 | This is an essay on civility. 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: Editors can request that other editors keep off their user talk page. However, such demands may be considered uncivil. Disobeying such a request may or may not result in sanctions, depending on the circumstances. |
When two editors frequently disagree, it is not uncommon for one to ask the other to stay off the first user’s talk page. The reasons editors do this may vary, but often it takes the form of a unilateral, total, permanent demand to the second editor to "Keep off my talk page!"
While this can be an effective means of stemming what you perceive as a "net minus" to discussion involving you, this approach is not without its problems. These demands can lie in an ambiguous area from a policy perspective, especially when the demand itself takes a combative or uncivil tone, and particularly when they are total and open-ended. Most significantly, these demands can complicate dispute resolution efforts, which often call for contacting the other editor on his or her user talk page as a first step, or require notification upon entering the process.
The degree to which such demands are enforceable varies. While the best practice would probably be to accede to such requests as best possible, there is no clear policy or guideline requiring adherence to such requests. At the same time, refusing to leave an editor alone despite his or her request to do so can and has resulted in community sanctions on a variety of grounds, such as harassment. Generally speaking, the actual circumstances of the request, the behavior of the editors involved, and the nature of the contact claimed to have violated the request will dictate the community outcome, if any.