Gourt Home::Gourt :: Wikipedia:Wheel war
- The article about Weasel Words is located at Avoid weasel words (shortcut: AWW).
A wheel war is a struggle between two or more Administrators in which they undo another's admin actions — in particular, unblocking or Blocking policy a user; Deletion policy or redeleting; or Protected page and reprotecting an article.
Just as Edit war is considered harmful and needlessly divisive, wheel warring is not considered good behaviour for an administrator. Since Wikipedia works on the spirit of Consensus, disputes should be settled through civil discussion rather than power wrestling. Wheel wars occur when administrators get too distressed to discuss something, or when an administrator takes it upon him or herself to undo another admin's actions without consultation, or deliberately ignores an existing discussion (often at ANI or DRV) to implement their preferred version.
Jimbo Wales has said that "wheel warring is a very bad thing, and the culture around it needs to change." *
Preferred behavior is:
- If you think something is a good idea, do it.
- If people disagree, take a step back and discuss it.
Undoing blocks
The Blocking policy specifically cautions against undoing another admin's block: "If you disagree with a block placed by another admin, please contact that admin to discuss the matter." *
Enforcement
Most editors (and admins) tend to agree that wheel wars are not good. Sometimes, admins are temporarily blocked for wheel warring, but this can result in a wheel war itself if the blocked admin or a friend undoes the block. Temporary desysoping may be used as a measure to deter and halt wheel wars. Wheel warring has been used as grounds for sanctions by the ArbCom in a few cases (Requests for arbitration/Tony Sidaway]Requests for arbitration/Guanaco,_MarkSweep,_et_al]Requests for arbitration/Pedophilia userbox wheel war]Requests for arbitration/Freestylefrappe]), some of which have resulted in users having to re-apply for adminship and others being stripped without that option.
See also
"Wikipedia:Wheel war"