Wikipedia:Wikipedia is stressful

Involving yourself in this project will occasionally place you in conflict with other editors, and consequently, Wikipedia is sometimes a stressful experience. However, it shouldn't always be.

Wikipedia is sometimes a stressful experience. This is a project to build an encyclopedia written by the people who use it, and there are innumerable topics out there that this diverse community feels very strongly about in divergent ways. As a result, involving yourself in this project will occasionally place you in conflict with other editors. It is an unavoidable consequence of any project that requires collaboration among a diverse group of individuals, and for this reason, many people who have participated in Wikipedia have said that they found the experience stressful at times.

Perhaps another editor disagrees with something you did, and their language is becoming rude or heated. Or perhaps someone thinks you've made a mistake, and now they are raining on you at an administrative noticeboard, calling for you to be sanctioned. Maybe you think you're being treated unfairly by other editors or even by administrators. Maybe you are an administrator or someone who has made it their responsibility to insert themselves into highly confrontational environments and try to cool things down and resolve disputes. It is important for you, as a Wikipedia contributor, not only to know how to avoid conflict, but to deal with it and the stress that comes with it appropriately when it does arise.

Tips on dealing with stress

While it is important to realize that Wikipedia is sometimes stressful, it is equally important to realize that Wikipedia should not always be stressful. If you are persistently finding yourself in stressful or confrontational environments on Wikipedia, consider diversifying your edit areas.

• If appropriate, remove yourself from the stressful area. Realize that very few issues on Wikipedia require an urgent resolution. It is oftentimes okay to leave things as they are and come back to them later with fresher eyes and a calmer composure. Wikipedia policy states that editors are not required to give any more time and effort than they wish.
  • Take a short break from Wikipedia. Spend some time with a less stressful hobby. Spend some time with friends and family. Try that thing you've always wanted to try.
  • Find a nice, quiet article about a topic that you are interested in, and spend some time researching it and developing an article out of it.
  • Take the editor hat off for a little while and just read Wikipedia. Sometimes, just reading Wikipedia is actually an easy, stress-free way of improving Wikipedia while simultaneously broadening your general knowledge.
    • Is there a topic you've always been interested in knowing more about? Find its article. Follow the links in the article to find more articles to read.
    • Is there something in the article that doesn't seem right? Follow its sources and check to see whether they are reliable and support the material in question.
    • Is there a typo in the article? You can fix it.
  • The reading lounge has links to various freely available material, including reference works, journals, literature, humour, and history.
• If you cannot remove yourself from the stressful area, take a deep breath and remember that most people are here because they want to improve Wikipedia. It can be hard to keep this in perspective when editors are, for example, making accusations against you personally: perhaps you're at the center of a particularly grueling request for adminship, or perhaps you're on the spot at WP:ANI. However, try to remember that in most cases, almost everyone is saying what they are saying not because they want to get at you, but because they want the encyclopedia and the community surrounding it to be the best it can be.
  • If you have made a mistake, acknowledge it and apologize to anyone involved. This will not necessarily immunize yourself from facing sanctions or editing restrictions as a result of your mistake, but it will very likely lessen the blow and is the first step to any form of reconciliation in the future.
  • If most other editors are saying you are wrong, but you're still not sure yourself, consider what others are saying carefully. The community is not always right, but you do not have to agree with the community in order to respect what it has to say. Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point. The fact of the matter is that sometimes the community will adopt positions that you feel are wrong. In such cases, you should calmly and respectfully state the reasons for your disagreement, then move on. We can always revisit the matter later, but sometimes significant time is needed for the community to reconsider. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said: "Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, 'My colleagues are wrong, and I would do it this way.' The greatest dissents do become court opinions, and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that's the dissenter's hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow."
  • If you think someone else is being disrespectful or offensive to you, consider the following:
    • Sometimes, in a heated debate, people say things that they would not normally say. Try to be open-minded and forgive others for occasional outbursts. After all, Wikipedia can sometimes be stressful. Consider the fact that emotion does not normally transfer well over text. For this reason, try to continue to be respectful to those whom you believe are not doing the same for you. This does not mean you should avoid standing up to bullies, but consider that oftentimes the most effective way of doing this is to maintain your composure and not stoop to their level.
    • If the other user is intentionally trying to make you frustrated, nothing would irritate them more than you not being frustrated.
    • Take the statements and arguments of others in their best, most rational possible interpretation.
    • If an editor's behavior is seriously becoming an issue, let an administrator know (e.g. by contacting one you respect on their user talk page). Even administrators facing difficulty should let other administrators know.
  • Try to see the dispute from their point of view and find common ground. It is very easy to get the feeling that a dispute is "you versus them", but in fact, that is not what Wikipedia is about. The goal is for editors to work together, and editors can actually be sanctioned for not doing this.

See also

• Wikipedia:Staying cool when the editing gets hot
• Wikipedia:Wikistress