Wikipedia talk:Being polite is not enough

This essay needs a companion...
We need Rudeness is required, for two reasons:

(a) In order to function as an online encyclopaedia (or something approximating to one), it is sometimes necessary to tell people that despite the 'anyone can edit' slogans, they personally won't be permitted to, because they lack the necessary skills to usefully contribute. There really isn't a polite way to say this, and Wikipedia doesn't generally spend a lot of time trying to find one. Blocking someone per WP:CIR is functionally equivalent to 'go away and be useless somewhere else', and we shouldn't try to kid ourselves otherwise.

(b) Rudeness is an essential part of human discourse in general. It cannot be made to go away. Attempting to do so is a fools errand. And we fools should have better things to do with our time than try to cure humanity of chronic being-human disease. Leave that to the utopia-planners, and the Ministries of Truth.

AndyTheGrump (talk) 01:26, 6 July 2024 (UTC)


 * I wrote User:Just Step Sideways/fuck off a long time ago. Not exactly what you are proposing but in the ballpark. Just Step Sideways from this world ..... today 17:05, 6 July 2024 (UTC)