Wikipedia is a massive collection of information put together by hardcore information fans (read: nerds). Unfortunately, not all entries are as straightforward as "here is a description of a penis and a picture of an Asian elephant's penis." Sometimes editors have disagreements on citations, accuracy, or which type of flopping dong to use as an illustration. Editors accept some of these battles as the natural cost that comes with ensuring that only the best penis information emerges from the crucible of academic debate. However, some of the battles fought on Wikipedia are pointless, insane, or both. Actually, it's almost always both.

6 An Economist Named "Guy Standing" Inspired A Fight Over An Accidental Joke

The Wikipedia page for a 70-year-old British economist doesn't seem like it'd be a hot spot for controversy. That is, until the site met ... GUY STANDING.

Guy had a short, extremely straightforward Wikipedia entry explaining his (sorry, Guy) barely interesting career as an educator and author. However, his entry also included this photo and caption:

Wikipedia

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Yep. It's the same joke poor Guy has certainly heard every day of his life, and some people found it in bad taste. Some editors changed the caption, arguing that "Guy Standing sitting" was a pointless, discursive joke. Other editors changed it back, arguing they were just literally describing what was happening, and that deliberately avoiding the phrase or changing the pic was needlessly confusing. It seemed like a classic battle between the philosophies of "One should never be cute, even by accident" and "Relax, that guy is sitting."

The comments got heated. One user from Team Relax said, "It's accurate, though. The photo is of Guy Standing, sitting, so it isn't really vandalism." A rival from Team Never Cute countered, "It's still just a pointless joke. There's no actual reason for it really being there. I suggest changing the picture to him not sitting." But this argument would not be solved by finding a picture of Guy Standing standing. It would be solved with WAR.

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The volunteer Wikipedia editors battled back and forth like this ... for three years.

"There's no reason for his picture to be of him pointing with both hands at a computer monitor, looking like a computer-befuddled godfather, either. Not only is it utterly harmless to have his picture be of him sitting, but the sitting picture is finely posed as an introductory photo of him - actually choosing a poorer-posed photo just to avoid the joke actually draws attention to it."

This person warns of the dangers of drawing attention to how Guy Standing sometimes sits should they replace the photo with one of him "looking like a computer-befuddled godfather." It takes a certain amount of crazy to engage in an argument like this to begin with, but it's becoming clear that some of these participants are crazier than necessary.

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"Just a stupid joke. Back to /r/me_irl with your perennial reposts, folks."

This snap requires such a specific and sad hobby to conceive that it does more damage to the deliverer of the insult than the target.