| Revision as of 07:43, 11 September 2006 view sourceKrakatoaKatie (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Checkusers, Oversighters, Administrators34,320 edits Revert to revision 74732356 dated 2006-09-09 16:04:54 by Geni using popups← Previous edit | Revision as of 17:05, 11 September 2006 view source Radiant! (talk | contribs)36,918 edits Simplify. It's obvious, no?Next edit → | ||
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{{guideline|]}} | ||
| {{Proposal in a nutshell|Because they may glorify vandals and other negative editors, categories, user pages, and tracking pages which serve to describe or document patterned edit abuse should be kept to a minimum.}} | |||
| ==Explanation== | |||
| It is said that Misplaced Pages has too many pages about vandals. Some of these pages are useful, some are meaningless bookkeeping and some seem only to glorify the vandal in question. Some people believe that this perceived glory is an added incentive for vandalism. At any rate Misplaced Pages needs not honor its detractors. | |||
| == |
==What to do== | ||
| If you see a page about vandals or vandalism that you think have no practical purpose, list them for deletion at ]. If you see a whole group of similar pages, make a group nomination. Of course, vandalism itself is subject to immediate reversion and/or deletion, as always. | |||
| Strong motivations for vandalism (as distinguished from general abuse such as harassment and edit warring) range from a desire for recognition and infamy<ref>As an example of desire for recognition and infamy as a motivation for vandalism, see on ].</ref> to frustration with the project or community<ref>For more information of motivations for wiki vandalism, see the Misplaced Pages article ].</ref>. Vandalism is ''encouraged'' by offering such users exceptional notice. This is particularly true for prolific vandals, who are immortalised by Misplaced Pages pages, meticulously catalogued by category pages, dedicated specific templates, and who thereby become a notable part of wiki culture. | |||
| This glorification of vandalism through infamy encourages ]s through ], where users imitate notorious or unique vandalism methods for amusement, to share in the infamy, or for the thrill of defying authority and/or the perception of destroying other users' work. Denying recognition and infamy would remove the primary motivations for vandalism and disruption. Categories such as ] serve no purpose other than as a vast trophy room, with usernames often using symbols in an attempt to be on the first page. | |||
| == Mitigating vandalism == | |||
| IP addresses stored for registered users are only kept in the system for so long; categorising a user after this period of time serves no useful purpose. For the reasons outlined above, the following pages should be deleted: | |||
| * Userpages of blatant ] vandals (vandals following a set pattern) and those belonging to indefinitely blocked users several weeks after their block (unless the account has made a significant number of useful contributions). These are often indexed by search engines and mirrored, which tends to encourage notoriety. | |||
| * Block categories which serve no useful purpose; this includes such categories as ] and ]. | |||
| == References == | |||
| <references /> | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 17:05, 11 September 2006
 | This page documents an English Misplaced Pages ]. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
]
Explanation
It is said that Misplaced Pages has too many pages about vandals. Some of these pages are useful, some are meaningless bookkeeping and some seem only to glorify the vandal in question. Some people believe that this perceived glory is an added incentive for vandalism. At any rate Misplaced Pages needs not honor its detractors.
What to do
If you see a page about vandals or vandalism that you think have no practical purpose, list them for deletion at WP:MFD. If you see a whole group of similar pages, make a group nomination. Of course, vandalism itself is subject to immediate reversion and/or deletion, as always.