Wikipedia:Headless Chickens
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If a chicken's head is severed, it will sometimes run around headless – a dreadful sight to see. Don't do it; don't run around in a foolish frenzy because someone does something stupid or controversial, acts without consensus, posts a controversial comment on a talk page that you are monitoring [or your own talk page], or because you get a warning or a block. Cool-headedness and a calm, collected manner gets you further than behaving like a headless chicken.
Admins acting like headless chickens are more dangerous as the results of any panic-stricken actions they make are often more complicated or more difficult to undo [e.g. deleting a page or blocking a user]. Luckily most admins have either the experience or common sense to avoid behaving like a headless chicken.
Examples
edit- User:Foo edits page a and adds "OMG! this article is so lame!!!". User:ZOMG is watching page a and notices the abnormal edit. User:Bar then reverts the edit and contacts User:Foo leaving a message on his talk page saying: Why did you add stupidity to a? You are so dumb, and I am going to get you blocked for being such an idiot. In doing that, not only has User:Bar gone against WP:CIVIL, he has also majorly overreacted to a comparatively insignificant new user test or piece of vandalism.
- User:Baz posts a comment to Talk:a, on a discussion regarding whether a should be AFDd, saying I disagree with everything everyone has said here, I say we delete the article and make sure it can never be recreated. User:Qux has been monitoring Talk:a and replies to User:Baz saying: That is completely wrong, the article should stay here, should be protected forever from deletion and you should be indefinitely blocked for such stupidity. This is an obvious case of behaving like a headless chicken as User:Qux is acting in panic and saying that the article should not only not be deleted, but protected from deletion [which is not strictly possible].