Wikipedia:Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you

Lately, it has come to our attention that some people are being only slightly dickish, rather than either not being dicks at all, or being giant dicks (who can be banned).

This is a request for members of the Wikipedia community to cease mild dickery, and either desist with being a dick altogether, or to become a gigantic dick so that immediate banning becomes possible.

Sometimes, its a matter of perspective.

Examples

Each example states a form of mild dickery along with suggestions as to what to do if you choose the "become a giant dick" (BGD) or the "cease all dickery" (CAD) paths.

• Engage in veiled personal attacks.

BGD: Start calling people "NAZIS!!!".

CAD: Try to avoid all personal remarks.

• Delete images without removing the resulting redlinks, and then claim you're too busy deleting more images to go back to remove said red links.

BGD: Delete the main page and block all the editors who have annoyed you in the past.

CAD: Follow the "what links here" button and remove all links to the image you're deleting.

• Revert only three times a day against your opponents in an edit war.

BGD: Revert 300 times a day against your opponents in an edit war.

CAD: Try to compromise, or at least use Wikipedia:Dispute resolution.

• Fail to source information properly and clearly.

BGD: Begin sourcing extensively, using reliable founts of knowledge such as Stormfront and Encyclopedia Dramatica as references.

CAD: Begin sourcing extensively, using reliable founts of knowledge such as academic journals, works published by field experts, and reputable media as references.

• Lightly haze newbies.

BGD: Report any new editor to a controversial article on Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism, regardless of the fact that they were (accurately) correcting spelling errors.

CAD: Try to be friendly to newbies, and help them avoid common pitfalls.

• Use vulgar and offensive language when editing

BGD: Whenever editing, use profanity or language with the intention of offending people.

CAD: Always be sure to use appropriate language, and try not to offend anyone.

• Start a single-purpose account to push your particular point-of-view, while carefully adhering to all Wikipedia policies and making a few token edits to other articles to muddy the issue.

BGD: Within 24 hours of creating your account, revert on the same article at least twenty times, and when you inevitably get blocked, continue to abuse the unblock template until you lose access to your user talk page.

CAD: Get some Wiki-experience editing articles you don't feel passionately about first, and only return to the hot button articles once you feel comfortable with the consensus-building process.

• Fail to keep Wikipedia neutral.

BGD: Keep an article one-sided and make sure it states only one point of view. Don't forget the profanity.

CAD: When editing, make sure that the article always shows all sides of the issue and is not biased or in favor of anything or anyone.

• Fail to fix double redirects when moving pages.

BGD: Keep moving pages around randomly, creating long chains of redirects in the process.

CAD: Whenever you move a page, use the What links here feature to find any double redirects and fix them.

• Engage in highly offensive vandalism, but only do it once a week, and make sure to blank the warnings on your Talk page so that your pattern of vandalism goes unnoticed for months.

BGD: Replace the main page with racial slurs/homophobic slurs/phallic references/scatological references/"WIKIPEDIA SUX0RZ!"

CAD: Um... don't vandalize?

• Ignore or erase concerns about your edits or other actions.

BGD: Tell anybody who questions your actions to "go fuck themselves".

CAD: Be willing to justify and civilly discuss your actions.

• Start linking red links occasionally, and if they are somewhat related to the article.

BGD: Always link red links, especially with nonsense or complete sentences.

CAD: Only link red links if they are very related to the article.

• Post unnecessarily verbose comments and responses, partially consisting of only tenuously relevant points, in discussions.

BGD: Respond to every single comment by repeatedly flooding pages with enormous reams of text without paragraphing while ensuring you not only discuss the original points but also touch on the article subject and attack everyone around you, and when asked to truncate your comments respond with equally impenetrable screeds.

CAD: Ensure contributions to discussions are clear, concise, and address the matter at hand while allowing others to make their points as well.

What's the point of this page, then?

• In all seriousness, being a dick on a small scale can be more damaging over the long term – to both yourself, and others – than being a large scale one, for the simple reason that it is easier to recognise that, for example, calling people "FASCISTS" is a personal attack, than it is to recognise that saying that a person's "opinion can probably be discounted, as he appears to support Wikipedia attack sites" is also a personal attack. Therefore, it is harder to discover and to handle.

• The damage to the individual by behaving like a dick is quite real, by the way. By being a dick, he will tend to make more enemies, and alienate his friends and allies. Furthermore, even moderate "dickery" may lead to him to ultimately getting himself blocked, and even banned, if it goes on long enough. Extreme dickery just has a shorter lifespan.

See also

• Wikipedia:Give 'em enough rope, and they'll hang themselves
• Wikipedia:You must feed the trolls
• Wikipedia:Do not feed the trolls
• m:Don't be a dick
• Goofus and Gallant