User blog comment:Sannse/Calm Over Conflict/@comment-24588058-20180118025112

I'll say that smaller wikis (ones with maybe five or six active members at a time and no real outside contributors) don't usually have issues with conflict, usually because we're a tight-knit community (not that there's never any conflict, but it's usually civilized and very rarely gets out of hand). But there is one thing that all wikis have, even the small ones: the trolls. The ones who make the disgusting or random edits on random pages. I think the advice of "revert, block, ignore" is excellent; after all, it keeps them from causing trouble, since most of them will continue to do it if they think they can get away with it.

I can imagine one wiki which might have this problem right now, and I'm sure all big wikis have it; the bigger the franchise, the more people to voice their opinions. There is a sharp difference between simple disagreement and debate and outright blasting people for their opinions. I liked a movie. You didn't. We can politely debate about why we did or didn't like the movie (I'm sure even those of us who have a favorite movie can hear others' opinions, even if we disagree). Or we can have a fist fight over it. I know what I'd prefer: the less bloody option.

The irony is that some people will disagree with something, and then ten years from now will reverse their opinion on it: "Oh, that movie was great!" Really? That's not what you said when you were yelling at me before for liking it. And it's not always a majority: sometimes it's only a small number of people causing a massive racket because they think they can't otherwise be heard. If you're polite, you'll get farther in a conversation (and life) than if you're mean and nasty and, as my dad puts it, a @#$&ing $@^&&$ed %#^&head. And, let's be honest: no one likes a whiner. You aren't going to change minds by yelling, and in the end you'll drive people away. Reasonable people won't stand for unreasonable actions.