Wikipedia:WikiBullying

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A WikiBully
Wikipedia should be free of bullying.

WikiBullying is using Wikipedia to threaten and/or intimidate other people, whether they are Wikipedia editors or not. Doing so violates

Wikipedia's civility policy
, and is not allowed anywhere on Wikipedia.

If you feel that you are being

WP:BOOMERANG
on individuals who have complained they are being bullied is contrary to the principles of respect for thoughtful intellectual discourse that Wikipedia represents. No one should ever be afraid to come forward to make the community aware of a bullying concern, and no one should ever feel (for one reason or another) that they can't come forward and report it.

There are essentially two forms of bullying on Wikipedia:

attacks against the individual editor
by targeting a single user, or giving the perception of power aimed at the entire Wikipedia community at large.

On Wikipedia, all editors have

entitled to their point of view
.

Stating a real policy when it is necessary is not considered WikiBullying.

Forms of WikiBullying

Asserting ownership

There are experts, or those otherwise very knowledgeable of a topic, in every field who create and make major contributions to the articles relating to that topic. They may be familiar with where to find sources of information to establish notability and vouch for accuracy, and have better overall knowledge (see

consensus
will determine the final outcome.

POV Railroading

Point of View (POV) railroading refers to the use of bullying tactics to discredit or eliminate an editor with an opposing viewpoint.

False accusations

False accusations are a common form of bullying on Wikipedia, although people do sometimes make

personal attack
.

Misrepresentation

Quoting others out of context and other forms of

try to find out
if there has been a misunderstanding.

Making "no-edit" orders contrary to policy

Another form of wikibullying is to issue no-edit orders which are not backed by current policies (or guidelines). A "no-edit" order is a message sent to a single editor (who is not

hidden text
that would not be missed if an editor attempts to edit the article or section. No editor may unilaterally take charge over an article or part of an article by sending no-edit orders.

There are some no-edit orders that are acceptable. For example, if a consensus has already been formed regarding a topic, and a single editor has constantly stubbornly defied the ruling, politely discussing this one-on-one on the user's talk page is acceptable.

If an

edit war
is in progress and the consensus is unclear, it is strongly encouraged to form a discussion between the two users or the entire group. Discussions are aimed at coming to a peaceful resolution and some other compromises are highly recommended.

Wikihounding

Wikihounding is the singling out of one or more editors by maliciously joining discussions on multiple pages or topics they may regularly contribute to and in order to repeatedly confront or inhibit their work. This is usually done with the intent to create irritation, annoyance, fear, or distress to the other editor. Wikihounding usually involves following the target from place-to-place on Wikipedia, and often can be identified by reviewing the offending user's contributions. If they are suddenly joining multiple discussions that the intended "recipient" regularly, or even recently, participates in and with no evidence that they had participated or even expressed interest in those subject areas before, and if this sudden participation is usually, if not solely, met with

disruption
toward the editor and the discussion – it is likely that the user you're investigating is participating in Wikihounding.

Use of hidden text

Hidden text is frequently used to give editing instructions. There are some acceptable and unacceptable uses for hidden text. Hidden texts may be suggestions, in which case they should not to be taken as law, or they may be notes about current consensus among editors, or about

can be exceptions to the rules
, however.

Some unacceptable uses are:

  • Telling all other editors not to edit the page
  • Telling others not to remove a section of the article, as if the section were written in stone
  • Telling others that a page should not be proposed for deletion, when this may be doubted by others
  • Writing new guidelines that apply specifically to the page and branding them as "policy." In the past, policies that have been proposed for a single article have failed to attain a consensus.

Real life threats

Scaring or making threats against the person, either on or outside of Wikipedia. See also

WP:VIOLENCE
.

The Wikimedia Foundation, if need be, will investigate or arrange for law enforcement to investigate threats of violence.

What bullying is not

A few things are often falsely identified as bullying:

  • A robust response to determined attempts to insert disputed content into an article.
  • Taking actions against
    attempts to promote a POV
    .
  • Sanctioning editors who
    do not take on board criticism
    .
  • Sanctioning editors who
    will not accept consensus
    .

If you complain of bullying, admins will look at your own edits and check to see that you have not been engaging in

stonewalling
debate.

Don't make unfounded complaints of bullying. For one thing, they undermine your own credibility. But more importantly, they trivialize the harm done by actual bullying.

See also