Help:Disruptive editing

Disruptive editing is a pattern of editing that, while by itself, seems to help the community; on the other hand, when combined with other edits, it can disrupt progress towards a community's goals. This can occur for many reasons. For example, one may seem disruptive because they do not know how to make an edit and forget to fill in the edit summary. Another may also seem disruptive because they do not have the competence required to participate in a community. Just because the disruption happens in good faith does not mean that it cannot be harmful to the community.

How to identify disruptive editing
A disruptive editor seems to be helpful at first, but there are many characteristics that distinguish them from other editors. For example, a disruptive editor might:


 * Be biased.
 * Not engage in forming consensus.
 * Not listen to community input.
 * Drive away potential contributors.

Vandalism is a form of disruptive editing, but not all disruptive editing is vandalism. To tell whether an edit is vandalism or just disruptive, consider the following:


 * Vandalism is obvious. An example of vandalism in articles is typing nonsense/gibberish, joking around, adding obvious false information, or spamming links to unrelated websites.
 * Non-vandalistic disruptive editing is not as obvious. Examples of such edits in articles include repeatedly misusing categories, adding possibly false information that is not obviously false, or changing the structure of lead sentences (if there is an established routine for articles, it should be explained in the community's guidelines). Not everyone can tell it is disruptive, so if you think it doesn't belong, then explain to the editor why it doesn't belong there.

How to deal with disruptive editing
Disruptive editing can be hard to deal with, depending on the type of disruption. Vandalism can be reverted as soon as it is identified. Do the following:


 * 1) Revert the edit(s) if it is incorrect, not properly sourced, or otherwise doesn't belong on the page. You may want to use the rollback tool if you have the right.
 * 2) If the editor reinstates the disruptive edit(s), then you should revert them, in addition to letting the disruptive editor know. Explain to them what they are doing wrong, for example, they might be using templates incorrectly, or adding categories that are not used on the community. Some disruptive editing is done out of ignorance rather than malice.
 * 3) If you are an admin on the community where the disruption is happening, block the editor if they continue to disrupt and are not listening to any of your messages no matter how much you inform them.

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