 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Try to avoid cutting users slack more than once. |
Wikipedia allows editors and admins to use their discretion regarding how to handle disputes, this arguably includes, to some extent, cutting other users some slack. For example, if an expert on a particular subject makes 4 reverts in a single day against an enthusiastic rewrite of an article giving undue weight to a non-notable view, then instead of filing a report for edit warring, an editor could decide to request the page is protected. There are, of course, other situations where someone could be cut some slack, possibly even including situations where someone reacts badly to being trolled or griefed.
However, while cutting someone slack could be the most appropriate course of action on a single occasion, it's nearly always a mistake to repeatedly give users slack, and results in problems described in the vested contributors essay.
Situations where users often get given excessive amounts of slack, which tends to result in the 'vested contributors' behavioral problems include:
- Having friends or a mentor in a position of authority
- Having contributed significantly more than average to articles, or to the administrative side of Wikipedia.
Oddly enough, being an expert in a subject, especially if relatively new to Wikipedia, very often doesn't result in being cut any slack whatsoever.