WP:Our social policies are not a suicide pact
{{For|responding to threats of suicide or harm|Wikipedia:Responding to threats of harm}}
{{Behavioral essay|WP:PACT|WP:SUICIDEPACT|WP:NOTSUICIDE}}
{{Nutshell|Assuming good faith does not require that editors extend good faith in instances where there is clear bad faith.}}
File:Broken objects in a damaged apartment of Shikharkh.png was probably intentional.]]
Wikipedia guidelines instruct editors to assume good faith. The idea that this should not be taken to foolish extremes stems from a statement made by Jimmy Wales in March 2005:
{{blockquote|
Our social policies are not a suicide pact. They are in place to help us write the encyclopedia.{{nbsp}}[...] We need to take due process seriously, but we also need to remember: this is not a democracy, this is not an experiment in anarchy, it's a project to make the world a better place by giving away a free encyclopedia{{nbsp}}[...] We can cut some serious slack to administrators who are doing the good work of defending us from nonsense.}}
The inspiration was likely the American political phrase, "The Constitution is not a suicide pact". Since 2005, the words "not a suicide pact" have been [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search="not+a+suicide+pact"+-constitution&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&ns1=1&ns2=1&ns3=1&ns4=1&ns5=1 commonly quoted] in relation to Wikipedia's policies, particularly "assume good faith". "Our social policies are not a suicide pact" is essentially a restatement of Wikipedia:Ignore all rules as applied to editor behavior: "If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it."
Remember this principle is an {{em|exception}} to allow admins to protect the encyclopedia without getting bogged down in bureaucracy, not a general invitation to breach our behavioral guidelines. Quoting this essay is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. You shouldn't assume that every single harmful edit is intentional, but you don't have to pretend that all bad actions were accidents and mistakes, either.