Glossary.
The following glossary is designed to help readers understand references
on this website.
Wikipedia has its own much fuller glossary (click
here). The text in blue replicates text on Wikipedia.
Administrator. A user with extra technical privileges who does
housework.
Administrators have the right to ban other editors and
block their access.
AfD
The Wikipedia:Articles for deletion page.
AGF
Abbreviation for "assume good faith", a guideline whereby one
should not assume that a bad edit was done maliciously.
ArbCom
Abbreviation for Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee
Arbitration
The final step in the dispute resolution process.
See also Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee.
Article
An encyclopedia entry. All articles are pages, but not all pages are articles.
See also Wikipedia:What is an article.
Ban
Banning is the extreme, last resort action by which someone is prevented
from editing Wikipedia for a prolonged or indeterminate length of time.
Reason for banning is usually a long history of biased edits, persistent
adding of incorrect or doubtful material, refusal to cooperate with others,
or extreme incivility and threats. If someone is banned, their username
is blocked, and any username or IP that is with great likelihood identified
as being the same person can be blocked without any further reason. See
also: Block.
Administrators can ban other editors and block their
access. This site alleges that these rights are often abused.
Block
Action by a sysop, removing from a certain IP-number or username the ability
to edit Wikipedia. Usually done against addresses that have done vandalism
or against users who have been banned. See also: Ban.
Administrators can ban other editors and block their
access. This site alleges that these rights are often abused.
Bureaucrat
A Wikipedia Administrator who has been entrusted with promoting users
to sysops.
See also Wikipedia:Bureaucrats.
Cabal
Sometimes assumed to be a secretive organization responsible for the development
of Wikipedia, the word is usually used as a sarcastic hint to lighten
up when discussions seem to become a little too paranoid. Discussions
involving the term may have links to POV / NPOV issues, admin problems,
or pretty much anything to do with the foundation of Wikipedia.
Checkuser
An access level that lets users with it see the IP addresses of logged-in
users, usually to determine if someone is using sockpuppets to violate
policy. Currently only granted to certain members of the Arbitration Committee.
This site alleges that DWEEC Admins sometimes use Checkuser
as a form of intimidation or alternatively as a fishing expedition for
sockpuppets.
Contribs
Short for contributions. These are the edits that a user has made.
CSB
WikiProject Countering systemic bias or, more rarely, an adjective for
an topic of concern to the WikiProject, e.g. "This doesn't seem to
be a CSB article."
Diff
The difference between two versions of page, as displayed using the Page
history feature, or from Recent Changes. The versions to compare are encoded
in the URL, so you can make a link by copying and pasting it - for instance
when discussing a change on an article's talk page.
Edit war
Also used: revert war.
Two or more parties continually making their preferred changes to a page,
and undoing the changes they don't agree with. Generally, an edit war
is the result of an argument on a talk page that could not be resolved.
See also Wikipedia:Edit war.
This site alleges that this is a characteristic DWEEC
activity..
External link
Also used: ext. ln, ext lk, or extlink.
A link to a website not owned by Wikimedia. The alternatives are an internal
link, wikilink or free link within Wikipedia, and an interwiki link to
a sister project.
See also Wikipedia:External links.
FA
Featured article, an article that has been selected as representing "the
best of Wikipedia". Articles become featured articles when a FAC
gets consensus for promotion.
Forest fire
A flame war which spreads, seemingly uncontrollably, beyond the pages
where it began into unrelated articles' talk pages. A forest fire becomes
progressively more difficult for any user to keep track of. On Wikipedia,
this is less of a problem than on other wikis, due to well-established
boundaries for user conduct, clear guidelines for article content, and
a formal dispute resolution process.
See also wildfire and MeatBall:ForestFire.
History
All previous versions of an article, from its creation to its current
state. Also called page history.
See also: Wikipedia:Page history
Hopelessly POV
While Wikipedia policy states that Wikipedia must fairly describe multiple
points of view, some Wikipedians are intent on suppressing certain points
of view and so find it convenient to delete them with "hopelessly
POV" given as the "reason".
MC
The Mediation Committee. See Wikipedia:Mediation Committee.
Meat puppet
An account that is created only for the strengthening of another user's
position in votes or discussions, but which is operated by another person,
unlike a sock puppet (which is operated directly by the user in question).
Meat puppets are treated exactly like sock puppets in most cases, making
the distinction between them largely academic.
An accusation made on this site is that DWEECs fill
the role of ready made meatpuppet for each other.
medcab
The Mediation Cabal. See Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal.
medcom
The Mediation Committee. See Wikipedia:Mediation Committee.
