User:What cat?/Wikipedia is not Space Invaders
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Take your time when dealing with someone making bad edits. |
Wikipedia is not a game of Space Invaders. You aren't trying to shoot down as many edits as possible and template the users making them so you can make your way to the final level. Keep in mind those people making the edits are human and they can simply not be understanding what you're trying to say. They might be a young student, trying to add what their teacher told them. They might have blanked the page completely on accident. They may think that their edit simply did not go through because it's reverted so quickly. I have seen all of these happen before, and simply telling them their edit was not constructive doesn't explain to them what's wrong and doesn't help them explain what's wrong.
When you simply drop a uw-vandalism1 or a uw-disruptive1 on their page, you are not helping.
If they have no talk page, add a welcoming message that also explains why their edit got removed to introduce them to how the Wiki works. Just because they don't respond to you doesn't mean they're intentionally doing it: they may have no clue how to reply or that you're even sending them a message! You have to work with these new editors to help them clearly understand why what they're doing is wrong.
As well, make sure to use the right template for the right job. If a user adds "hii tom" to a random article, consider why. They aren't test editing, they're trying to send someone else a message via Wikipedia. There's a template for that. If a user adds unsourced content that's absurd, that's bad, but instead of warning them for vandalism, perhaps warn them for unsourced content. Or, depending on the situation, warn them for adding factual errors. Or original research. Or, Twinkle includes all of these by default, and it's good to tell them what they're doing wrong instead of telling them they're being "unconstructive", as they likely have no clue what that even means.
And remember: you can always send them a message like any other user.