 | This is an essay on the WP:BLOCK policy. 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: It usually hurts peoples feelings to be blocked. It doesn't mean you shouldn't block people -- lots of them, we suppose. But it takes an emotional toll. To pretend otherwise is to be willfully blind. |
Wikipedia is one of the world's most popular websites. Anybody can edit it (normally). Being blocked from editing it is distressing. This is doubly so if any of these factors apply: no warning or engagement, no proper explanation, or the block is unjustified or only arguably justified.
Of course most block by fare are necessary and justified (we assume) and we're not saying they're not, but there's an emotional toll. Consider that some people, or a few people at any rate,
- have never been in jail (or even arrested).
- have never been sued.
- have never been suspended from school (or even had detention, or failed a class).
- have never been fired from a job for cause (or even called on the carpet for a serious dressing down by their boss).
- have never been in a physical fight or even shouting verbal confrontation (except maybe as a schoolchild or maybe a lover's quarrel).
- have never been kicked out of their house or come home to find the locks changed.
We know that a lot of people have had some (or, God forbid, all) of these things happen to them, but the average person – you can call them goody-goodies if you want to – tries to follow the rules and takes sanctions by authorities very much to heart. For a few people, being blocked is the worst punishment they've ever had in their adult life. This is the first time someone has said to them "You've broken the rules, and badly, and you're in a lot of trouble here and need to go home and think about your behavior". Or one of the few times. And that certainly is the message one takes from being blocked, regardless of how we try to gild that. It's a pretty hard thing to hear, for some people.
We know for a lot of experienced Wikipedians (which includes all admins), "Under the spreading chestnut tree / I blocked you and you blocked me" is all part of the WP:MMORPG. But most of our editors, particularly new editors, come from a different perspective.
A person, particularly a new user, on being blocked is not likely to say "Oh, well, here is part of the functioning of this site. I'll just put in this template, formatted properly, and enter litigation on this matter, all in good fun". The person is likely to be appalled, horrified, angry, sad, alarmed, and disgusted. They'll likely close the page at once and never come back (but they'll have a story about what a screwup the Wikipedia is). So whether its a new user or not, any block of any duration has a non-trivial chance of being permanent, in that the user is likely to just throw up his hands and walk away.
Again, most blocks are justified, and we thank our volunteer administrators for enhancing the functioning of the Wikipedia in this way. But, you know, we want to be careful here. We mean, if you select for editors who don't mind being blocked, you are selecting for editors who don't have self-respect. If you select for editors who don't have self-respect, you will not have many accomplished people.