User:Annoymous editor/sandbox

The Ultimate Unofficial Guide To Wikis - In a Sandbox

Wikis and open encyclopedias are an interesting concept. Here is the ultimate guide to wikis and everything about them -- in a sandbox. If you have any suggestions or feedback we will love to hear it. Share your feedback with me here.

What is a sandbox?

Sandbox? What is a sandbox?

This is a sandbox. A sandbox is a frequently edited page by random people to practice their brilliant editing skills. I am not a Wikipedia admin, just a person practicing writing about a sandbox in a sandbox. In a sandbox the starting text says Please leave this line alone (sandbox heading) and this text below:

 *               Welcome to the sandbox!              *
 *            Please leave this part alone            *
 *           The page is cleared regularly            *
 *     Feel free to try your editing skills below     *
 ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

But it's not just 'you can write whatever you want' in here. Wikipedia has one rule

• DO NOT place promotional, copyrighted, offensive, or libelous content in sandboxes.

But according to Parody law, you can do things like parody Starbucks but not use the name Starbucks. Use something like Dumb Starbucks (from Nathan for You), for example.

If you misuse the sandbox, you shall face the consequences (being blocked)!

Now we all don't wanna get banned from Wikipedia, but if you are a troll you probably don't care. Plus, the consequences just aren't all that demotivating. You just get banned from Wikipedia. So what, right? You can just create a new account! But the point is when you vandalize a wiki, you are causing disinformation to people from all over the world. Think of all the poor miseducated people everyday learning from wonderful resources that the Internet provides like Wikipedia and Google.

So if you feel like editing, just edit over this really long text I spent my time on. But always remember never to vandalize! Thanks, --Annoymous editor (talk) 06:31, 21 August 2022 (UTC)

The Problems With Wikis (Vandalism and Bots)

Wikis are providers of free information, but everybody takes them for granted. That leads us to the biggest problem: Vandalism.

Almost every day vandals edit wiki articles. When one person vandalizes the wiki, their IP and almost every single IP on their network will get banned. This includes innocent people who have nothing to do with the vandalism. When you are vandalizing wikis, you aren't the only one going to get banned, but many other people will be banned too.

When you were young, did you remember kids in your class vandalizing Wikipedia and ruining the information for not just other students, but millions of people worldwide? I'm guessing you did. Even wikis in different languages have this same problem. I once saw a anonymous editor add Japanese text that roughly translates to 'pikachu butt' to a Japanese Wikipedia article about electricity that I found under my other Japanese user Spamton G. Spamton BigShotSalesman.

They are almost immediately reverted by good moderators of Wikipedia, but while they are up there on the wiki, it's not even funny, just inappropriate.

But how should we react to it? We should immediately report the bot/user to a admin (which means somebody on this list) and put it up on this message board.

Becoming an Admin

When you become an admin, (if you ever do) you might think 'ooh great I can finally screw up wikipedia now' but as they say in Spider-Man: "Great power comes with great responsibility". And trust me, being an admin is not one of those powers you want to misuse. Because if you misuse your power, the other admins will kick you out of the group and then you can say bye to being not just a admin -- but probably a user of Wikipedia too. So you'll probably never be able to make a single edit ever again, and you will also probably regret being a terrible admin.

Bad Reputation

Thanks to all you trolls out there, wikis usually have a bad reputation for inaccurate information and vandalism. Schools even tell their kids not to use Wikipedia for information, because that everyone can modify it.

The idea of Wikipedia was a free, open-source encyclopedia to empower and engage people by developing educational content

Don't Vandalize!

Next time when you vandalize, stop, think, and just don't. It is not worth the punishment of being banned for just a stupid joke. And it is also super unfair to everybody to not joke, but remove accurate info or add inaccurate info. That is just miseducating and misinforming people about the subject of the article that you vandalized. Again, the Internet is a wonderful service that provides equally wonderful information. With the power to know anything by typing in a search bar is a amazing power, and we don't want to neglect it by vandalizing the internet!