User:CreatorTheWikipedian2009/Why having fun on Wikipedia is bad?
 | This is an essay. 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: Wikipedia is a serious encyclopedia, trying to have fun might be considered vandalistic, or rude. Any fun should be reserved for April Fools' Day, and with special guidelines, or you risk getting blocked. |
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. It's not a web host, a vote, a directory, place for advertising, not any other Wikimedia project. It's not a place to have fun, either. It's not Uncyclopedia, either. Copying anything from that material is vandalism. Everything must adhere to every policies and guidelines, althrough there are exceptions, however you need to consider those exceptions. Here are the detailed reasons for why fun is not permitted on Wikipedia.
What is Wikipedia?
[edit]Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, written by over 49 million users. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, and made only for encyclopedic purposes. Wikipedia is not...
- about us
- about whining
- about winning
- about writing
- an anarchy or a forum for free speech
- aniconistic
- being written in an organized fashion
- a battleground
- a blog, web hosting service, social networking service, or memorial site
- a bureaucracy (Not to be confused with Wikipedia:Bureaucrats)
- censored
- a contest
- compulsory
- convalescent center
- a crystal ball
- a democracy
- a dictionary Sorry, Wiktionary
- a directory
- for sale (See also: Wikipedia:Paid editing)
- for things made up one day (The thing we call, a speedy deletion criterion called A11 is up here)
- a game of Mother, May I?
- a game of UNO
- a gazetter
- guess, guess, guess
- here to settle bar bets
- here to tell the world about your noble cause
- an indiscriminate collection of information
- just an encyclopedia
- a laboratory
- a manual, guidebook, textbook, or scientific journal
- MeatballWiki
- a mirror or a repository of links, images, or media files
- a newspaper
- performance art
- pie
- a publisher of original thought
- RationalWiki
- a soapbox or means of promotion
- spelling checker
- the Stanford Prison Experiment
- the Tardis Data Core
- therapy
- toilet paper
- TV
- TV Tropes
- a video game
- a wine guide
- Whac-A-Mole
...alright, we know what Wikipedia is. Let's go further.
Types of fun
[edit]- vandalism
- editing disruptively, and having fun doing it
- edit warring
- jokes
- template abuse
- and much more.
Why fun should kept away?
[edit]First of all, it will be bad. An user will see the edit and will revert it away. In extreme cases, the revision might be hidden from public view via revision deletion, or suppressing. There are hundreds of recent changes patrols, and one will caught you. They'll you place a warning on your talk page. Keep piling up your warnings, and you'll be reported. And the dreaded thing... Blocking! And there's no way to circumvent blocking. Sockpuppetry? You'll be stopped by a CheckUser. Arbitration Committee has their special blocks for bad things. And if you keep having fun, Wikimedia Foundation will permanently ban you by being stalked by stewards. You aren't safe even during April Fools' Day. You have to follow every single rule. And remember, "ignore all rules" does not mean you need to stop following policies. That might get you in trouble. Also, some pages are protected, so you can't have fun at all. Even the sandbox is no exempt from the rules. Then, there are edit filters, so you are constantly protected from bad additions. The real baddies, called administrators, or internally "sysops", are the people behind the controlling and moderation. Even some Wikipedia places are restricted, like Special:Block, and the oversight log. You'll just be blinded by "Permission error" pages. And captions that say: "You do not have permission to do X, for the following reason(s): This page is protected, You are blocked, blah blah blah." On special occasions, like office actions, you most be polite and lead discussions about the situation. No personal attacks, no legal threats, just be calm. You just get desysopped. That's not actually funny.
The moral
[edit]Don't have fun anywhere on Wikipedia. Even on your personal sandbox. Go ahead, and edit maturely.
See also
[edit]Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines
Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not