User:Henrik/Thoughts on problematic users

Some initial thoughts on problematic users. This is simply work in progress notes.


 * Telling misguided good faith users and trolls apart is difficult.
 * Trial by ordeal: Good faith users will go away when you hassle them, trolls stick around.
 * There is a large disparity in treatment between established users and new users.
 * Treating new users badly is accepted practice on Wikipedia. New users reacting badly to established editors tagging their pages for deletions, putting cleanup tags on articles or reverting their edits are quickly blocked.
 * There is a very brief window in which new users who have found themselves blocked stick around (Less than one hour, 3 or 4 message exchanges) Coordinating and forming a consensus whether the initial action was appropriate or not is difficult in this time frame.
 * WP:NPA, WP:HARASS, WP:CIVIL and WP:U are dual use policies: They serve an important purpose as intended, but can also be used by established editors to get rid of troublesome new users who make relatively minor infractions of these policies.
 * Explaining and engaging with users has a fairly decent success rate.
 * Explaining and engaging with users take significantly longer time and more effort than ignoring and blocking.
 * New and inexperienced users who run across one of our more belligerent vandal or policy enforcement fighters will quickly escalate until they find themselves blocked. Had they been approached in a kinder and more gentle fashion, the outcome had likely been different. (Case study: Special:Contributions/Blappo)