Wikipedia:Don't tilt at windmills

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

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This page in a nutshell: Persistently editing against consensus is disruptive.

Sometimes when editing, it becomes apparent to an editor that there is systematically something wrong with an aspect of Wikipedia policy or practice. It can be very tempting to try and tackle this problem head-on by doing the same repetitive edits to a series of articles or project space pages.

Occasionally, when undertaking this, it becomes apparent that these edits are not having any appreciable effect; your tags are being removed from articles by other editors, your Articles for Deletion nominations are not resulting in article deletion, or you are the lone opposer in multiple discussions. At this point, it can be very tempting to continue going on and fighting the good fight, because even though several editors have asked you nicely to stop, you are absolutely right... it's everyone else who is wrong, and it is up to you to fight a lonely battle for the Truth™.

Why you shouldn't tilt at windmills

Continuing to do the exact same thing over and over when it has become clear that it is neither appreciated nor effective, especially when others have asked you to stop, is a poor use of your time here, and after a while becomes largely indistinguishable from run-of-the-mill trolling.

Think of this essay as your own personal Sancho Panza, pointing out that those giants are really just windmills, and you will probably end up breaking your lance if you run into them too many times.

Why you shouldn't tilt at windmills

See also