User talk:137.184.201.6

Imzadi1979, buddy, when you come across editors who are making life difficult in one way or another—for you and/or others—and you would, quite understandably, rather they *stopped* making life difficult, then is it wise to communicate with them with words and sentences that have particularly negative meanings? For instance, "Stop badgering and harassing", or "Stop your foolish edit warring", or "Stop being a hypocrite".

By all means be annoyed, and even frustrated, with these problematic editors—it's perfectly natural for *any* decent and responsible editor to be annoyed and frustrated with editors who are *not* so decent and *not* so responsible. And by all means pity these editors too, as Mr. T/B. A. Baracus might do. But if you feel you have to communicate with these editors, with the intention of getting them to stop, then—with respect where it's due—no matter how annoyed and frustrated you are with them, and how much you pity them, I would think very carefully about what words and sentences to use.

Why? Because it could turn out that you're dealing with editors who are *so* troublesome that trying to get them to stop by saying particularly negative words and sentences to them, like the examples above, will in fact have the complete opposite effect—rather than stop, they will be spurred on to become *even more* troublesome, *even more* problematic, and *even more* difficult. And in turn, you—and indeed any other decent and responsible editor involved—will be even more annoyed, even more frustrated, and have even more pity for these editors, whether they end up getting themselves thrown off the 'Pedia or not.

This *does* happen, unfortunately, and not just on the 'Pedia—it happens on other wikis too, and on forums, and on Facebook and Twitter (yeah, nice try, Mr. Musk). And of course, it happens in the real world as well—look no further than our 45th president. *Everything* that has been said to *him* to try to get him to stop creating trouble and problems, to stop making life difficult for others—and there's a nonzero chance that it could all result in him becoming the 47th president too, and being even more troublesome, problematic, and difficult than ever before, with the only happy people being him and his most loyal followers.

Anyway, point is, when you come across difficult editors and you want them to stop being difficult, and you feel you have to communicate with them accordingly, then think very carefully about what exactly you will say to them.

Of course, the best thing to do is to ignore these editors altogether, unless they do things that absolutely cannot be ignored. Chances are, they *will* stop before you know it—whether the admins get on to them, or they get bored and go and do more useful things, or whatever.

Good luck! :) 137.184.201.6 (talk) 18:29, 24 April 2024 (UTC)