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 | This page in a nutshell: Utilizing rules or procedures in unfair ways in order to "win" editing disputes is highly frowned upon by the Wikipedia community. |
Wikifinagling (and the related term finagling) is a pejorative term which describes various questionable ways of trying to misuse or circumvent Wikipedia rules or procedures. It may refer to certain quasi-legal practices or others, including:
- Using formal legal terms in an inappropriate way when discussing Wikipedia policy;
- Abiding by the letter of a policy or guideline while violating its spirit or underlying principles;
- Asserting that the technical interpretation of Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines should override the underlying principles they express;
- Misinterpreting policy or relying on technicalities to justify inappropriate actions;
- Waiting until a person leaves on WP:wikibreak, or is blocked, to rewrite or delete their work, without consensus;
- Making a series of small edits to delete one phrase at a time, to bypass WP:NOTCENSORED, which forbids removing text simply because it seems objectionable to some users;
- Writing veiled insults or slurs, to bypass restrictions of WP:CIVIL or WP:No Personal Attacks.
In other words, a "wikifinagler" is a person who deliberately misuses or circumvents rules. Also, the term may be used in other cases, e.g., when a person superficially judges other editors and their actions by jumping at conclusions and slapping labels, while brandishing Wikipedia policies as a tool for defeating other Wikipedians, rather than resolving a conflict or finding a mutually agreeable solution.
Wikipedia policies and procedures should be interpreted in a commonsensical way to achieve the purpose of the policy, or help with dispute resolution. Typically, wikifinagling raises procedural or evidentiary points in a manner analogous to that used in formal legal proceedings, often using ill-founded legal reasoning. Occasionally, wikifinagling may raise legitimate questions, including fairness, but often it serves to evade an issue or obstruct the crafting of a workable solution.
For example, while it is often impossible to definitely establish the actual user behind a set of sockpuppets, it is not an acceptable defense that all the sockpuppets which emerge were not named in the request for arbitration, nor if a sockpuppet name is misspelled.
As another example, the Three-Revert Rule is a measure of protection against edit warring. An editor who intentionally reverts the same article three times every day is not breaching the letter of this rule, but violates the principle (spirit) of the rule – and can thus be sanctioned for revert warring.
See [1] for an actual example of conflation of judicial proceedings and Wikipedia arbitration procedures (It is probable the poster intended this to be satire in an attempt to make a point about a particular editing dispute.).
Some veiled insults could be posted in carefully crafted text, which is not a direct personal attack, but seems suspiciously negative. The typical case would be denying the insult, such as: "Not that I'm saying you're dim-witted but...". A more indirect veiled insult has been worded as, "How would you like to called stupid because if you keep going, some might say that". Also, there are subtle cases to beware: "Your writing skills are a bit lacking, if I may say so." Such veiled insults are a form of wikifinagling, to avoid being obvious violations of WP:NPA. On the other hand, beware someone wikifinagling how any negative phrase is a personal attack on them. For example, just mentioning a negative word is NOT a personal attack, such as posting to a 3rd party, "The film Forrest Gump had that famous line: Stupid is as stupid does". That is NOT a personal attack to other users of Wikipedia, but claiming that it is, might be a case of Wikifinagling, in trying to claim WP:NPA where an attack was not actually made. In general, a personal attack requires the word "you" or "your", and sarcasm is difficult to judge ("You are such a genius"), so there are some gray areas where insults cannot be proven and would slip through.