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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: If you toss a grenade at a noticeboard, you need to stick around for the fireworks. |
They've gone and done it. They've pushed you past the brink, they've demonstrated an absolutely clueless disregard for Wikipedia policy, their attacks and refusal to listen to you are just too much to bear. And so it's time, time to take them to...the messageboard. Or perhaps somebody else has threatened to take you to the noticeboard, and you've decided to take the initative and do it first. Getting in the first word and putting your opponent on the back foot can only help, right?
The thing is, it's obvious to you that their disruption and policy-flouting are so blatant that anybody can tell; and maybe they've also harassed you to the point that you just know they'll be coming around to snark and snap and try to get boomerangs tossed at you. And so, once you've finished laying out the dramatic evidence of their misdeeds, you decide to add a note, that you aren't going to be returning to the subject on the board, now that you've reported it.
Well, that sharp crack you just heard was the result of your grenade rolling back into your own trenchline. When you make a report on a noticeboard, you're expected to stick around. The admins' noticeboards aren't places where you can fire and forget; they're places where you have to discuss what the problem you're having that's escalated so quickly you had to bring it there is about. There might simply be a need for clarification on your part, or perhaps it will arise that your own conduct needs defending. And you can't do either of those if all you did was lob a grenade and run away.
When you've pulled the pin, Mr. Grenade is not your friend. That goes for notice-board pineapples at Wikipedia just as much (if somewhat less lethally) than it does for real ones. So if you're ready to fling a Mills bomb at AN/I, remember that the consequences are something you can't escape.
