Unless you've been living as a troll for the last 6 years, you would have heard about Wikipedia's assume good faith policy, and you would probably have seen assume the assumption of good faith and assume bad faith. But in all of these pages, the good (living) people of Wikipedia have forgotten a crucial message...

Assume good wraith

Artist depiction of a good wraith. Note the arms are at the side in a friendly gesture as if saying, "How may I help you?"

What is this telling us, you may ask? Well, usually when you think of ghosts you think of horror movies, white cloaks, and Ghostbusters; 3 equally evil concepts. But ghosts have had a bad stereotype built against them through the ages (Ghostbusters 2 was the final straw, surely), and people have forgotten all about Casper the friendly ghost. You must never become one of these people.

If you ever see a ghost, or other spooky creature, always assume it is friendly, like Casper. Assume that it is benevolent, and not malevolent. Don't call it a "bringer of death", a "possessor of darkness", and please don't call the Ghostbusters! Give it a chance, and assume that it's a good wraith.

This has Wikipedia applications, right?

No, it doesn't, otherwise it would be an essay. If you can't detect the sarcasm in it then you really shouldn't be browsing the Wikipedia humor category, mate.

Thank you, someone that is on my side. I hate my middle name "wraith" because of the assumption that it "must be something bad". Please enlighten me to another meaning and I will stop searching for a new name. And yes, I do believe that names have a lot to do with someone's character.

— Jimmy Wales[citation needed]

Please! Give me a clue? How can we AGW on Wikipedia?

You can be a wraith and still have fun, but please remember schadenfreude is verboten.

*groan* — You can AGW by not jumping to conclusions about spirits who may go slightly against the grain, but instead giving them a chance to show that they are acting for the better of the project. You can AGW by not calling even the most tenuous of IP's ghosts a sockpuppet or meatpuppet, and by not calling in a possessor of the banning stick.

No, not even if it's fun

Yes, we all understand. Sometimes, our strange mortal minds find happiness in the suffering of others, therefore, we assume that they are trying to do bad, so we can exorcise them, thus making ourselves feel better due to the fact that we are helping, and the fact that we made someone else banished to the other side. THAT'S A BAD THING TO DO! It's hard to resist sometimes, but just remember, you were a little spook once too, and you probably have edits deep in your contributions grave that you aren't exactly proud of, like that one where you accidentally scared the template so badly it made the whole page close due to being haunted. Long story short...just because it makes you feel better...it makes them feel worse, remember that.

Hey wait, isn't that just AGF with some different wording?

...is that a rhetorical question or do you want an answer? I'll take the former.

ACTUAL ways AGW is different from AGF

Assuming good wraith is different from assuming good faith because you're not assuming the intentions of a Wikipedian, but instead assuming the moral compass of someone beyond this mortal realm. They are considered different from regular Wikipedians because they edit in a much different manner: they possess either a mortal Wikipedian (NOT to be confused with a puppet of any sort) or the device itself to edit. This may sound like a load of rubbish, and that is because it is a load of rubbish I haven't got a lot to work with, darn it!

What if I find a bad-wraith edit?

First of all, those are not wraiths. All wraiths are good wraiths, as per the title of this page. That so-called 'wraith' is most likely a demon, a goblin, a rogue gnome, or an Enderman. It is possible, but highly unlikely, that you could find a bad wraith edit here, here, or here, but we don't need to go there.

However, must you assume bad wraith, you may want to warn a certain green plumber before he has to go into that article.

But what do I do if I come across the OTHER kind of wraith editing Wikipedia?

In the event that you encounter this scenario, you are advised to Assume Good Wraith only if the wraith in question happens to be editing under the account User:ToddW. Otherwise, inform an admin immediately.

See also