User:Scarian/Genre trolls

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It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

"Genre trolling" has been around since Wikipedia first began accepting music orientated articles.

Definition edit

The colloquially accepted definition of a "genre troll" is a user who makes continuous genre changes to suit their own point of view despite being told not to do so. This, of course, violates numerous policies.
A genre troll tends to reply to discussion with things like: "Of course they're (whatever genre)! Haven't you heard them?!" - This is a subjective argument that has no basis on Wikipedia.

The problem edit

Users come to Wikipedia to view music related articles. They look at the infobox, see the genres, decide it's wrong and then change the genre. They move onto a different article and repeat the process. This may start as an isolated change but then snowball into dozens of articles within minutes. Many music fans may subjectively see a band to be a different genre than a source suggests and rely firmly on their own knowledge thinking it to be of equal, if not greater, worth than anyone else's. This is perfectly fine and natural; there are a lot of self-professed "music moguls" out in the world. But the problem is that everyone believes they know more than the next person; which, undoubtedly, causes great conflict.

Solution edit

Because many of these "genre trolls" are new users; a gentle note about their edits may be enough to help guide them in a more policy abiding direction.
Failure to heed the note and a seemingly perpetual stream of genre changes should be followed up with a sterner warning to prevent further disruption.
Continued genre changing will result in a block from an administrator.

Solution 2 edit

As I wrote above, one of their main arguments would be something subjective like this; that type of reasoning can be effortlessly undermined by finding a reliable source and then providing it to the user. Of course, persistent refusal to adhere to evidence would result in Steps 2 and 3 being executed above.

Previous solution(s) edit

Removal of the genre field entirely (See archives 9-14 of WT:WikiProject Music... yes, archives 9 through 14)

In the same discussion, Alf suggested umbrella genre terms; if there is a seemingly unresolvable genre dispute, this is usually the best method of putting matters to rest.