Wikipedia:Things that should not be surprising

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A Wikipedian reacts with a mixture of shock and surprise

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. —Ecclesiastes 1:9

Some things can be surprising about Wikipedia.

Some things, given some thought, should not be.

Some examples of things that should not be surprising:

People

1. The fact that sometimes people who aren't vandals get blocked because they were behaving like assholes.
2. The fact that sometimes people who aren't vandals get blocked because someone doesn't like them.
3. The fact that blocks that are poorly justified may be reverted by another admin upon appeal.
4. The fact that blocks that are properly justified probably won't be reverted by another admin upon appeal.
5. The fact that not all users are on Wikipedia 24/7 and thus may not be able to respond immediately to personal requests.
6. The fact that idiots are just as common on Wikipedia as anywhere else.
7. The fact that people with mental disorders are just as common on Wikipedia as anywhere else.

Articles

1. The fact that naked people exist, and might be used to illustrate an article about, say, nudism.
2. The fact that any page will never be 100% correct (except List of Pokémon characters).
3. The fact that articles about ongoing ethnic feuds are subject to ongoing feuds between ethnic groups.
4. The fact that some articles are crap.
5. The fact that sports teams hope to make the playoffs.

Seriousness

1. The fact that some people are way too serious about the tone of articles.
2. The fact that some people are too silly when writing or editing articles.
3. The fact that some people are way too serious about themselves.
4. The fact that sometimes the Internet is serious business.
5. The fact that sometimes the Internet isn't serious business, but some people refuse to believe it.

Vandalism

1. The fact that vandals get blocked.
2. The fact that vandalism on widely watched articles gets quickly reverted, while vandalism on minor stubs and other low-traffic pages is slower to be reverted.
3. The fact that people will vandalize anything and everything.
4. The fact that there is much more vandalism while school is in session.

Disagreements

1. The fact that people can edit war about some really stupid things.
2. The fact that people can argue over the smallest things.
3. The fact that people can argue over the dumbest things.
4. The fact that a large portion of the back end of Wikipedia is dedicated to resolving disputes.
5. The fact that being a dick doesn't resolve conflicts.

Conflicts of interest

1. The fact that you (and your college garage band/vanity press novel) are most likely not notable.
2. The fact that sometimes people edit their articles to make themselves look better.
3. The fact that sometimes corporations/NGOs/governments edit their articles to make themselves look better.
4. The fact that sometimes people edit articles to make their enemies look worse.
5. The fact that IP addresses can be traced back to their owners.

Miscellaneous

1. The fact that people behave as if articles for deletion and requests for adminship are votes, and yet loudly declare they aren't votes.
2. The fact that the MediaWiki software can be fucking weird sometimes.
3. The fact that the "edit this page" link actually lets people edit pages.
4. The fact that shit happens.
5. The fact that shit OFTEN happens.
6. The fact that either way you look at it, you're screwed.
7. The fact that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
8. The fact that one day you will die and all of your contributions will be transcluded, erased, overwritten, invalidated, vandalized, or forgotten but you will not be able to do anything about it.
9. The fact that most edits whose summaries contain variations on the word "accurate", especially ones by IPs or redlinked names, need to be reverted for being anything but "accurate".

And finally

1. The fact that a page documenting obvious facts exists somewhere.
2. The fact that people will actually look up and read a page documenting obvious facts, just like you are right now.