 | This is an essay on civility. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it 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 page in a nutshell: If people disagree with you or revert your edits, it probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. |
Life might seem easier sometimes if we all agreed with what everyone else said and all got along. But life just isn't like that. Different people have opposing points of view, and all the policies in the world can't help a borderline case. Sooner or later, somebody is going to disagree with you, and do it strongly.
It happens. And when it does, sometimes the best action can be to forget about it and walk away – after all, as an editor on a voluntary project, most of the time you're not actually required to do anything you don't want to. With rare exceptions, it's not the end of the world. 99.9999999999% of people working on Wikipedia won't notice and the encyclopedia will keep on moving. There really are more important things in life to worry about than whether or not somebody is a "pizza cheese jihadist", or whether something is in bold text or not.
A wise Wikipedian once said:
"A lot of the problems we have with civility, the interpretations of the policy, and probably about 90% of the disputes, are due to people overreacting. The world is not going to end because someone told you to fuck off, or reverted your edits a couple of times. Look at some pictures of baby animals for a while instead of making that ANI thread and things might turn out better in the long run."[1]
The Administrators' Noticeboard exists for the more extreme cases of harassment and general disruption towards Wikipedia. It doesn't exist for you to run off and complain because that nasty Wikipedian over there said something you didn't like. Don't shout your mouth off and throw your toys out of the pram, as that can make things worse.
Instead, take some time out, then come back and try to agree to a consensus. Or, since it's not actually the end of the world, just forget about it and do something else. Maybe the time is ripe for a wikiholiday.
Wikipedia can be used to escape from the real life. But real life can also be used to escape from Wikipedia. Don't hesitate to do so.
