Wikipedia:Disruptive editing

6. Campaign to drive away productive contributors: act counter to policies and guidelines such as
   meatpuppetry
   that might not exhaust the general community's patience but still operates toward an end of exhausting the patience of productive, rule-abiding editors on certain articles.

When one becomes frustrated with the way a

Such behavior, wherever it occurs, is highly

Practically speaking, it is impossible for Wikipedia to be 100 percent consistent, and its rules will therefore never be perfect. If consensus strongly disagrees with you even after you have made proper efforts, then respect the consensus, rather than trying to sway it with disruptive tactics.

Note that it is possible to make a point, without disrupting Wikipedia to illustrate it.

Sometimes, editors perpetuate disputes by sticking to a viewpoint long after community

Believing that you have a valid point does not confer the right to act as though your point must be accepted by

Sometimes, even when editors act in

From Wikipedia:Neutral point of view:

Neutrality requires that each article or other page in the mainspace fairly represents all significant viewpoints that have been published by reliable sources, in proportion to the prominence of each viewpoint. Giving due weight and avoiding giving undue weight means that articles should not give minority views as much of or as detailed a description as more widely held views.

Editors may present active public disputes or controversies documented by reliable sources; citing a viewpoint stated in a mainstream scholarly journal, textbook, or monograph is not per se disruptive editing. This exemption does not apply to settled disputes, e.g. that the Sun revolves around the Earth. (The dispute itself is notable.)

Sometimes well-meaning editors may be misled by fringe publications or make mistakes. Such people may defend their positions for a short time, then concede the issue when they encounter better evidence or impartial feedback.

Bad-faith disruptive editors attempt to evade

• Their edits occur over a long period of time, in which case no single edit is disruptive but the overall pattern clearly is.
• Their edits are largely confined to talk pages; such disruption may not directly harm an article, but it often prevents other editors from reaching consensus on how to improve it.
• Their comments may avoid breaches of
  personal attacks
  but still interfering with civil and collaborative editing and discussion.
• Their edits are limited to a small number of pages that very few people watch.
• Conversely, their edits may be distributed over a wide range of articles to make it less likely that any given user watches a sufficient number of affected articles to notice the disruptions.

Nonetheless, such disruptive editing violates Wikipedia policy and norms.

The following is a model for remedies, though these steps do not necessarily have to be done in this sequence. In some extreme circumstances, a rapid report to

• First unencyclopedic entry by what appears to be a disruptive editor:
  • Do not bite the newcomers
    , and be aware you may be dealing with someone who is new and confused, rather than a problem editor.
• If editor restores, or unreverts:
  • If sourced information appears this time around, do nothing; if not, revert again if they haven't responded at the talkpage. Ensure a clear explanation for the difference in opinion is posted by you at the article talkpage. Refer to this thread in your edit summary. If possible, suggest compromises at the talkpage.
• If reverting continues, and they are inserting unsourced information:
  • Revert, and request administrator assistance via
    your own history must be clean
    . At all times, stay civil, and avoid engaging in multiple reverts yourself.
• If tendentious editor is using sources, but if the sources are poor or misinterpreted:
  • Do not go to ANI yet.
  • Review Wikipedia:Dispute resolution.
  • File a report at the
    Reliable Sources noticeboard
    , if appropriate.
  • Continue attempts to engage the editor in dialogue. Refer to policies and guidelines as appropriate.
    • If only two editors are involved, seek a
      Third Opinion
      .
    • If more editors are involved, try a
      Request for comment
      .
• If attempts at dispute resolution are rejected or unsuccessful, or the problems continue:
  • Notify the editor you find disruptive on their user talkpage.
    Include diffs of the problematic behavior. Use a section name and/or edit summary to clearly indicate that you view their behavior as disruptive, but avoid being unnecessarily provocative. Remember, you're still trying to de-escalate. If other editors are involved, they should post their own comments too, to make clear the community disapproves.
• If tendentious editor continues reverting:
  • Use templates {{
    subst:uw-disruptive4
    }}.
  • Assuming it's one editor against many at this point, continue reverting the tendentious editor. If they exceed three reverts in a 24-hour period, file a report at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring (but be careful you don't do excessive reverts yourself!). However, one tendentious editor cannot maintain problematic content in the face of multiple other editors reverting their edits.
• If tendentious editor is not violating the three-revert rule (3RR), or there aren't enough editors involved to enforce Wikipedia policies:
  • File a report at ANI, even if you have already filed one or more.
• If editor continues to ignore consensus of any decision reached at ANI:
  • Again, request assistance at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents for administrator intervention, and point to consensus from earlier talk pages or noticeboards. An admin should issue a warning or temporary block as appropriate.
• If blocks fail to solve the problem, or you are still unable to obtain attention via ANI, and all other avenues have been tried:
  • File a case for the
    Arbitration Committee
    to review. Base it strictly on user conduct, and not on article content.

• Disruptive editing may result in warnings and then escalating blocks, typically starting with 24 hours.
• Accounts used primarily for disruption will most likely be
  blocked indefinitely
  .

All edits on

• Wikipedia:Avoiding talk-page disruption
• Wikipedia:Disruptive sanctions
• Wikipedia:Don't ignore community consensus
• Wikipedia:Griefing
• Wikipedia:Hate is disruptive
• Wikipedia:Just drop it
• Wikipedia:Self-limiting sanctions
• Wikipedia:Tag team
• Wikipedia:Talk
• Wikipedia:WikiBullying
• Wikipedia:You are not irreplaceable