[WikiEN-l] The benefits of vandalism

Mon Apr 14 13:24:58 UTC 2003

Thanks, Danny. I usually do precisely what you have outlined so clearly below. Please add your plan/advice to [[Wikipedia:dealing with vandalism]] or [[Wikipedia:turning vandalism into stubs]].

Really, really, thanks!! :-)

Ed Poor

-----Original Message-----
From: daniwo59 at aol.com [mailto:daniwo59 at aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2003 5:35 PM
To: wikiEN-l at wikipedia.org
Subject: [WikiEN-l] The benefits of vandalism

Recently I've found that some vandals have been putting silly sentences into empty subjects that could potentially make good articles. For instance, last week we had someone write some crap under Jim Jones and the Jonestown mass suicide (don't remember the name of the article). While it was being blanked (repeatedly, I might add), I googled and added a few sentences with content, and we had a short article, while the vandal left. Today the same thing happened with Israeli tree frog. Admittedly the article is just a sentence, but it is a start. Maybe this can be a good way to deal with some of the vandals: fill in some information, instead of just deleting. 

In a similar vein, someone wrote an article called "Separate but equal." Agreed, it wasn't written very well, but a few quick edits turned it into a stub that can be built up into an important article. My sense is that the article was written by a kid (no offense, LittleDan), but it still had some valuable material and this important topic was not covered at all. Now, at least, we have a stub on which we can build. 

I know it won't work in all cases, but I suggest this in some cases as a way of countering vandalism and actually benefitting from it. 

Danny 

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