Wikipedia:Don't take it off the Internet

Wikipedia is a big place. It has a great many articles, many many more pages that aren't articles, and a large number of editors, but nobody's certain how many. With such a large community and a seemingly infinite space, it's inevitable that people will disagree from time to time. Some of these disputes become quite heated, but most are eventually resolved amicably.

If you find yourself in a dispute, it's important to maintain (or, in some cases, regain) perspective. Remember that Wikipedia is a website. A website that has been known to incite everything from sheer joy to manic rage (and all points in between) in its editors, but a website nonetheless. The key to maintaining at least some sense of perspective is not to take the dispute off the Internet.

Other editors will infuriate you sometimes, and you feel the need to take the dispute into real life, but remember that the other editor is human too, and is probably trying to improve Wikipedia just as much as you are. So it's best to try and keep things on Wikipedia. If you must, email the editor concerned, or vent your spleen on a blog or social network or even your own website. But for crying out loud, don't take it off the Internet.

If you meet other Wikipedians in real life, try not to fixate on a particular dispute, tempting though it may be. If you meet a Wikipedian with whom you've had a bitter dispute on Wikipedia, try to talk about something else, or if all else fails, avoid them entirely. Arguing in public is not much fun for anyone, and you risk bringing Wikipedia into disrepute.

Above all, do not try to find this Wikipedian in real life and "bump into" them just to pick a bone with them about a dispute you had on Wikipedia. People have been arrested for doing that sort of thing...

Some Wikipedians prefer to keep their Wikipedia persona and their real life separate, but even those who don't would rather not re-hash disputes that are best left on the Internet.