User:Oni Ookami Alfador/Don't do it, teach it

Pages like the helpdesk are great. They provide new and long time users alike a place to ask questions ranging from basic operations to advanced policies and features regarding the use and editing of Wikipedia. Many editors spend a great deal of time on the helpdesk, village pump, and other pages answering questions.

Often times editors will tell a user how to do something, and many times they will go ahead and actually complete the requested task themselves. This is not always a good thing.

Why not to do it

The hope is, in telling an editor how to do something, through direct explanation or a link to a policy page (both is always a nice approach), they will then be able to handle it directly if it arises again in the future. Often times the explanation is followed by "I've gone ahead and done it for you" or there is no explanation at all, only a note that the request has been filled. This can actually take away from the user, and Wikipedia as a whole. Not only may the user not firmly understand something if they do not get to go through it themselves, they may never bother to actually learn knowing that it is already done for them. And in the process of doing it for themselves, they may have gotten a greater understanding of Wikipedia's workings in general, as well as the specific question they posed.

Pros

• Users become more self sufficent
• Users who are more self sufficient can get things done more quickly than if they need to request it

Cons

• Not all processes can be completed by users.
• Some, require admin priveleges, such as blocking a vandal (although the user can be directed to WP:AIV to file the report on their own).
• Some solutions are complicated, using large amounts of wiki-code or html that may overwhelm a novice user.
• Some processes may be better served by a dedicated bot account, such as the automated moving of many similar pages.

Examples

When to teach

• User wants to report a vandal
• User wants to create a page
• User wants clarification on a guideline or policy
• User wants to delete a user page (see WP:CSD)

When to just do it

• Blocking accounts
• (Un)Deleting Pages
• Action is overly complicated (lots of code a user may not understand)
• Anon or non-autoconfirmed editing a protected page.
• When a user might have a conflict (businesses will often request a change to their own page rather than make it themselves to be respectful of WP:COI.