Wikipedia talk:Reference desk

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How to handle trolling

As a reminder, per WP:DNFT and WP:RBI, please do not leave loud, obvious memorials to trolling. If it is serious enough to "box it up" with hat/hab tags, it is serious enough to just delete it. Revert and ignore; if a block is needed, WP:AIV is the place to go. All boxing up does is draw extra attention to the trolling. Please just delete it. --Jayron32 12:26, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

What if the troll or banned user has already received good faith replies? Should those also be deleted? Bear in mind that WP:TALK says other people's comments should not be deleted. The list of exceptions at Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#Editing others' comments does not cover this eventuality. --Viennese Waltz 12:53, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

The Angelino who set the trap on the 9/11 question certainly qualifies. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:57, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

In recent incidents, from a troll operating in the 166 IP range, whether I boxed them up or deleted them, the troll kept coming back and undoing those box-ups and deletions. So the other alternative is to let admins, such as yourself, handle them. Whack-a-moley. 14:36, 13 September 2022 (UTC)←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→

WikiAsk

As many will recall - I gave up on writing answers for the RefDesk many years ago - for many reasons - and have been answering question on Quora ever since. I get between 1 and 2 million readers PER WEEK reading my answers - and have 45,000 people who requested notifications to read everything that I write. This, together with a much nicer set of interfaces to support commenting and such, is the reason Quora is so successful.

Pick any subject and you can find hundreds of questions that are worth answering, and the comments section is (mostly) filled with intelligent conversation.

However, Quora is for-profit and that causes all manner of problems.

So WikiAsk is once again springing into life - but this time, they have a usable beta version that actually functions.

Check it out: [1]

I really REALLY think that RefDesk denizens should be supporting this - and I know a lot of Quora folks who'd like to do so too. So I encourage everyone here to look at WikiAsk, not as a rival or something that will kill the RefDesk - but rather as an opportunity to kick the RefDesk's tiny audience and tiny pool of experts into the stratosphere.

You guys (mostly) do great work - and you deserve a much larger audience...and this is how that can happen.

So I'm strongly recommending that you support this proposal - and treat it, not as a rival - or a way to kill the RefDesk - but rather as the logical next step.

If WikiAsk springs into life this time around - I want to be there with you guys making it work.

SteveBaker (talk) 11:39, 29 September 2022 (UTC)