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 might seem helpful at first, but there are many characteristics that distinguish them from good 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 a bad edit is vandalism or just disruptive, consider the following:


 * Vandalism is obvious. Examples of vandalism in articles include:
 * Typing nonsense/gibberish such as random strings of letters.
 * Adding obvious false information
 * Spamming links to unrelated websites.
 * Non-vandalistic disruptive editing is not as obvious. Examples of such edits in articles include:
 * Repeatedly misusing categories or templates.
 * Using formatting incorrectly, such as in galleries.
 * Adding possibly false information that is not obviously false.
 * Changing the structure of lead sentences (if there is an established routine for articles, it should be explained in the community's guidelines).
 * Removing content that does (or possibly does) belong, especially if there was no reason given for the removal. This also applies to the reverter if they did not explain why they reverted it and the reason is not obvious.

Not everyone can tell it is disruptive, so if you think it doesn't belong, then explain why it doesn't belong there. Some disruptive editing is done out of ignorance rather than malice.

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) Undo/revert any edits that contain false (or possibly false) info, are not properly sourced, or otherwise don't belong on the page.
 * 2) If the bad edits return, then they should be undone/reverted again. Also, let the disruptive editor(s) know about it.
 * 3) Explain to the editor what they are doing wrong. For example, they might be using templates incorrectly or adding categories that are not used on the community.
 * 4) 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.