User:AK
Militant Atheism\Czechoslovakia User:AK/Wilhelm Busch
MAY 2012 NB! Wikipedia launches inquisition tribunal against creator of later erased Militant Atheism article
The same group of people managed to get blocked my account by using very manipulative methods. This group at Wikipedia was described in following way: "I wanted to continue this discussion off of Wikipedia for the reasons that you brought up below. There are long termed problem users, who know how Wikipedia works, and they know how to "stay on the line" and just barely avoid getting into trouble on the policy side. We can't do anything about the problem users, because they don't cross the policy line. In recent months, there has been a growing number of editors realizing the issue. Some of them have left, others have stayed to try and resolve it. There is going to come a time where this issue will be resolved, just like the Soviet Union.
I'd rather not name names, but several of the users you are dealing with are fairly problematic. You have probably noticed they try jumping over to ANI as soon as a disputes starts. They know that, for the last few years, ANI has run on "mob rule". Many of the commenting users on ANI are problematic themselves and they just go off the statement by the original filer. They don't look at the facts. It takes another user stepping in and setting things straight for the conversation to be productive. This is especially true for ban/block discussions. Some problem users just enjoy imposing restrictions on others. I was able to convince the ANI crowd to just topic ban you for six months rather than fully blocking you. I am not sure I will be able if another incident is brought there [he was not - comment by AK]. Until you have gained experience dealing with problem users, I would really prefer you avoid the areas they work.
There are ways to work around the problem users. The first thing to remember about them is they often try to make you break policy. One of the major ways they will do this is they will try and anger you and make you break the civility policy. You can't call them on this either, because they will just accuse you of making personal attacks. It is important to just let their borderline attack comments just roll off your back. The other thing they will try to do is cite some obscure "policy". There are three types of "policies" on Wikipedia. There are official policies, guidelines, and essays. There are 50 official policies. These policies should be followed to the best of your ability. This is quite a few policies, but unless you are an administrator, you don't have to memorize (or even worry about) all of them. Over three fourths of the official policies are policies regarding tasks carried out by administrators. There are 10 or so that you should learn and understand though. Wikipedia:List of policies has a summary list and Category:Wikipedia policy contains a complete list of official policies. If you would like, I can create a list of policies that would be beneficial to learn. Then there are Wikipedia guidelines. Guidelines explain how a certain thing should generally be done (For example, the process in changing an article's title). They are widely accepted by the community and should usually be followed. Exceptions may take place from time to time. There are about 200 guidelines, but there is only 1 guideline you should really get to know, and that is the notability guidelines (currently, the notability guidelines are broken into 11 specific sections dealing with specific topics). Lastly, there are essays. Essays are written by one or more editors with their advice on how something should be done. Some users cite essays in discussions as if they are policy. If there is an essay banner across the page, it means that you don't have to follow it. It is advice from one or more other editors, but it is not something that needs to be followed. You might wish to consider the information in the essay though. Essays often cite policies. If the information in the essay is part of a policy, then the policy should be followed. . ...."
Not nice environment to be in...