This was originally posted as a comment on the talk page of a fellow editor who was experiencing burnout. I'm duplicating it here, in the hopes that other editors find it useful.
Suggestions for staying sane
I realize you've probably heard most of this before, but I've found the following things help a lot for staying sane and not growing to hate editing here (most of the time):
- If you need a break, take a break. A nice, long break. My record was about 2 months, after the whole "Harmonics Theory" fiasco. More recently, I took a break of about a month in the spring of 2006. The encyclopedia won't self-destruct in the meantime, and it's usually no more stressful to clean up a month's accrued cruft than to clean it up day by day.
- Be willing to drop the losing battles. This is part of why I gave up on autodynamics. Yes, it still needs to be fixed, but I can contribute a _lot_ more usefully if I'm not bogged down arguing with people with immutable views and time on their hands.
- Remember that you're (presumably) here to have fun. Every now and then, forget about Guarding the Truth, and pick an interesting and non-controvertial side project. My last one was a partial rewrite of degenerate matter; my current one is event horizon. As a micro-project, I'll probably make placeholder figures showing spacetime curvature the Right Way for general relativity. Once I start having fun again, I'm willing to put up with a little more flack (though only a little).
- Remember that The System can work. This is part of one of my current requests on the WikiProject Physics talk page, and there are a few other users I'm watching as well. Sooner or later, the really harmful cranks and pov-pushers unambiguously demonstrate their aims, and then the wheels of policy can be set in motion. The flip side of it being possible for one person to cause a lot of stress, is that one person getting themselves banned can _save_ a lot of stress, so I feel that chasing individual blatant pov-pushers is a worthwhile activity. For the borderline cases, I find it less stressful to just ignore them, but your mileage may vary.
I hope at least some of this is useful to you. --Christopher Thomas 03:57, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
🔥 Top keywords: Main PageSpecial:SearchPage 3Wikipedia:Featured picturesHouse of the DragonUEFA Euro 2024Bryson DeChambeauJuneteenthInside Out 2Eid al-AdhaCleopatraDeaths in 2024Merrily We Roll Along (musical)Jonathan GroffJude Bellingham.xxx77th Tony AwardsBridgertonGary PlauchéKylian MbappéDaniel RadcliffeUEFA European Championship2024 ICC Men's T20 World CupUnit 731The Boys (TV series)Rory McIlroyN'Golo KantéUEFA Euro 2020YouTubeRomelu LukakuOpinion polling for the 2024 United Kingdom general electionThe Boys season 4Romania national football teamNicola CoughlanStereophonic (play)Gene WilderErin DarkeAntoine GriezmannProject 2025