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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: Always keep an eye on yourself when you are involved in a dispute. |
It's easy to get caught up in an emotionally fired up argument over something that is so important that it must be fixed immediately. Moral outrage over something is a common source of this, but before cutting and stabbing the offending text, perform a sanity check to see if any actual policies are being violated.
Remember, there are few things on Wikipedia that won't fix themselves, either because someone else sees it or because it's not actually a big deal.
Take a breath, do something not computer- or Wikipedia-related. Go into the real world and speak to family and friends. Take a walk and relax...and then come back. Chances are whatever it was that caused you distress is either no longer a problem, or doesn't make you feel as stressed as it did when you first found it.
In the end, remember: It's just an encyclopedia. We're volunteers working to create a repository of knowledge. There are editors from all backgrounds, and because of this, all of them have a major problem with at least some of the others, whether it's because some editors are antagonistic, murderers, or even politiciansorbureaucrats in the Department of Motor Vehicles (yes, that one, who denied your old Gremlin a new permit sticker last year). We won't always agree with each other, but we can co-exist.
If the problem persists, there are systems in place to deal with almost any imaginable misuse. Use them, but don't overreact. Say someone puts an outrageous statement into an article. No matter how outrageous it is, your first response should be to fix or revert it. Even if the statement is the most evil, deviant, misanthropic, filthy and intolerant thing you have ever read in your entire life, that single statement does not merit going straight to Wikipedia:Requests for Arbitration and demanding the user and every IP address the user has ever used be banned forever.
Have you considered that the panic-inducing activity might have been trolling? It may be that attention is exactly what the user is looking for. Quietly deal with the problem in the most minimal way required to protect the encyclopedia, and the "troll" will often just go away.
