User:C3PO the Dragon Slayer/Essays

Essay 1: Vandalism
One of the largest aspects of this site is the destruction and corruption of it. Specifically, I am referring to vandalism. If you have doubts about whether our users are most concerned about vandalism, check a few random userpages. Almost everyone has something about the vandalism that has plagued this wiki. And those who don't are either newcomers or vandals themselves. My thesis here is devoted to figuring out why vandals vandalize here and other essential mysteries.

Now I will refer to an insight from Johnny the Vandal in his talk page, which is the only part of this Wikia that he can influence on that account. He wrote a somewhat refrained, though insightful essay on vandalism. Here is a quote from that essay:

Why do vandals vandalize? Probably because:


 * They want to have fun
 * They want to mock other users
 * They seek revenge against someone
 * They want notoriety
 * They want to replace the corrupted sysops

This is one of the truthful aspects of the essay, which I believe are confirmable. A vandal is most likely to vandalize because they want to have fun, or rather, have a sense of enjoyment. And for many people worldwide, a sense of enjoyment can be obtained by proving himself able to triumph over others, or influence something bigger than himself in some way or another. When they move a hundred articles, they feel the power of causing chaos for people they don't know. When they get banned, and have users and sysops running around fixing what he's done, the vandal feels power by making other people scramble, as he watches, regardless of whether he's banned or not. Clone accounts also find a sense of power when they see people confused about identities, and watch a plot evolve as the other users realize the truth.

When a vandal seeks revenge, the vandal usually have a rather deep hatred or a shallow impulse control. Any vandal seeking revenge, especially against a user, would likely target the userpages, talk pages, and contributions of that specific user. Sometimes a vandal may mock someone and deliberately corrupt everything but a certain user's contributions, though now that we're getting pretty good with the IRC, that move is near impossible. Reasoning, however, tells that a vandal would have a greater resentment in store than for one user, and would more likely have a loathing for the site as a whole, making a generalization. To keep the sense of power, the vandal makes sure that nothing he disrupted would have a signature for something he demolished, such as ON WHEELS or ASDF in the title. This increases awareness of a vandal, and makes him feared, or notorious.

The last asterisk on the list of reasons vandals vandalize should not be explained with deep insight because this site's admins consist of our founder and a bunch of administrators from other Wikia. A vandal who "wants to replace a corrupted sysop" would believe he is doing good for the Wiki, but in truth the sysops would only get more action and users would become more dependent on them. If a vandal wanted to replace a sysop, vandalism would not exactly be the way to do it.

One question that remains is this: Why do vandals choose this site to wreak havoc with? A vandal could choose this site because it is smaller than other Wikia, and therefore more proportional damage could be done. A vandal who wants notoriety would indeed choose a Wikia like this, because at a glance, this site is small, though there are enough strangers to terrorize. Another reason would be the outstanding lack of system administrators on this site, so the vandal couldn't be caught in the first two seconds of vandalsim. This strategy would be adopted by cowards, and cowards alone. Their lust for power, however temporary, would dwarf their desire to gain importance, fear of his chosen name. These traits fit into those bad guys who settle for being henchmen.

How can we fix this? In truth, we need to make ourselves known. We need to obtain a higher status in the community of Wikia, and expand our content to thousands of articles, not just hundreds. One of the most likely ways to get to this Wiki would be through the Wookiepedia, which is a splendid piece of work, and a true gem for the Star Wars universe. The Wookiepedia is noticable enough; it has articles on almost every Star Wars topic, and is right up there with StarWars.com and TheForce.net. If we want more contributors to this Wiki, we need to initiate a project to create more links to this website on the Wookiepedia. If we attract more users, we gain more trustworthy people, more articles; something looming over the vandals in their subconscious. This would discontinue many possible vandal candidates, except for one or two.

I am referring to a person in particular who goes by the name of Johnny. Johnny the Edit Warrior, Johnny the Vandal, Johnny TV, all are most likely the same person. It is also likely that our friend Johnny has connections with DARTH NIGGER, ASDF ASDF, Willy on Wheels, and Crumb 10; whether it is by pure coincidence of them being the same person or by Johnny having friends or acquaintances who he can persuade. The forms of vandalism are very similar, and the ON WHEELS trademark comes all too often. Accumulation is a strategy many (or one) of our vandals use, and reverting is a pain because of persistent double/triple redirects. Darth Incest was revealed to be Adamwankenobi, who is a prodigous user on Wookiepedia, whom I doubt is highly affiliated with our Johnny. My largest piece of evidence that someone is behind a lot of vandal attacks is that the vandals are getting smarter, more effective. This means they are learning from previous mistakes. When they will learn it is a huge mistake overall to devastate one another's work for nobody's gain, I cannot tell with logic and reason. I'm still waiting for the politicians to realize that same mistake.

Nevertheless, no matter how we deal with vandals, we must realize that they have motives, and can be figured out, and most importantly that they are people. C3PO the Dragon Slayer signing out.