Wikipedia:Steamroll minority opinions
 | This is a humorous essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors and is made to be humorous. This page is not 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 essay isn't meant to be taken seriously. |
The "steamroller clause" is a corollary of common sense. It simply states that:
- "If people who hold a minority opinion are annoying you by proposing things that you and your friends don't approve of, then there's no point in listening to them. The best thing to do is to steamroll their opinions by closing discussions as soon as they start."
For example, if a project page you—and obviously all right-thinking Wikipedians—approve of is proposed for deletion, there's no sense in allowing the deletion discussion to go on. The person who proposes the deletion is probably a troll and must be stopped. If the discussion is allowed to go on then all sorts of horrible things may happen: limited time and scarce bandwidth may be wasted, minority opinions may have to be heard for days and—worst of all—the trolls may convince someone (not you, of course, but some less level-headed people) of the validity of their opinions.
Be aware, some people may say: "Well, I'm not sure I agree with the proposal; but some interesting points are being raised, and I'd like to see the discussion play itself out." Don't listen to those people either—they are troll-enabling process wonks and almost as bad as the trolls themselves.
Just remember, when minority opinions get noisy, it's time to bring out the steamroller.
See also
edit