked rabble-rouser, but rather as a noble,
good faith
crusader for justice.
As an editor, if you feel a strong need to continue "fighting the battle", you may feel inspired by the various great crusaders throughout history. The problem with becoming a
Wikipedia Crusader Against Injustice
, though, is that you may find that your online efforts to go head-to-head with the entire Wikipedia system may cause a lot of real-world grief for you, in terms of stress and anxiety.
Better options
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edit
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Rather than becoming a Crusader Against Injustice and trying to take on the whole Wikipedia system, and causing yourself to get stomach ulcers, sleepless nights, and migraine headaches, you might wish to try some of these options:
The Ukulele option
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If you really feel that the Wikipedia system or a dominant group of admins or the attitudes of certain other editors makes it impossible for you to continue on at Wikipedia, you might want to consider a WikiBreak. Go offline, and do non-Wiki activities such as rollerskating, tap-dancing, or ukulele lessons. Or ask that cute person sitting alone at the coffee shop
out to a movie
...
Swiss Family Robinson
option
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If you were getting into a huge disagreement with the editors in the Film Project page or the Actors Notability Guideline page, perhaps it is time to "walk away" from the whole film/movies area. Be like the
Swiss Family Robinson
, and go to an uncharted realm of Wikipedia where all there are is stub and start class articles, and write articles, set up categories, and build a new world.
Lord of your Domain Name option
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Or perhaps the Wikipedia model and structure is not a good fit for you. There are other non-Wikipedia Wiki-style projects with different rules and different cultures. If you want to get totally away from having to deal with other people's rules and restrictions, starting your own website or blog might be a much more satisfying option. On your own blog, there are no admins, no ArbCom, and no policies. You are the
Lord of your Domain
.
Throughout the last century, there have been individuals who have, at a
great personal cost
, waged one-man or one-woman battles against huge organizations and systems, because those individuals believed that there were
important values at stake
. Just to give one example, in the 1960s, civil rights activists in the US protested against discriminatory practices in a number of US states. Should those activists, after a state-level court ruled that "Whites Only" theaters or beaches were not in violation of the law, have just decided to "get over it", and accept the
status quo
? It can be argued that in some cases, some of the civil rights activists did a great service to society when they continued to battle for their cause, and appeal their cases up to the Supreme Court. Their protests and court challenges led to the removal of official, state-sanctioned discrimination throughout the US, when the Supreme Court struck down state-level discriminatory laws as unconstitutional.
These activists were viewed, at the time, by certain sectors as troublemakers who were disrupting the established order of society. Just as today, some Wikipedia editors view fellow editors who wish to continue battling for a certain policy or guideline?even after a Committee or board has ruled against them?to be "troublesome" or "disruptive". However, so long as the activists in question are using civil behaviour, legitimate channels and a good faith approach to raise their concerns, and not going to the "dark side" of WikiHate, bad faith, and disruption/flaming, it can be argued that these individuals serve a purpose. It could be argued that "good faith", clean-fighting crusaders for policy changes and guideline modifications are like modern-day version of
Socrates
; they are
gadflies
who raise concerns about the system and call for reforms. We should accept them, then, rather than pushing a cup of poison
Hemlock
towards them.
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- Adminitis
- Akin's Laws of Article Writing
- Alternatives to edit warring
- ANI flu
- Anti-Wikipedian
- Anti-Wikipedianism
- Articlecountitis
- Asshole John rule
- Assume bad faith
- Assume faith
- Assume good wraith
- Assume stupidity
- Assume that everyone's assuming good faith, assuming that you are assuming good faith
- Avoid using preview button
- Avoid using wikilinks
- Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense
- Barnstaritis
- Before they were notable
- BOLD, revert, revert, revert
- Boston Tea Party
- Butterfly effect
- CaPiTaLiZaTiOn MuCh?
- Complete bollocks
- Counting forks
- Counting juntas
- Crap
- Don't stuff beans up your nose
- Don't-give-a-fuckism
- Don't abbreviate "Wikipedia" as "Wiki"!
- Don't delete the main page
- Editcountitis
- Edits Per Day
- Editsummarisis
- Editing Under the Influence
- Embrace Stop Signs
- Emerson
- Fart
- Five Fs of Wikipedia
- Seven Ages of Editor, by Will E. Spear-Shake
- Go ahead, vandalize
- How many Wikipedians does it take to change a lightbulb?
- How to get away with UPE
- How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
- How to vandalize correctly
- How to win a citation war
- Ignore all essays
- Ignore every single rule
- Is that even an essay?
- Mess with the templates
- My local pond
- Newcomers are delicious, so go ahead and bite them
- Legal vandalism
- List of jokes about Wikipedia
- LTTAUTMAOK
- No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man
- No one cares about your garage band
- No one really cares
- No, really
- No sorcery threats
- Notability is not eternal
- Oops Defense
- Play the game
- Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you
- Please bite the newbies
- Please do not murder the newcomers
- Pledge of Tranquility
- R-e-s-p-e-c-t
- Requests for medication
- Requirements for adminship
- Rouge admin
- Rouge editor
- Sarcasm is really helpful
- Sausages for tasting
- The Night Before Wikimas
- The first rule of Wikipedia
- The Five Pillars of Untruth
- Things that should not be surprising
- The WikiBible
- Watchlistitis
- Wikipedia is an MMORPG
- WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!
- What Wikipedia is not/Outtakes
- Why not create an account?
- Yes legal threats
- You don't have to be mad to work here, but
- You should not write meaningless lists
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About essays
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Policies and guidelines
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