Mediation
An attempt by a third party to resolve an edit war or other conflict between
users. There exists a Wikipedia:Mediation Committee which can do so on
a more or less official basis as the penultimate step in the Wikipedia:dispute
resolution process, and a Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal which acts as an informal
alternative.
NPOV
Neutral point of view, or the agreement to report subjective opinions
objectively, so as not to cause edit wars between opposing sides. As a
verb, to remove biased statements or slanted phrasing. As an adjective,
it indicates that an article is in compliance with Wikipedia's NPOV policy.
This website asserts that a prime DWEEC objectives is
to subvert Wikipedias NPOV policy.
Original research
In Wikipedia, original research (sometimes abbreviated OR) is material
added to articles that has not been published already by a reputable source.
Wikipedia is not the place for original research.
This site alleges that this is one of the unfounded
reasons used by DWEECs to reject contributions they do not like.
Personal attack
A comment that is not directed at content, but insults or threatens another
editor (or a group of editors) personally. To maintain a friendly and
productive atmosphere, personal attacks are forbidden per Wikipedia policy
and may be grounds for blocking in serious and/or repeated cases.
See also: Wikipedia:No personal attacks, Wikipedia:Remove personal attacks.
This website is accused by DWEECs as constituting personal
attacks
POINT
"Thou shalt not deliberately skew any page, nor create or nominate
for deletion any page, nor in any other way vandalise Wikipedia, in order
to try to prove your point!" Also written as WP:POINT.
See also Wikipedia:Don't disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point.
POV
Point of view. Originally referred to each of many perspectives on an
issue which may need to be considered and balanced in an encyclopedic
article. Today, more often used as an insulting synonym for "bias",
as in "That reply was POV, not neutral."
POV warrior
A wiki editor who aggressively distorts coverage of certain topics to
suit his/her biases despite community norms of neutrality. An affliction
that especially infests Wikipedia.
This website alleges that all DWEECs are POV Warriers.
Protected page
This term indicates a page that cannot be edited except by sysops. Usually
this is done to cool down an edit war.
See also Wikipedia:This page is protected.
The Pump
Also used: VP.
A nickname for Wikipedia:Village pump.
Reincarnation
A new user account created by a banned user. See sock puppet.
Revert
An edit that reverses changes made by someone else.
See also Wikipedia:Revert
Rogue admin
Accusatory term for a Wikipedia administrator, suggesting that the accused
person systematically abuses their administrative access. Such accusations
are rarely found to be particularly productive.
Sock puppet
Another user account created secretly by an existing wikipedian, generally
to manufacture the illusion of support in a vote or argument. Also, particularly
on AfD, a friend of an existing Wikipedian who has created an account
solely for the purpose of supporting that wikipedian in a vote (this special
case is often called a meat puppet). It is not always possible to tell
the difference.
This site alleges that this is a favorite accusation
made by DWEECs against those they disagree with (at one stage in February
2006 no fewer than seven editors on the Christianity page were discounted
by DWEECs as sock Puppets of the same person).
Systemic bias
In Wikipedian terms, this refers to the preponderance of Wikipedia articles
relating to subjects specific to English-speaking and/or Western countries,
as opposed to those from the rest of the world. It may also refer to a
bias for articles that may be of particular interest to those who have
an affinity towards computers and the Internet, since they are more likely
to edit Wikipedia.
Talk page
A page reserved for discussion. Very confusingly, the link to a talk page
is labelled "discussion". All pages within Wikipedia (except
pages in the Special namespace, and talk pages themselves!) have talk
pages attached to them.
See also Wikipedia:Talk page.
Troll
A user who incites or engages in disruptive behavior (trolling). There
are some people who just enjoy causing conflict, and there are those who
make a hobby of it. However, these are few in number. Calling someone
a troll in a dispute is a bad idea; it has an effect similar to calling
someone a Nazi – no further meaningful debate can be held.
Compare with Cabal.
Some contributors classify DWEECs as trolls (but this
site does not)..
User page
A personal page for Wikipedians. Most people use their pages to introduce
themselves and to keep various personal notes and lists. They are also
used by Wikipedians to communicate with each other via the user talk pages.
A user page is linked to as [[User:Hephaestos|Hephaestos]] and appears
as Hephaestos.
See also Wikipedia:User page.
Vandalism
Deliberate defacement of Wikipedia pages. This can be by deleting text
or writing nonsense, bad language etcetera. The term is often incorrectly
used to discredit the views of an opponent in edit wars. Vandalism can
be reported at Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress.
See also m:Wikipedia vandalism.
Some contributors classify DWEECs as vandals (but this
site does not).
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