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{{Civility essay|WP:MADMEN}}
{{Nutshell|With over {{#expr:( {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}/1000000 round 1) -0.1}} million Wikipedia editors, expect a wide range of reactions. The [[fight-or-flight response]] is good advice, to beware potential user confrontations.}}
[[File:Gomphotherium_angustidens_illustration.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|[[Mastodon]]s (and ''[[gomphothere]]s'', as seen in the above image) existed 10,000 years ago. Today, they look like the Wikipedia [[roadkill]] of people who get mired (and stomped) in severe edit-wars and confrontations.]]
This essay, '''No angry mastodons just madmen''', is a March 2009 follow-up to the prior essay ("[[Wikipedia:No angry mastodons|No angry mastodons]]"), begun in 2006.{{efn|name=NAM|Prior essay "[[WP:No angry mastodons]]" was begun on 2 February 2006.}} The [[fight-or-flight response]] developed by our pre-human ancestors may have helped them escape from ''angry [[mastodon]]s'', but it wasn't considered constructive in an online encyclopedia, well at least until millions of people joined. The [[WP:Size of Wikipedia|size of Wikipedia]] has become almost unimaginably vast, with over {{#expr:( {{NUMBEROFARTICLES:R}}/1000000 round 1) -0.1}} million articles, more than {{#expr: ( {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}/1000000 round 1) -0.1}} million registered users, and over 6,500 [[WP:Modelling Wikipedia extended growth|people joining every day]].

{| class="infobox"
| colspan=2 style="text-align:center;background:#E4BB66;"| '''Wikipedia size & users'''
|-
| English articles: || {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}
|-
| [[Average|Average revisions]]: || {{#expr: {{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}}/{{NUMBEROFPAGES:R}} round 2}}
|-
| Total wiki pages: || {{NUMBEROFPAGES}}
|-
| [[WP:Administrator|Total admins]]: || {{NUMBEROFADMINS}}
|-
| Total users: || {{NUMBEROFUSERS}}
|-
| Users per day: || {{
#expr: ({{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}} - 9069102)/( ( {{CURRENTYEAR}}-2009 ) * 365 +  ({{CURRENTMONTH}}-1)*30+{{CURRENTDAY}} - 60  +(({{CURRENTHOUR}}-11)/24) )  round 0}} per day,<br />computed hourly<br />(hour as {{CURRENTHOUR}}).
|-
| colspan=2| [[UTC time]]: {{LOCALTIME}} on {{LOCALYEAR}}-{{LOCALMONTHABBREV}}-{{LOCALDAY}}
|}

The actual size of the [[English Wikipedia]] and the user base is as follows:
:* Articles: {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}     Users: {{NUMBEROFUSERS}} (live).
The count of users is as unique user ids.

In fact, the size of Wikipedia is so vast that it is also impossible to face the numerous troublesome users. Over half the user base (for years) had been teenagers, with no guarantees of maturity level. If only 1 user in 1,000 were trouble, that's still over {{#expr: trunc( {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}/1000000) }},000 troublesome users. However, Wikipedia's goal is to write the encyclopedia, not provide therapy or "attitude adjustments" for [[madmen]]. Trying to arbitrate "[[peace in the valley]]" and devote sincere time, with just one person a day, 365 per year, would require almost {{#expr: trunc( {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}/1000) /365 round 0}} years of dedicated attention to address the [[behavior modification|behavior]] of each.

Beware potential troublemakers, and decide whether to "fight for justice" or just "flee and live to fight another day".

Some Wikipedia users have become entangled in personal disputes and have spent months in arbitration to settle user conflicts. That can sometimes be avoided: remember, there are over 11 million potential articles (including redlinks), so there may be no need to fight over any particular set of articles. It may be very easy to just drop the conflicts, early, before escalating a confrontation into a situation where someone is wiki-stalking to change every article after it is edited. That level of confrontation typically requires formal arbitration, or else changing wiki-username to disappear back into the masses of other users.

The fight-or-flight response is {{strong|exactly}} what must be considered when facing the growing crowd of over {{#expr:( {{NUMBEROFUSERS:R}}/1000000 round 1) -0.1}} million other users. Consider how much time you could really afford to deal with endless quarrels.

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==See also==
{{Div col|content=
*[[Wikipedia:Accepting other users]]
*[[Wikipedia:Don't be a fanatic]]
*[[Wikipedia:Five pillars]]
*[[Wikipedia:Requests for medication]]
*[[Wikipedia:Beware of the tigers]]
*[[Wikipedia:No consensus]]
*[[Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars]]
*[[Wikipedia:Staying cool when the editing gets hot]]
*[[Wikipedia:Please do not bite the newcomers]]
*[[Wikipedia:The World Will Not End Tomorrow]]
*[[Wikipedia:Avoiding POV funnels]]
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:No angry mastodons just madmen}}

{{Civility}}
{{Wikipedia essays}}

[[Category:Wikipedia dispute resolution]]
[[Category:Wikipedia essays]]
[[Category:Wikipedia essays about civility]]

Wikipedia:No angry mastodons just madmen - Revision history

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