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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: The first rule about Bite Club is "you do not talk about Bite Club". The second rule about Bite Club is "you do not talk about Bite Club". |
When dealing with disruptive users, and especially when dealing with suspected sockpuppets, many administrators and other editors fall foul of the guideline Wikipedia:Do not bite the newcomers (better known by the shortcut WP:BITE).
The situation becomes rather more difficult when the offending admin (or experienced user) is reminded of this guideline, not by another experienced user (or admin), but by the very newcomer they are accused of being impolite towards. This rather begs the question: if the newcomer is so ignorant that they need to be protected by WP:BITE, how exactly did they know to link to that guideline?
Sadly, there are several Wikipedia policies and guidelines which, by their very nature, are open to being abused by bad-faith contributors. To put it another way: they are frequently cited by trolls. Thus, it is much easier to assume good faith when responding to "What do you mean, reliable source? I personally know this to be true" than to "Hey, why don't you not WP:BITE the newcomer and WP:AGF for once? I was just trying to WP:IAR".