Wikipedia:Assume stupidity

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by David Levy (talk | contribs) at 19:32, 20 January 2007 (repaired nutshell). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

While assuming good faith is a fundamental principle on Wikipedia, it does generally not help you get over your anger at someone's, in your opinion, disturbing edits. Therefore, it is much more satisfying to also assume stupidity. Assuming that people are stupid helps you in several ways, including; (1) you are obviously more intelligent than the user you are in a conflict with,[1] (2) you do not have to feel sorry for reverting their edits, as they probably are too stupid to notice it anyway, (3) and if they do notice it, they are probably too stupid to know how to quickly revert back to their version again.[2]

Wikipedia is the place where people that are not good enough writers to be paid to write books or news articles go to write stuff that other people will read anyway.[3] If that is not enough, these people actually believe that they will be able to create an encyclopedia that is better than all other encyclopedias, even those written by people that get paid for it. Stupid, is it not?[4] And since you are actually reading this, which for 99 % of you implies that you actually contribute to Wikipedia, people are probably already assuming stupidity on your part. You are just too stupid to notice it.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Gives a great boost in self-confidence.
  2. ^ To master the great powers of the edit history takes a long time if you are stupid.
  3. ^ And considering the extremely low standard of today's journalists, that means a lot.
  4. ^ Yes, it is.
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