Wikipedia:Wikibreak

"WP:BREAK" redirects here. For a how-to guide on the usage of line breaks, see Wikipedia:Line break handling.

A wikibreak, wikiholiday, wikivacation or leave of wiki-absence is a period when even a wikiholic must be parted from Wikipedia—though, presumably only temporarily.

The pain involved varies from Wikipedian to Wikipedian. Some find it easy to endure, whereas others find the separation agonizing. Often the latter find themselves grasping at any opportunity to go online "just to check what's happening".

The degree of coercion also varies. Some remarkable individuals are actually capable of taking a voluntary wikiholiday: they are to be admired for their strength of character. Some people have to enforce their departure for their own good. Others still are forced into it through circumstances beyond their control: it is often at such times that wikiholics discover their condition.

When to depart

• You are going to go traveling.
• You are a student and you have exams or other pressing schoolwork.
• You get a divorce.
• You feel exhausted by your regional weather.
• You are neglecting your work and job.
• You have a new video game to obsess over for the next few days.
• You find yourself repeatedly assuming bad faith.
• You are stressed to the point that it affects your editing.
• You have a new girlfriend or boyfriend.
• Your girlfriend or boyfriend wants you to spend more time with them.
• You break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend.
• You have to look for a job.
• You have a job and do not want to lose it.
• You have been making false edits, not verifiable or under copyright protections, including the GFDL and Fair Use licenses.
• You find yourself making minor edits, in order to use the recent changes page as a discussion.
• You have to move houses.
• You have neglected to pay your Internet bill and are without Internet access.
• You are sick.
• Your Wikistress is making it hard to work.
• You need time to relax and think, so that when you do return to Wikipedia, you'll hopefully be refreshed.
• Your time on Wikipedia is having a drastic effect on your life outside of Wikipedia.
• Your computer has broken down.
• It takes you several hours to make and perfect a single edit, because you're worried your edit will be corrected by someone else.
• You find yourself checking your watchlist compulsively throughout the day to defend your edits against vandals and other ne'er-do-wells.
• You're giving up editing Wikipedia for Lent or a similar religious observance.
• You have been grounded by your parents, business partner or significant other from using the computer.
• You have a baby.
• You've been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia, per ruling of administrators, Jimbo Wales and/or the Arbitration Committee. See block log.
• You are addicted.
• You become disillusioned with the project.
• You find yourself suffering from Adminitis.
• You haven't received any satisfaction out of editing Wikipedia, but don't wish to depart forever.

When to come back

• You came back from travelling.
• Your relatives (thankfully) left your house.
• You have either been unblocked or your block has expired.
• Your spouse asks you to buy a new car. Just buy it and come straight back.
• Your exams are over.
• You decide that your divorce has left you more time to be a Wikipedian.
• You find out your new girlfriend or boyfriend is a Wikipedian, too.
• Especially when you find that now you've been spending a lot of time editing, discussing, fighting over and making up with said friend.
• You have finished moving.
• You decide to give up smoking so that you can pay your Internet bill.
• You've recovered from your sickness.
• You have been reincarnated (religious beliefs are a factor here).
• Or you realise you really hadn't died in the first place.
• Or you've been resurrected and come back from the dead. (Don't forget to tell us how!)
• You've let go of all your Wikistress.
• You've done all the relaxing you can do and besides, all that talk about relaxation and thinking clearer is baloney anyway.
• Since your computer is broken, you find yourself at the library every day, editing Wikipedia under Windows 2000, Windows NT or gasp... Windows ME.
• Or you get a new one.
• You are cured from being a wikiaddict. (It may never happen. Most probably, you will never recover.)
• You've decided to take a break from your Wikibreak.

Generic templates

The wikibreak template

When taking a wikibreak, it is a good idea to inform your wikifriends that you are not active and indicate when you might be back. You can use the wikibreak template for this purpose. Let's say Example wants to go on wikibreak until Christmas. He would then place this text on the top of his user and/or talk pages:

{{wikibreak|[[User:Example|Example]]| on December 25}}

He would get this:

For a longer break, he could also use {{Long Wikibreak}}, writing

{{Long Wikibreak|[[User:Example|Example]]| next summer, God willing and the creek don't rise.}}

which renders thus:

The other wikibreak template

When taking a wikibreak, it is a good idea to inform your wikifriends that you are not active and indicate when you might be back. However, not all wikipedians have the self-discipline to keep away for various reasons, so this template was created for those who feel like taking a wikibreak, but at the same time will return to make small edits every once in a while. Let's say Example wants to go on wikibreak until Christmas. He would then place this text on the top of his user and/or talk pages:

{{Attempting wikibreak|[[User:Example|Example]]| on December 25|I}}

He would get this:

The tmbox template

If your message isn't covered by any of the templates on this page, you can use the generic {{tmbox}} template to create a similar-looking box containing your text and one or two images.

