Mickopedia:Don't be the bleedin' Fun Police

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Malvolio: Don't be this guy!

Mickopedia ultimately exists for our readers, bedad. The prime responsibility of the oul' editin' community is to make our content useful and interestin' for those readers, not to fuss over things that readers never see and do not care about. To some extent, editin' is a serious business, one that calls for a feckin' certain amount of professionalism.

But bein' an editor is also bein' a holy part of a holy community. And unless your username ends in somethin' like "WMF", editin' Mickopedia is your hobby. It's not your job. Be the hokey here's a quare wan. One of the feckin' main features of a hobby is that you do it for your own enjoyment. C'mere til I tell yiz. If it's not enjoyable, it's not a hobby any more, so it is. You will stop doin' it, if not immediately, then just as soon as the feckin' habit of doin' it wears off. And it will inevitably wear off if you're no longer enjoyin' the effort it takes to do it. Be the holy feck, this is a quare wan. Mickopedia loses an editor each day that happens.

Unfortunately, some editors become self-appointed Fun Police. Be the holy feck, this is a quare wan. They spend little time creatin' or improvin' content, and instead devote themselves to tidyin' up things that are invisible to readers, tryin' to impose order where it's not needed, disdainin' anythin' that they don't think is funny, and enforcin' rules for rules' sake. They may mean well, but they are actually engagin' in a kind of disruptive conduct.

Ways Mickopedians have fun[edit]

Dourness is repulsive both to the healthy and the sick.

Hippocrates

One of the bleedin' most obvious ways is editin' articles. Would ye believe this shite?Editors love to provide sources, tag dubious claims, tweak wordin', and fix grammatical mistakes, the shitehawk. Arguments that drag their attention away from that make editin' less fun for these people.

Another way many Mickopedians have fun is by buildin' consensus on controversial topics. Jaysis. Some editors enjoy trackin' down obscure references to determine whether they're reliable or not, findin' compromises between two ideological sides debatin' the bleedin' tone of the oul' article, explainin' to new editors what kind of sourcin' they need in order to make controversial changes, and diggin' through sources to determine which facts we can and cannot state with assurance, would ye believe it? These editors relish lively talk page discussions.

Some editors like to tinker with things, bejaysus. Bots and templates and modules, oh my! Categories for mainspace articles are a popular focus, as they appeal to our basic psychological need to organize and sort. Square peg? Square hole!

And then, there are the bleedin' Little Things™. These are the oul' things that unite us in lots of small, inconsequential ways. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They're the things that remind us that we're human, and workin' alongside other humans. Bejaysus this is a quare tale altogether. (Of course, we are not here only to do these things.) The talk page chit-chat. Bejaysus. The joke pages in user or wiki space. Fancy signatures. Zany userboxes. C'mere til I tell ya. Weird, funny, clever, or proud user categories, that's fierce now what? Barnstars and awards for genuinely appreciated good work, as well as ones that are just silly, the shitehawk. Things that you almost have to be lookin' for to notice – and that readers of our articles will never see and never care about, the cute hoor. And yet, without these positive reinforcements, we would have less creation and maintenance of the bleedin' articles that are Mickopedia's reason for existence.

Malvolio[edit]

The Shakespearean character Malvolio was the oul' embodiment of petty and officious priggishness.

Malvolio was an oul' character in one of Shakespeare's comedies, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, enda story. Malvolio's role in the feckin' play was as the butt of jokes. Here's a quare one. As an oul' result, Malvolio hated fun.

Drinkin'? Sober up, you sot, bedad. Carousin'? We'll not have any of that, thank you very much! Gigglin' in public? My God, have you no shame? Playin' games? Cease this nonsense at once!

He was puritanical, self-righteous, judgemental, arrogant, condescendin', and confrontational, even as he secretly hoped for the oul' love of a beautiful woman. Here's a quare one. He was the death of the oul' party. C'mere til I tell ya. And above all, Malvolio had his own ideas about what was proper and right, and he stuck to his guns with determination and conviction, puttin' others in their place whenever he felt it necessary.

Seriously, does anyone actually want to be this guy?

The Fun Police[edit]

One should beware of those who cannot or will not laugh when others are merry, for if not mentally defective they are spiteful, selfish or abnormally conceited ... Great men of all nations and of all times have possessed an oul' keen appreciation of the feckin' ridiculous, as wisdom and wit are closely allied.

Leander Hamilton McCormick (1920)

Some editors fall into the pattern of actin' much as Malvolio did, sometimes with the oul' best of intentions. But it's important to realize that actin' this way is not helpful, and may actually work against Mickopedia's best interests.

How dare you make an April Fools' Day joke!

