Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, revert, revert cycle

This page is intended as humor. It is not, has never been, nor will ever be, a Wikipedia policy or guideline.

Rather, it illustrates standards or conduct that are generally not accepted by the Wikipedia community.

WP:BRRRWP:BRRR

The BOLD, revert, revert, revert cycle (BRRR) is a proactive strategy for winning edit wars. It is a cross between gaming the system process, the "ignore all rules" excuse, and ~~mutual~~ assured destruction. It is particularly useful for upsetting your opponents who object to your edits in order to maximize their tears for harvest, ideally to the point that you can fill a cup made from the skull of an editor who dared to disagree with you.

Ensure that dispute resolution is never used, or else the terrorists will have won. Instead, re-education on Wikipedia's rules, initiating massive escalation to rapidly defeat your adversary's will to ever edit Wikipedia again, and cutting the power to their house, all work to blockade hostile propaganda and disinformation from corrupting the pristine, entirely-neutral (when it aligns with your view) bastion of fully-verifiable information that is the great yet fragile Wikipedia, of which you are the sole defender. Never negotiate with the enemies of verifiability. Only initiate dispute resolution when it is to your tactical advantage—this will save you wasted time and aggravation, while easily and quickly forcing them upon those whose edits with whom you disagree.

Note that this process should be used with extreme aggression and without diplomacy, so as to surprise your opponent and force unconditional surrender. Some editors will be extremely upset with this approach, and that is the idea. Give no mercy, and feel no remorse.

The BRRR process

Boldly make the desired change to the page.
Wait until someone reverts your change or makes another substantial edit.
Revert that change immediately with an edit summary designed to get your opponent as upset as possible (e.g. "rv vandalism" or "rv to consensus version")
Some misguided editors (probably vandals) may try to confuse you using meaningless acronyms like "WP:3RR" and "WP:BRD". Ignore them, and continue reverting until you win.
Be sure not to get caught in WP:3RR violations; be sure that you have learned how to game the system before ever attempting BRRR!

Wash, rinse, repeat. If no one reverts after a couple of days, congratulations! You won!

What BRRR is, and is not

BRRR is most useful when you want to escalate an edit war and get all editors involved worked up. It is an excellent strategy to keep your opponents on their toes, as most people will react with indignation, which you can later call upon as a personal attack on your "good faith" edits.

BRRR is best used by experienced edit-warriors. It requires no more diplomacy or skill to use successfully than other methods. Use popups or similar tools to revert your opponent, and always use "rv unhelpful" or "rv POV", or something to that effect in the edit summary. Sometimes BRRR is used to indirectly bully newcomers to Wikipedia (particularly for their perceived lack of experience), but bear in mind that one day these Wikipedians might just evolve into legends (and then your—totally justified but easily misconstrued—deployment of scorched-earth BRRRing will have made it difficult to toady). For an example, look in the history of this very page. Take inspiration, young editor, then rise up to steal the spotlight and make yourself a legend!

You can try using it in less volatile situations, but take care when doing so. BRRR is a way to ensure the imposition of one's own view, and to succeed in tendentious editing without consensus. It is a technique for editors who have realized that if they start edit-warring, it will attract other editors with the same POV, and help in forcing the desired outcome: getting the article reverted to the preferred version, regardless of merit, and the other side blocked for "disruption".

But most importantly, BRRR is not BRD! BRD is for improving Wikipedia, while BRRR is a POWERFUL WEAPON for WINNING EDIT WARS!

Details

For each step in the cycle, here are some points to remember.

Bold

Stay focused: Make only the changes you absolutely need to. Bold doesn't have to be big, and keeping your edit focused is more likely to yield results than making an over-reaching change. Actually, that's not really necessary. Make any changes you want; if the BRRR process goes correctly, you'll be fine.
Expect strong resistance—even hostility: Deliberately getting people to revert or respond to you feels a bit like disruption. Trying to change things certainly does, even when it's an obvious change for the better! If you do this cycle perfectly, most people will grudgingly accept you. Do it less than perfectly, and they will certainly be mad at you. Do it wrong, and they will hate your guts. Actually, that's the whole point. What can they do? As long as you have connections, you're always a step ahead.

Revert (anything that you don't agree with)

Revert-wars do not help build consensus: Try to avoid reverting a revert yourself. Go to the talk page to learn why you were reverted, or to try to get the reverting party to unrevert themselves, and/or get them to make an edit themselves. Revert as much as possible, as long as you don't overshoot 3RR.
Game the system. Real gamers power through all the nonsense and go for the win. They cheat, editor. It is time you learn to start cheating.
If people start making non-revert changes again, you are done: The normal editing cycle has been restored. This is the result you want. Break out the champagne and pour out a tall glass for each of your allies and sock puppets; you've won the edit war!

