Wikipedia talk:Be bold

It's bad enough that biting newcomers, and territorial reverts-out-of-hand with no explanation or simple handwaves at policy, are so commonplace. And it's a big part of why newcomers quickly learn to seek consensus first, particularly to avoid aforesaid territorial reverts.

But it really takes the cake that when a newcomer is doing their best to avoid putting in work (only to simply see it thrown out), it's anything short of verboten to tell them to smeg off with "SOFIXIT" (rather than even acknowledging their attempt to engage any given page's editor(s)).

If you suspect my plea is based on something I should be researched and taken to task for, I'll save you the time: I'm not talking about my own experience, I'm talking about seeing others' experiences (which made me sad to see it's apparently still commonplace). ~2025-36575-27 (talk) ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 20:39, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

I've done this with the intent to let newbies know that they don't have ask someone else to make the change they want to see. What better alternative do you suggest? - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 17:26, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

If my intent is to non-bitingly let someone know they don't have to ask someone else (and hopefully that you'll give them support if/when one of the page's routine editors comes along and reverts it with just a shortcut and no explanation)… do you sincerely think telling them "SOFIXIT" comes across that way, to a new person who has no way to know what it's allegedly shorthand for? ~2025-36575-27 (talk) ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 03:59, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Ya, sure, saying "SOFIXIT" is next to useless to a newbie. But how about saying "WP:SOFIXIT" (which I do)? - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 05:51, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

The difference between brushing someone off with a dismissive "WP:SOFIXIT", and brushing them off with a dismissive "SOFIXIT" may seem massive to you with your experience… but it's negligible to someone who doesn't speak fluent Wikipedese. ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 20:01, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Did you get that I linked "WP:SOFIXIT"? If so, I doubt your assertion that the difference is negligible to newbies. Or are you positing a newbie who doesn't know what a blue underline means? - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 20:37, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

My bad: To more directly answer your question, WP:DNB has a number of excellent suggestions for how to help someone rather than rudely dismiss them out of hand. ~2025-36575-27 (talk) ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 04:03, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Which one or two do you find most applicable to this situation? - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 05:55, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

For starters, point 5 directly contradicts replying with SOFIXIT: Avoid excessive Wikipedia jargon. When linking to policies or guidelines, do so in whole phrases, not wiki shorthand.

Point 6 is also useful, because even as little as writing several personalized words means more than a single string of several characters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Please_do_not_bite_the_newcomers#How_to_avoid_biting

(Unless you actually want them to go away, that is. Which may sometimes be not unreasonable, but it's a terrible default response.) ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 20:00, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

I have conceded that unlinked jargon is insufficient. Please stop beating that dead horse. - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 20:56, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

No, you didn't. You angrily defended your use of jargon as okay because it's not just jargon — it's linked jargon, woohoo! Because everyone knows pointing a finger toward "hey go read five pages of stuff" is meaningful communication. And somehow, people will intuit that "WP:SOFIXIT" shouldn't be taken on its face for exactly what it is: A de-facto assertion that it's not just you who's shutting down their attempt at dialogue, Wikipedia itself agrees with you. ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 05:06, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

Actually, here's a crazy idea: How about "I get that you may be worried about being reverted out of hand or insulted by the page's editor(s). Unfortunately, that does happen sometimes. But I've been watching this page for a while, and haven't seen such behavior. Since (fortunately) this isn't one of the semi-protected, protected, etc pages why don't you give it a shot? You never know, you might find that Wikipedia isn't as harsh and territorial a place as it has a reputation for. And working together, we can continue to make it even more so."

…nah, that's crazy talk. I get it now. Better to quikly get them used to how things really are, otherwise they'll be severely disabused of their idealistic notions in short order (and then they'll definitely never come back, whereas a quick SOFIXIT rips off the band-aid quickly. ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 20:09, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Or better to quickly get them in the mindset that they can do it themselves by sending them to prose that says just that. That said, taking the time to send a personalized note would be optimal and experienced editors should be encouraged to do that - which, as you point out, they are in DNB. Are you suggesting that it should also be done here? If so, what text do you suggest? - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 20:56, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

"sending them to prose that says just that"

No, you're sending them to five pages that eventually sum up to "Just do it and everything will be fine unless you make any of these mistakes, then people will tell you all about them."

"which, as you point out, they are in DNB"

Congratulations, you're finally acknowledging that DNB calls this out this sort of behavior.

"If so, what text do you suggest?"

Perhaps the text you're simultaneously replying to and ignoring would be a good start. Or perhaps you could take your own 'advice' and go look at the resource I referred to, and twice explained further… you know, as opposed to throwing a single WP:SOFIXIT at them like an epithet. You have plenty of examples at hand already, so please stop asking me to waste time providing more of something you evidently don't actually want. ~2025-36575-27 (talk) 05:24, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

The usual thing to do is to write this:

Thanks for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to change it. We encourage you to be bold in updating pages, because wikis like ours develop faster when everybody edits. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. You can always preview your edits before you publish them or test them out in the sandbox. If you need additional help, check out our getting started page or ask the friendly folks at the Teahouse.

It's in Template:Sofixit, which should be subst'd. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:16, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Be bold when editing but also proofread Hello Ookalalalala (talk) 15:09, 22 January 2026 (UTC)