A CompellingIrritant is a wiki contributor who causes other contributors to generate opposition. Like a toilet overflowing, we can neither tolerate nor ignore the irritant, but must react. Sometimes the reactions are constructive; for the most part they're general expressions of pain and despair. Like this page.

The irritant him or herself revels in the undivided attention of the community. Any attention - deletions, insults, earnest rapprochments, editorial criticism, even IP-blocking gives them a thrill. For the irritant the entire exercise is about fulfillment of their ego. They drop names - Ward and other wiki proprietors - and claim various kinds of fictitious expertise, ingenuity and respect in fields for which they loudly and dogmatically maintain maximum ignorance. 

All to gain a recognition denied them in other media.

On UseNet the irritants ordinarily wound up in killfiles. Most UseNet participants developed a healthy relish for the act of killing an irritant. But the WikiNature doesn't support a killfile. Nor does an IP authenticate an author adequately to support persistent blocking. So one or two sociopaths can wreck the experience of wiki for hundreds or even thousands of others.

However, this behaviour can be confused with a GadFly.

''Not really. The behavior described here is most often the mark of a '''troll''' rather than some other, less obnoxious form of pest. Yes, the C2 does have its share of trolls, but they aren't nearly as irritating and disruptive as the Usenet variety (for those lacking a killfile). On a Wiki the community can simply remove the pest's droppings and return the content to its pristine form. Not so in online discussions.''

''Oh, well. Not so much of a problem...not even worth mentioning in the category, wouldn't you say?''
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See also: CleverTrollAdmiration
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CategoryProblem, CategoryCommunication