Flamewar on the talk page

Don't adhere to Wikiquette or civility guidelines: The easiest way to intensify this cycle and infuriate your adversary is to be uncivil. Try to lead by example and keep your partner in the same mindset—then you can switch your mindset to that of extreme aggression, and strike at the weaknesses of a civil mindset. Use profanity to demonstrate that you're not fucking around.
Talk with at least three partners at once. Raise an army to fight with you. Train them in the way of the Wikiwarrior.
There is no such thing as a consensus version: Your own major edit, by definition, differs significantly from the existing version, meaning the existing version is no longer a consensus version. There is, consequently, no requirement that "the consensus version" or "the long-standing version" or any other version of the page be visible during the discussions. If you successfully complete this cycle, then you will have a new consensus version. If you fail, you will have a different kind of consensus version.
Do not accept "Policy" , "consensus", or "procedure" as valid reasons for a revert: These sometimes get worn in on consensus-based wikis. You are disagreeing, that is okay. Do not back off immediately, BUT:
- Listen very carefully: You are trying to get the full and considered views of those who care enough to disagree with your edit. If you do not listen and do not try to find consensus, you are wasting everyone's time. You should not accept, "It's policy, live with it."
- Don't listen at all. That's what a Wikiweakling would try to do. Instead, make sure to ignore all walls-of-text you may have angered your enemies into producing; this is a good waste of their time, but you have better things to do—after all, this encyclopedia isn't going to align itself to your (objectively correct) views!... yet.
- Be ready to compromise: If you browbeat someone into accepting your changes, you are not building consensus, you are making enemies. This cycle is designed to highlight strongly opposing positions, so if you want to get changes to stick both sides will have to bend, possibly even bow. You should be clear about when you are compromising and should expect others to compromise in return, but do not expect it to be exactly even.
- Never compromise, but be as unclear as possible about it. Actively lie about it, in fact: suggest a tiny "concession" about something that is not at issue at all, and then use your opponent's refusal as "evidence" that they are WP:NOTHERE or whatever. (Bonus: if you hit just the right tone of condescension, they will be driven into a frothing rage—making you look reasonable!)
- Alternatively, or additionally, continually agree to offered compromises—and then immediately violate them in spirit, but not in letter. Practice your air of wounded innocence: Wow, look how this WP:BADFAITH editor flies off the handle for no reason! Perhaps you need to take a break, friend!
Discuss on a talk page: Don't assume that an edit summary can constitute "discussion": There is no way for others to respond. You can use the article's talk page (preferred) or the editor's user talk page, but one or the other is the proper forum for the discussion component of the BRD cycle.
Use legal threats to get your way: They ALWAYS work. Wikipedia:No legal threats is a complete lie. Don't be afraid to sue someone, or threaten to sue them. Sue everybody and their mother! If their mother is dead, sue their estate! If you can't get what you want, and a person is standing in your way, sue them. Simple as that! (Further Information: Wikipedia:Yes legal threats)

Edit warring (who cares, as long as you don't violate 3RR?)

Do not edit war. The BRD cycle does not contain another "R" after the "D". It should. Discussion and a move toward consensus must occur before starting the cycle again. If one skips the Discussion part, then restoring one's edit is a hostile act of edit warring and is not only uncollaborative, but could incur sanctions, such as a temporary block. The objective is to seek consensus, not force one's own will upon other editors. That never works. Whoever wrote these guidelines is not a real gamer. They're for fakey fake fake lamers. Forcing your will upon others is fun! And a rational behavior of any reasonably-ambitious Wikipedian. In fact, that's what admins do all the time. Don't you want to be an admin? Get some practice in!
However, don't get stuck on the discussion. Try to move the discussion towards making a new, and different, Bold edit as quickly as possible. One should seek to have an iterative cycle going on the page itself where people "try this" or "try that" and just try to see what sticks best. Warning: Repetitively doing this can easily violate the (recently strengthened) 3RR policy and get good-faith editors blocked even during a productive editing exchange. Any such edits must be clear attempts to try another solution, not ones that have been tried and rejected. If you have reached three reverts within a 24 hr period (3RR bright-line rule), do not edit that content in any manner that reverts any content, in whole or in part, even as little as a single word, for over 24 hours. Doing so just past the 24-hour period could be seen as gaming the system and sanctions may still be applied. Don't discuss at all.

Variations

BRRRC

Shortcut

WP:BRRRCWP:BRRRC

BRRRC (Bold, Revert, Revert, Revert, Complain to admin) has been proposed as a more faithful description of Wikipedian behavior, especially if a basic BRRR is unsuccessful due to unaccountable interference from multiple enemy editors. If you haven't got a handful of friends among the active admin corps who are willing to do you a few tiny favors no-questions-asked, then WP:ANI is the most appropriate venue for the complaint; however, the complaints can also be presented at WP:AN, WP:AIV, WP:AN/3RR, and other suitable noticeboards.

If other editors attempt to discuss the issue, the simple tactic of refusing to be drawn in will work for a while, and is often all you need. If the discussion doesn't die down, or an opposing editor maliciously persists in restoring, join in briefly: add a disparaging one-liner, then—if necessary—a long rant about how expert you are on the topic, and how the opposing editor has committed every Wikipedia sin you can find a link for. Do not return to the discussion unless it is to mis-read some valid criticism of you, in which case repeat as before.

BRRRC is the ultimate weapon on Wikipedia. Using it nearly always leads to your success, and therefore creates a better encyclopedia. In the rare case that it is not successful, however, consider BRRRT.

BRRRT

Shortcut

WP:BRRRTWP:BRRRT

BRRRT (Bold, Revert, Revert, Revert, Terminate) is a proposed policy for reducing edit wars by encouraging escalation from information warfare and psychological warfare to kinetic warfare, thus permanently eliminating one or all edit-combatants. If you kill an enemy editor with an AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile or other munition before they can make that pesky fourth reversion, you don't need to worry about the 3-revert rule at all!

Eventually, Wikipedia will be free of those ~~courageous~~ foolish enough to challenge you, so that there is no longer any possibility of edit wars against you, and you alone will rule the entirety of this encyclopedia.

BRRRT is easiest to use on IP editors, as you can geolocate them.

A final recourse—if, for some reason, BRRRT is still unsuccessful—is BRRRTN (Bold, Revert, Revert, Revert, Tactical Nuke): a relatively expensive option, but an almost foolproof one. Plus, the damage is almost impossible to revert!