It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors and is made to be humorous. This page is not 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 essay isn't meant to be taken seriously.
This page is intended as
humor. It is not, has never been, nor will ever be, a Wikipedia
policy or guideline. Rather, it illustrates standards or conduct that are generally not accepted by
the Wikipedia community.
This page in a nutshell: Linking to, editing, reading or even thinking about this page are indefinitely blockable offenses.
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: either desist with being a dick altogether, or become a gigantic dick so that immediate banning becomes justified.
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.
BGD: Begin sourcing extensively, using "reliable" founts of knowledge such as
Stormfront,
Encyclopedia Dramatica, or even (gasp) other Wikipedia articles 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.
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. Make sure, when reverting, to use edit summaries like "Reverting vandalism".
CAD: Try to be friendly to newbies, and help them avoid common pitfalls.
BGD: Whenever editing, use highly offensive profanity or language explicitly intended to offend 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 the letter of 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.
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 as many pages as possible with racial slurs/homophobic slurs/phallic references/scatological references.
CAD: Um... don't vandalize?
Ignore or erase concerns about your edits or other actions.
BGD: Tell anybody who questions your actions “
Because I said so”, or even to "go fuck themselves".
CAD: Be willing to justify and civilly discuss your actions.
Post unnecessarily verbose comments and responses, partially consisting of only tenuously relevant issues, 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 topic 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.
BGD: Use the edit summary to make
personal attacks on other editors, laced with plenty of profanity, and include some links to malware and shock sites for good measure. Or, just not put an edit summary at all.
CAD: Use the edit summary to describe accurately, concisely and civilly what changes you are making.
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 calling people "NAZIS", for example, 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, they will tend to make more enemies, and alienate their friends and allies. Furthermore, even moderate "dickery" may lead them to ultimately getting themselves
blocked, and even
banned, if it goes on long enough. Extreme dickery just has a shorter lifespan.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors and is made to be humorous. This page is not 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 essay isn't meant to be taken seriously.
This page is intended as
humor. It is not, has never been, nor will ever be, a Wikipedia
policy or guideline. Rather, it illustrates standards or conduct that are generally not accepted by
the Wikipedia community.
This page in a nutshell: Linking to, editing, reading or even thinking about this page are indefinitely blockable offenses.
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: either desist with being a dick altogether, or become a gigantic dick so that immediate banning becomes justified.
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.
BGD: Begin sourcing extensively, using "reliable" founts of knowledge such as
Stormfront,
Encyclopedia Dramatica, or even (gasp) other Wikipedia articles 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.
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. Make sure, when reverting, to use edit summaries like "Reverting vandalism".
CAD: Try to be friendly to newbies, and help them avoid common pitfalls.
BGD: Whenever editing, use highly offensive profanity or language explicitly intended to offend 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 the letter of 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.
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 as many pages as possible with racial slurs/homophobic slurs/phallic references/scatological references.
CAD: Um... don't vandalize?
Ignore or erase concerns about your edits or other actions.
BGD: Tell anybody who questions your actions “
Because I said so”, or even to "go fuck themselves".
CAD: Be willing to justify and civilly discuss your actions.
Post unnecessarily verbose comments and responses, partially consisting of only tenuously relevant issues, 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 topic 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.
BGD: Use the edit summary to make
personal attacks on other editors, laced with plenty of profanity, and include some links to malware and shock sites for good measure. Or, just not put an edit summary at all.
CAD: Use the edit summary to describe accurately, concisely and civilly what changes you are making.
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 calling people "NAZIS", for example, 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, they will tend to make more enemies, and alienate their friends and allies. Furthermore, even moderate "dickery" may lead them to ultimately getting themselves
blocked, and even
banned, if it goes on long enough. Extreme dickery just has a shorter lifespan.