RationalWiki:Dealing with Disagreement

By and large, those who write on and associate with RationalWiki tend to behave themselves. United in common goals of reason and snark, we write embittered articles about the disagreeable and refutations of absurdities. However, there can be occasional confusion or disagreement on how to handle some items that dance on the edge of acceptability. Simple vandalism (Jinx34 replaced page with LOL BUTTS) is easily identified and dealt with, but what about an editor that is not being so blatant, but just appears almost offensively wrong?

Articles

If an editor has made five or more edits to articles and these edits appear to be inserting information or opinions that are not supported by solid references or logic, they should be warned on their talk page accordingly. An example of such information might be inserting the sentence: "Recent studies from the American Enterprise Institute have shown that there is an unlimited amount of oil available in Poland." It is highly questionable, but coherent. The editor needs to be warned appropriately of such statements. As a general rule, the more extraordinary the claim being made, the more extraordinarily solid the reference used should be. Claiming that the Oxland Spotted Rabbit is not really extinct might need only a recent wildlife study, whereas the claim of infinite Polish oil requires a great deal more.

If they continue in this behavior, then it is reasonable to put them in the vandal classification temporarily, if you are a sysop and can do so. This gives all opinions and approaches a fair chance, while still providing criteria and guidelines to keep things under control in an even-handed way. Now the damage that can be done is limited, and there is opportunity for discussion. There will always be an element of subjectivity -and thus potential abuse - but this helps keep us honest. It would be irrational, after all, to reject any set of ideas without consideration.

Essays

By and large, anything can be written in an essay and it will remain in some form. If an essay is well-reasoned or well-supported, then it should be considered and debated on its talk page purely on its merits. Even if you consider it unpleasant or wrong, you should only express the reasons why you think so, rather than trying to eliminate it entirely. If a drive-by editor just slapped it up and moved on, then the template {{drive-by}} is appropriate. If the essay is truly offensive in some way, then it should be {{buried}}.