GASLIGHTING ON WIKIPEDIA

The post made on your talk page is a form of checking you, often an intimidation tactic and a power move to put you in your place. If you reply to their post to defend your edit and cite guidelines to support your position, it can lead to a high chance that the watching admins will next seek a reason to quickly block you. They'll scour through every recorded action you've taken so far with your account, targeting you for any reason they can. They call the process "check user" and you can be sure you've been marked for execution. The only question left is regarding the time of death.

Wikipedian admins don't like to be challenged and they have common catch-alls to get rid of you decisively. They can simply label just about anything you say or do as inappropriate. How is it inappropriate? What specifically is inappropriate? Doesn't matter... you're gone, blocked indefinitely from the world's encyclopedia, and you can't just create a new account. They expect that, and they're watching for it. They have technical tools and bots that will find you by matching up many things like your site navigation pattern, choice of edits, browser choice, IP range, and so on. If you make a new account and try to continue on, you'll be caught, blocked, and labeled a sockpuppet on a special page created just for you which will essentially detail what a block-evading sockpuppetry-loving dirtbag you are.

You're dirty goods now, practically irredeemable. Calling you disruptive is all any admin has to do to block you. They may see you merely disagreeing with them and not backing down promptly as disruptive. It's so vague and bias, and the block almost certainly won't be challenged by anyone else in power. These admin excuses can be applied arbitrarily when they want to.

An astonishing portion of blocked Wikipedian editors were labeled as inappropriate, disruptive, or some other harsh vaguery. These excuses often mean nothing other than the admin didn't have a better reason, and the admin may have royally lost a discussion on merit. To make it worse, the unfair block probably won't be overturned on appeal. It's a big unwritten rule for admins on Wikipedia to never interfere with or undermine any other admins, especially admins with more seniority.

Many of the admins are extremely petty and this is their ego exercise. There are only a few active block appeal reviewers on Wikipedia, currently about seven. It's called the Unblock Ticket Request System or UTRS. Most admins who've been granted UTRS power are looking for only one thing on an appeal and that's total submission. They like it when your statement includes some pure groveling too. In other words, you have to essentially say that it was 100% my fault. I'll never be stupid again. Please let me back. Then you'll have a small chance of being unblocked, very small.

Next page: Serious Incidents on Wikipedia