Wikipedia:Crap

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Does your editing look like a large pile of this?

At times you will have little option but to say an edit is crap. Either it is heavily WP:POV, or perhaps WP:OR with a little WP:SYNTH thrown in for good measure. You will explain patiently via edit summaries and on talk pages why this is so. But the other guy just will not engage the actual reasons, usually saying the sources meet WP:RS. Or they will revert you after you have removed the crap, then cite WP:BRD and bore you to tears on the talk page in the hope you will just give up. They will never see how their additions are original research. Or even that their edits are quite simply crap.

What happens next[edit]

You will say in frustration the edit is crap, or a variation of this. The other editor will then scream personal attack and refuse to engage further on the content issue. He will no doubt drag you to ANI demanding you be blocked, or topic banned, or anything at all which will stop you from editing the article in question.[1] Remember you have to assume good faith, always.[2] The crap editor of course never has to. The best course of action is ask for help.

Articles[edit]

At times an article is quite simply crap. Usually due to people pushing a certain point of view. They will have used crap sources, or they will have used decent sources and misrepresented what they actually say. You will point this out, and they will say, "The sources are reliable" or "Why do you want to remove reliably sourced content". They will again refuse to actually discuss your points, just go around in circles in the hope you will give up and leave. So what to do, you could ask at the neutral point of view board. But beware, the other editor (if you are lucky there is but the one) will flood the discussion to distract from the issue. When this happens it is best to ignore them and focus on the issue at hand.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ayers, Phoebe; Matthews, Charles; Yates, Ben (2008). How Wikipedia works: and how you can be a part of it. No Starch Press. p. 471. ISBN 978-1593271763.
  2. ^ Anderson, Jennifer Joline (2011). Wikipedia: The Company and Its Founders. Essential Library. p. 74. ISBN 978-1617148125.