Uncyclopedia:Beginner's Guide/Cyberbullying
|
This page is considered a policy on Uncyclopedia. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow, unless they don't want to, in which case they are free to ignore it so long as they're not being a dick. Please make use of the standing on one knee position to propose to this policy. |
Cyberbullying will not be tolerated. Before we go any further, we should probably state what cyberbullying is and isn't. So here are the basics of cyberbullying, "Cyberbullying 101" if you want to be cliche and pretend that the internet is some sort of prestigious university. For those of you who wish to cyberbully, go do it on Conservapedia.
Cyberbullying is...
- Writing anything about a non-celebrity that the person might not want written about him/her.
- A non-celebrity is anyone who is not famous enough to have a Wikipedia article.
- Regarding the defense that you are the subject, and so you were just writing hurtful stuff about yourself and you can take it: We have no way of knowing. It still won't be funny to the average reader. We don't want it.
- Even writing unflattering stuff about a celebrity might not be funny. This is not Insultopedia; that is down the hall. If you tend to mistake insults for jokes, please proceed directly to How To Be Funny And Not Just Stupid.
- Using this website to threaten anyone or verbally abuse anyone. Our goal is the creation of lots of funny stuff, and cyberbullying is one example of incivility, which gets in the way of the victim creating funny stuff.
- Telling someone "go kill yourself" or similar. That's never okay.
- Using this website to disclose someone's real-life identity, "out" someone, or give away someone's personal information.
- While not strictly cyberbullying, let us mention using this website to perform soapboxing: to state an opinion or give a defense on events taking place on some other website, notably another wiki or a social website.
Cyberbullying is not...
- Clever, witty, humorous, or funny. It's that simple.
MostAll cyberbullying violates numerous rules on Uncyclopedia: the no-cyberbullying rule, the it-has-to-be-funny rule, and the don't be a dick rule, and many more! - 1337. You are not 1337 nor is your cyberbullying. You are not a 1337 h4x0r because you can create a page on Uncyclopedia; that is a privilege everyone has. Additionally, "privilege" does not equal "right".
- Allowed. This may seem obvious as the whole page is about how cyberbullying isn't allowed, but for the most part the cyberbulliers themselves aren't the brightest bunch and they may need this reiterated.
Why it is a big deal
Uncyclopedia takes cyberbullying so seriously because:
- Uncyclopedia is "an encyclopedia that anyone can edit." This famously includes newbies, even newbies who do not yet know their way around, might not have good humor skills, and might not play well with others. Many newbies learn by trial-and-error, which is fine. But your rights to experiment end abruptly at behavior that could drive away other Uncyclopedians. Starting a flame war is a good example of an experiment for which you should not even set up the test tubes.
- Uncyclopedia has a reputation to protect. Not as a respected font of encyclopedic information; that reputation cannot be tarnished. But any act of cyberbullying that we don't expunge could be cited to make the case that we are nothing but a hot-house of cyberbullying.
Consequently, we do not tolerate cyberbullying. We quickly impose longer editing blocks than for garden-variety vandalism, and with no hint of due process. If our Admins have missed a bit of cyberbullying, any Uncyclopedian has many ways to call it to the attention of the Admin on duty. We do not condone cyberbullying, except when we do it ourselves.
In summary, cyberbullying is unacceptable because it's cruel, stupid, and unfunny.
So if you aren't planning to be a cyberbully, congratulations! You've made it through one hoop, at least, in our requirements!