There is often a bleedin' distinctive pattern to how these Fun Police operate:

  • Locate editors havin' fun, or doin' things that appear not to be "orderly".
  • Locate an obscure P&G that can have the oul' effect of countermandin' the havin' of fun in this way.
    If they find such a holy P&G:
  • Cite it as they accuse the bleedin' editor havin' fun of violatin' the oul' rules, and threaten them with sanctions.
If they don't find it:
  • Privately discuss the feckin' creation of such a rule in an obscure location.
  • Create an RfC with a deceptive question that paints the proposal in a good light.
  • Use misleadin' predictions about the future to support this proposal.
    If their RfC succeeds:
  • Pester the bleedin' fun-havin' editors with this new rule until they either (a) comply or (b) lash out.
If their RfC fails (most often the oul' case):
  • Pester the bleedin' fun-havin' editors with talk page messages until they, in effect, comply with the oul' intent of the oul' failed proposal, or lash out.
    If the feckin' fun-havin' editor complies:
  • Seek out more editors havin' fun to continue the oul' fight.
If the oul' fun-havin' editor lashes out:
  • Share a diff of the bleedin' lashin' out with a sympathetic admin. Bejaysus. Bait the oul' fun-havin' editor until they lash out again, if the feckin' sympathetic admin does not immediately block them.
  • Start the bleedin' search for a bleedin' new target.
  • Congratulate each other and award each other barnstars for "improvin'" the project.

Bein' like Malvolio is goin' to make a lot of editors dislike you, although some editors, who have their fun the feckin' same way you have yours, will like you for it. They will see an oul' stalwart defense of The Right Way To Do Things. You may very well believe in all sincerity that you are upholdin' the feckin' work of the oul' project as a bleedin' serious and business-like enterprise. Here's a quare one for ye. You may very well believe in all sincerity that it is important to maintain orderliness and consistency. Here's another quare one for ye. But you're actually doin' things the bleedin' wrong way. You see, if your fun comes from takin' satisfaction in ruinin' other people's fun, then you're likely to be the oul' problem.

All this for havin' added an "inappropriate" user category? Really?

And the bleedin' thin' is, it doesn't take much to avoid this problem. Whisht now and listen to this wan. All you have to do is not scold people for tellin' jokes. C'mere til I tell ya now. Not edit their userpages to remove boxes or categories you don't think belong there. Arra' would ye listen to this. Not campaign to put an end to custom signatures. Let it go if they edit warred over your removal of that user category you just deleted from their user page, because you were edit warrin' too. Be the hokey here's a quare wan. It doesn't matter if their signature is just barely outside of the oul' limits recommended by guidelines, like. And if they are doin' somethin' in article space that may seem inconsequential to them, but that interferes with somethin' technical, explain your objections by explainin' how that edit negatively affects page function, rather than by scoldin' them for violatin' some rule. Arra' would ye listen to this. Whatever automatically-generated list they showed up on, none of it was an oul' problem until you made it one. G'wan now. And if our readers aren't goin' to care about it, then it's really not what the feckin' project is about.

It's a holy losin' proposition in the bleedin' long term.

Out there, amidst the barren wastelands of userspace are strewn countless abandoned pages of long-departed editors who just couldn't fathom why Mickopedia took itself so seriously, bedad. Many of them just wanted to update some celebrity's birthday, or make a holy few friends while they craft a bleedin' bio of their favorite 18th century mathematician, or play around with CSS in between rounds of revertin' vandalism. Would ye swally this in a minute now?We'll never know how many editors the oul' Fun Police have chased off this site, because those editors are gone, enda story. Most of the oul' time, they didn't leave a feckin' departin' note, explainin' why they quit editin', because all they could imagine was a holy Malvolio revertin' it with an edit summary like "see WP:NOTSOCIAL".

Caveats[edit]

Although Mickopedia editors should be allowed to have fun, this is not a bleedin' carte blanche to do anythin', no matter how disruptive, in the name of fun, grand so. In particular, it is important to practice responsible humor that does not disrupt the feckin' encyclopedic functions of Mickopedia, and to abide by the bleedin' community's consensus-determined rules for April Fools' Day.

In conclusion[edit]

The wikipedias serious.jpg

Are you:

  • creatin' or improvin' content?
  • workin' to achieve consensus?
  • buildin' camaraderie in the oul' editin' community?
Good! Thank you!

But if you are:

  • faultin' other users because they made an oul' harmless joke that you don't think is funny;
  • makin' up rules for rules' sake;
  • enforcin' order simply for order's sake;
  • seekin' conformity over somethin' that our readers will never even be aware of;
Maybe you need to reassess what you are doin' here – or find another hobby!

Mickopedia needs editors, or it fails. And by showin' your concern over doin' things the bleedin' right way, as you see it, you're lettin' us know that you care about Mickopedia. So if appealin' to your compassion for other editors isn't gonna do it, then listen to your fondness for this project. Jesus Mother of Chrisht almighty. Don't chase off other editors.

See also[edit]
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