Specific case templates

Busy

The Busy Template

An alternative for those weaning themselves more slowly from Wikipedia is the 'Busy' template, which is designed for those who are being overtaken by "real" life (if you have one) work. Wikipediholics can use this template to assuage the guilt associated with long breaks from the Wiki. If Example were using this template, he would place the following text at the top of his user page:

{{busy|[[User:Example|Example]]}}

or

{{busy|~~~}}

and they will get this:

The Off and On WikiBreak Template

There are times when one is having trouble being able to consistently make contributions for some reason. If you are inconsistently able to make edits, add

{{Off and On WikiBreak}} 

to your userpage, which will bring this about:

Education

The School template

When school beckons, or any other school for that matter, use

{{Attempting school wikibreak}} 

to get:

or

{{Atschool}} 

to get:

NOTE: This template uses parameters and has a syntax. Click Here for a quick look.

The Busy on Weekdays because of School Template School can make weekday activity impossible, or, at the very least, quite difficult. To let people know that your activity on weekdays may be somewhat restricted, add

{{Busyweekdays}} 

to your userpage, which will bring this about:

The Education template

A template for those students smart enough to make studying a priority. Type

{{Education wikibreak}} 

and you'll see:

Also, you can use

{{Education wikibreak|returndate=''date''}} 

to specify the date that your school finishes. To specify that your institution is a college or university, use

{{Education wikibreak|returndate=''date''|institution=''whatever your institution is''}} 

(either the type of institution or the actual name), which looks like this:

The Exams template Another template for those who have exams coming up soon, to add it just add the following text at the top of your user page:

{{exams}}

and you will get this:

Alternatively, you can use

{{exams|date}} 

to specify the date that your exams finish. That will yield:

The Semi-wikibreak Exams Template

{{Semi-Exams}}

Health

• The sick/ill template

For those of us who are sick or ill and would thus be partially inactive, Wikipedians can use this template to indicate this.

{{user health inactive}}

and the user will see this:

• The mental health template

For those of us who are struggling with mental illness or psychological problems and would thus be partially inactive, Wikipedians can use this template to indicate this.

{{User warning-mentalhealth}}

and the user will see this:

Note: DO NOT put this on another person's userpage without their consent, as this is potentially libelous (not to mention cruel).

Vacation

{{holiday}} 

produces

{{vacation}} 

produces

{{vacation2}} 

produces

{{vacation3}} 

produces

{{vacation3|[[User:Example|Example]]|start=7 June 2009|end=23 June 2009}}

Produces:

Technical related

The Computer death template

{{Computer death}} 

produces

The No-Internet Access template

{{No-Internet}} 

produces

The No-power template

{{No-power}} 

produces

Grieving

If you are suffering a loss and you are grieving, you may use this: The User grieving template

{{User grieving}}

produces

Other

The Discouraged user template

For those users who have been disheartened by the wikiprocess through failure, edit wars, bullying, and other acts of not assuming good faith towards the user. They may also be suffering from a sense of wikifailure. Wikipedians displaying this template may periodically check their watchlist, but will not engage in editing. Wikipedians will typically return to their regular contributing activity once their faith in the wikicommunity has been restored or their existential wikistress has been resolved.

{{Discouraged}}

The Got Grounded Template

This template is dedicated to students who got grounded by their parents due to their excessive use of the computer and, ultimately, Wikipedia.

{{Grounded|[[User:USERNAME GOES HERE|USERNAME]]}}

produces

* In this case, the user is named "example".

Bonked/Fatigued templates

{{bonked}} 

produces this:

The {{superbonked}} template can be used when you have been wikibonked so much that you will have to leave Wikipedia for sometime.

{{superbonked}}

produces this:

Personal Issues

{{Personalissues}} produces:

Because of certain personal issues, Wikibreak will not be on Wikipedia for an indefinite period of time.

Stress

{{User stress}} produces:

Semi-wikibreak

A semi-wikibreak is a Wikibreak taken by Wikipedians who are not fully on a wikibreak, but are not fully editing. There are many possible reasons for a semi-wikibreak; including, for example:

• busy at work or school
• going on vacation
• new puppy isn't housebroken yet
• toilet got backed up
• slow internet connection
• boyfriend or girlfriend needs more attention
• Super Bowl season
• AL/NL Pennant Race
• Stanley Cup Finals
• Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race
• March Madness
• NBA Playoffs
• FIFA World Cup
• sharing computer with others
• ran out of coffee
• computer is dead

Use

{{Semi-wikibreak}}

Retirement

Planning to retire

{{Template:Planretire}} or {{Template:Retireplan}} produces

Warning: This user is considering retiring from Wikipedia, so he or she could leave at any time but may come back. Please check their contributions for more information.

Usage:

{{Planretire}} or {{Retireplan}}

Retirement template

We hope this never happens, but sometimes good things must come to an end. If you are retiring from Wikipedia you can use the Retirement template:

{{retirement|[[User:Example|Example]]}}

and it will produce:

Example

This user is no longer active on Wikipedia.

If you simply say:

{{retirement}}

it will automatically say your user name

RETIRED

This user is no longer active on Wikipedia.

In this case, it takes the name of this page which is Wikibreak.

Alternately, if you say:

{{User EX-WP}}

This box will be produced:

	This editor has decided to leave Wikipedia.

For a simpler message:

{{retired}}

and it will define:

RETIRED

This user is no longer active on Wikipedia.

Back from wikibreak

When you return:

{{Back from short wikibreak}}

or

{{Back from long wikibreak}}

When you have been back for a while (i.e. 1 - 2 weeks)

 {{Not on Wikibreak}}

See also

• Meta:Wikibreak
• Wikibreak enforcer
• Category:Wikibreak templates