Wikipedia:Ignore personal attacks
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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it. |
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This page in a nutshell: When personally attacked, you should ignore it, rise above it, and continue to comment on the content of your discussion. |
Sometimes (or even usually), if somebody's making a personal attack on you, the best thing to do is not to "warn" them for it, nor to block them, or to report the insult to an admin in the hopes of getting them blocked. It tends to escalate the situation (see ConflictCycle below), annoy the attacker, and possibly invite future attacks. Defending your honour will not achieve a thing.
What you ought to do is simply rise above it. Ignore the personal attack — there's no need to delete them, just ignore them completely. Continue to comment on the content of your discussion (that is, what you were talking about that was to do with improving an encyclopedia. If you weren't discussing something like that, maybe you should back away entirely). Hopefully, the other person will recognise that you've risen above them, and do likewise. A little thick skin is in order.
Note that this isn't a "get out of jail free" card for people who do make personal attacks. People who make personal attacks do damage Wikipedia, and it is right that we do our best to prevent personal attacks from occurring here. However, sometimes, if you're the person who's been personally attacked, it is better to be the better person and ignore it, getting back to your topic of discussion, than to get revenge, or demand punishment (We don't have punitive blocks on Wikipedia). It is important to take a "less heat, more light" approach to dealing with personal attacks.
