User:CFCF/WIR/7

Wall of Silence

A wall of silence is a tactic that can be employed towards editors on Wikipedia. It occurs frequently but is also controversial, and can be applied inadvertently as well as purposely. It has a few legitimate uses when ignoring a user or small group of users is acceptable. Remember, Wikipedia's goal is to write an encyclopedia, not to convince every lunatic charlatan that they are wrong. Wasting your time on these people may be counterproductive, because it gives them the false belief that "if someone is responding to refute me, I must be on to something". Legitimate questions and comments should never be ignored, but critique based on pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo is better left unanswered than engaged in.

Legitimate uses

Practitioners of pseudoscience or followers of conspiracy theories can often be found .. It is not your job to convince them that they are wrong, Wikipedia has policies that we follow — some of the most central being:

If/when these are called into question it is not advisable to waste time explaining why someones world view is wrong. Even if you find pleasure in poking holes in the very flawed reasoning of such people — answering them or debating them is risky. They demand rational discussion, but this is merely a facade, when engaged any remnant of rationality goes out the door. You are fully free to ignore these people. In an early arbitration case [[]] — it was decided that

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The most common If a single (even if they are persistent) ... debates that

Similarly the technique is legitimate when someone tries to undermine conventional sources with arguments of original research (especially anecdotes), while presenting no, or only conspirational