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"WP:SURPRISING" redirects here. Not to be confused with
WP:ASTONISH .
This page contains material that is kept because it is considered
humorous . Such material is not meant to be taken seriously.
A Wikipedian reacts with a mixture of shock and surprise
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.—
Ecclesiastes 1:9
Some things can be surprising about Wikipedia.
Some things, given some thought, should not be.
Some examples of things that should not be surprising:
People
Sometimes people who aren't vandals get blocked because they were behaving like assholes.
Sometimes people who aren't vandals get blocked because someone doesn't like them.
Blocks that are poorly justified may be reverted by another admin upon appeal.
Blocks that are properly justified probably won't be reverted by another admin upon appeal.
Not all users are on Wikipedia 24/7 and thus may not be able to respond immediately to personal requests.
Idiots are just as common on Wikipedia as anywhere else.
Articles
Naked people exist, and might be used to illustrate an article about, say,
nudism .
Any page will never be 100% correct (except
List of Pokémon characters ).
Articles about ongoing ethnic feuds are subject to ongoing feuds between ethnic groups.
Some articles are crap (but you can fix it, what are you waiting for?!).
Sports teams hope to make the playoffs.
Seriousness
Some people are way too serious about the tone of articles.
Some people are too silly when writing or editing articles.
Some people are way too serious about themselves.
Sometimes the Internet is serious business.
Sometimes the Internet isn't serious business, but some people refuse to believe it.
Vandalism
Vandals get blocked.
Vandalism on widely watched articles gets quickly reverted, while vandalism on minor stubs and other low-traffic pages is slower to be reverted.
People will vandalize anything and everything.
There is much more vandalism while school is in session.
Disagreements
People can edit war about some really stupid things .
People can argue over the smallest things.
People can argue over the dumbest things.
A
large portion of the back end of Wikipedia is dedicated to resolving disputes.
Being a
dick doesn't resolve conflicts.
Being a
giant dick isn't a winning move in a conflict.
Conflicts of interest
You (and your
college garage band /
vanity press novel) are most likely not notable.
Sometimes people edit their articles to make themselves look better.
Sometimes corporations/NGOs/governments edit their articles to make themselves look better.
Sometimes people edit articles to make their enemies look worse.
IP addresses can be traced back to their owners .
Miscellaneous
People behave as if
articles for deletion and
requests for adminship are votes, and yet loudly declare they aren't votes.
The
MediaWiki software can be fucking weird sometimes.
The "edit this page" link actually lets people edit pages.
Shit happens.
Shit OFTEN happens.
Either way you look at it, you're screwed.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia .
One day you will die and all of your contributions will be transcluded, erased, overwritten, invalidated, vandalized, or forgotten, but you will not be able to do anything about it.
Most edits whose summaries contain variations on the word "accurate", especially ones by IPs or redlinked names, need to be reverted for being anything but "accurate".
And finally
A page documenting obvious facts exists somewhere.
People will actually look up and read a page documenting obvious facts, just like you are right now.
Adminitis
Akin's Laws of Article Writing
Alternatives to edit warring
ANI flu
Anti-Wikipedian
Anti-Wikipedianism
Articlecountitis
Asshole John rule
Assume bad faith
Assume faith
Assume good wraith
Assume stupidity
Assume that everyone's assuming good faith, assuming that you are assuming good faith
Avoid using preview button
Avoid using wikilinks
Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense
Barnstaritis
Before they were notable
BOLD, revert, revert, revert
Boston Tea Party
Butterfly effect
CaPiTaLiZaTiOn MuCh?
Complete bollocks
Counting forks
Counting juntas
Crap
Don't stuff beans up your nose
Don't-give-a-fuckism
Don't abbreviate "Wikipedia" as "Wiki"!
Don't delete the main page
Editcountitis
Edits Per Day
Editsummarisis
Editing Under the Influence
Embrace Stop Signs
Emerson
Fart
Five Fs of Wikipedia
Seven Ages of Editor, by Will E. Spear-Shake
Go ahead, vandalize
How many Wikipedians does it take to change a lightbulb?
How to get away with UPE
How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
How to vandalize correctly
How to win a citation war
Ignore all essays
Ignore every single rule
Is that even an essay?
Mess with the templates
My local pond
Newcomers are delicious, so go ahead and bite them
Legal vandalism
List of jokes about Wikipedia
LTTAUTMAOK
No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man
No one cares about your garage band
No one really cares
No, really
No sorcery threats
Notability is not eternal
Oops Defense
Play the game
Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you
Please bite the newbies
Please do not murder the newcomers
Pledge of Tranquility
R-e-s-p-e-c-t
Requests for medication
Requirements for adminship
Rouge admin
Rouge editor
Sarcasm is really helpful
Sausages for tasting
The Night Before Wikimas
The first rule of Wikipedia
The Five Pillars of Untruth
Things that should not be surprising
The WikiBible
Watchlistitis
Wikipedia is an MMORPG
WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!
What Wikipedia is not/Outtakes
Why not create an account?
Yes legal threats
You don't have to be mad to work here, but
You should not write meaningless lists
About essays Policies and guidelines