Wikipedia:The motivation of a vandal

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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.

Think Internet graffiti.

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As more and more people discover Wikipedia, the level of vandalism that occurs increases. Many likely ask themselves the question, "Why would anyone wish to vandalize a source of information that benefits people?". There are several different factors that may constitute the motivation of a vandal.

1 The motivation of a vandal
2 Notes
3 See also

[edit] The motivation of a vandal

[edit] Attention-seeking vandalism

The most common motivation of a vandal is simply a desire for attention. When a vandal stumbles upon Wikipedia, he/she immediately sees the large number of contributors who work tirelessly editing Wikipedia, sacrificing their personal time to help improve a project and a concept that is bigger than themselves. The vandal therefore realizes they have found an audience. They do not premeditate what the attack will be, but plan its location. They may choose a highly controversial article and make an offensive statement about it^[1] to draw attention from the other editors, or simply replace the day's featured article with "hey look at me i just vandalized a page lol".

With every warning the vandal receives for his vandalism, they feel a growing sense of self-satisfaction from the fact that their "work" has been acknowledged. This is a problem for the good editors, for by warning a vandal, they may be encouraging them to vandalize more to gain more attention.

After such a vandal has been blocked once, they may return later to vandalize again, but this time more stealthily. They still want recognition for their work, but take more care not to be blocked. They may change details in a page so that it affects the content of the page noticeably,^[2] but is not blatant vandalism. They may receive another warning, but they will not likely be immediately labeled as a vandal, which is exactly what they want.

[edit] Other motivations for vandalism

It won't stick around for long on Wikipedia.

While most vandalism is done for attention, there are other possible motivations for vandalism:

Some vandalize in an attempt to create humor. This may involve adding humorous nonsense to an article within its encyclopedic context, or creating blatant nonsense pages. If they wished to perform this act in good faith, they could edit other wikis. But some of them claim that vandalizing something that was made to be vandalized is not fun, so they keep vandalizing Wikipedia.

Some vandals may have a personal grudge against or resentment toward certain users, the subjects of certain articles (e.g. George W. Bush) or against Wikipedia as a whole. These vandals should be taken more seriously, as they are motivated by a desire to harm others, and may be more persistent and/or engage in more serious types of vandalism than pettier vandals.

Some vandals claim to be motivated by a desire to expose, through vandalism, what they perceive to be flaws in Wikipedia's design or implementation. An example of a type of vandalism motivated by such a goal is the addition of false, but plausible-sounding information to an article. Individuals who believe Wikipedia and other open-source knowledge bases are of poor quality in comparison to close-source encyclopedias (e.g Britannica, World Book) may make such edits, and will possibly look back at the articles months later to see that their edits are still there and use them as proof that Wikipedia is flawed. Some individuals vandalize Wikipedia in this fashion purely out of spite for the ideal.

Some vandals change the content of articles so that they coincide with their personal beliefs, whether political,^[3] religious, or social^[4]. After making these edits, the vandal may feel that he "put one over" on the people who oppose his ideals. Even after the edits are reverted, the vandal may still feel satisfied that he has made his beliefs known to whoever may have viewed the article.

Another possible motivation for some vandals is that their judgment has been impaired, either by a chemical cause (e.g. drugs; alcohol) or by serious emotional and/or mental problems. At least one sockpuppeteer was discovered to be using only the IP of a mental institution.^[5]

[edit] Well-intended but misguided edits

Some of what is labeled as "vandalism", is in fact something more benign: "radicalism." A person may read an article, see or imagine a glaring omission or flaw, and "fix" it. This often leads to long and protracted "edit wars," although in many cases the "radical" is the only editor who approves of his edit(s).

[edit] Emotional investment in long-term vandalism

Regardless of their original motivation and modus operandi, a small number of persistent vandals end up seeing the Wikipedia community's anti-vandal measures as a "war" that they are determined to "win", and start to make a considerable emotional investment in their vandalism activities.

In spite of the community's attempts to deny them personal attention, Wikipedia's anti-vandalism process starts to act as a positive reinforcer, providing them with something to react against in order to keep their battle going. The vandal begins to see their vandalism activity as part of themselves, something precious, to be defended by any means possible. They may regard the attention being given to their efforts as a form of celebrity, to be preserved and expanded further, or even regard their vandalism as their mark on posterity.

Most intractable long-term vandals fall into this category, and their vandalism activities from this point on tend to follow a well-established pattern. They begin to devote considerable effort and ingenuity into their attacks, regardless of the personal cost to them in time and effort expended, spending hours each day logged into Wikipedia, using multiple sockpuppet accounts, diverse vandalism methods (and in a few cases, elaborate technical measures to facilitate these) to prosecute their "war" on Wikipedia.

To this end, the long-term vandal will devote themselves obsessively to studying Wikipedia's internal structures, both social and technical. Some long-term vandals become fixated on particular Wikipedia administrators, seeing them as their personal enemies, and exhibit stalker-like behavior towards their chosen subjects of attention. Often, the vandalism is deliberately directed at particular individuals to provoke a personalized, rather than dispassionate response.

At this point, the long-term vandal is no longer fully in control of their own behavior. Although they may continue to see themselves as ironically detached provocateurs or freedom fighters against an oppressive power clique, they are now locked into a self-reinforcing obsessional crusade against Wikipedia that they are determined not to "lose", and the vandalism process begins to dominate their life, taking up all their spare time.

This process may persist for months, or, in some cases, for years. Eventually, they tire of their obsession with Wikipedia and cease their activities, although this may involve several cycles of temporary cessations and revivals of their activities before they stop completely.

Fortunately, such vandals are rare.

[edit] Ex-vandals

Some vandals may "turn over a new leaf", and decide to start contributing positively, now receiving positive reinforcement from the users who used to revert their edits. This motivates some vandals to stop making destructive edits and focus their attention on improving Wikipedia. While this doesn't always work, some peoples' craving for attention through vandalism can be diverted to more constructive purposes if they can be mentored by an editor who is prepared to assist them in becoming constructive editors. Sadly, most vandals do not wish to proceed to this stage and simply continue to vandalize. In the end, nothing can be done about such people except reverting them, warning them, and eventually blocking them.