Wikipedia:ANI flu
This is a humorous essay. 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 in a nutshell: Scientists have noted that unflattering mentions at ANI are associated with an increased incidence of sudden-onset debilitating illness. |
Everyone does things they shouldn't, now and then, some more than others. Some prolific editors have – wittingly or unwittingly – built unfortunate reputations on the project for repeated edit warring and belligerent behavior. Occasionally this culminates in the opening of a
Background
Supposing you're an ostensibly
Admit fault.Hang on. You may be asked to voluntarily subject yourself to aWP:TBANrestriction. If you’re an administrator and you do that, you might even be asked to resign your tools. Then you can't block anyone, and you'll have resigned "under a cloud" so you'll never get them back! Naah.- Argue that everyone else is wrong. That sounds like an awful lot of effort, and time spent away from your article ownershipor block button. What fun's that?
- Accuse everyone of being a sockpuppet and
payget a checkuser to block them. The trouble is, these damn checkusers want diffs of all things. Who ever reads those?
Surely there's some other way of getting out of it. Well, why not simply call in sick? Nobody's ever going to question your actions if you're in poor health. So pull a sickie and watch for thread to close as "no action". (You don't have to actually say that you're sick. Simply going silent – as if you've fallen into a coma or inexplicably lost use of your fingers – until discussion peters out is an effective way to avoid sanctions: "[Username] hasn't edited since [date], so it looks like the disruption has stopped.")
Symptoms
The symptoms of ANI flu are sudden, and affect an editor’s ability to reply to criticism, no matter how egregious the conduct complained of. The only known cure is to close the ANI thread or Arbitration case in question, whereby the communication abilities are miraculously restored.
Health warning
Be advised that if the community is really angry at you, an episode of ANI flu can be fatal.
Discretion
Depending on context, accusing someone of ANI flu might be construed as a
ANI Possum
Those playing ANI Possum may be quarantined (desysoped or blocked) to prevent further harm to the community.
In popular culture
The phrase was popularised by the 19th-century poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem The Masque of Anarchy, which contains the line "Ye are ANI, they are flu".[1] Likewise, it has been suggested as the origins of the UK Labour Party's slogan, under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, "For the ANI, not the flu".[2]
See also
Notes
- ^ Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1847). Shelley, Mrs. (ed.). The works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. pp. 231–235.
- ^ "Londoner's Diary: Do Jeremy Corbyn's Romantic words come from Shelley?". www.standard.co.uk. May 19, 2017.