A wikibreak, wikiholiday, wikivacation or leave of wiki-absence is a period when even a wikiholic must be parted from Wikipedia—though, presumably only temporarily.
The pain involved varies from Wikipedian to Wikipedian. Some find it easy to endure, whereas others find the separation agonizing. Often the latter find themselves grasping at any opportunity to go online "just to check what's happening".
The degree of coercion also varies. Some remarkable individuals are actually capable of taking a voluntary wikiholiday: they are to be admired for their strength of character. Some people have to enforce their departure for their own good. Others still are forced into it through circumstances beyond their control: it is often at such times that wikiholics discover their condition.
Wikibreaks, and reducing activity while on Wikipedia, can reflect a serious issue if a person is going through serious difficulties.
When to depart
- You are going to go traveling.
- You are a student and you have exams or other pressing schoolwork.
- You marry or divorce.
- You feel exhausted by your regional weather.
- You are neglecting your work and job.
- You get addicted to a new video game that you have to obsess over for the next few days.
- You find yourself repeatedly assuming bad faith.
- You are stressed to the point that it affects your editing.
- You have a new girlfriend or boyfriend.
- Your girlfriend or boyfriend wants you to spend more time with them.
- You break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend.
- You have to look for a job.
- You have a job and do not want to lose it.
- You have been making false edits, not verifiable or under copyright protections, including the GFDL and Fair Use licenses.
- You find yourself making minor edits, in order to use the recent changes page as a discussion.
- You have to move to a new home.
- You have neglected to pay your Internet bill and have been banned from accessing the internet.
- You are injured or sick.
- You're deceased.
- Your Wikistress is making it hard to work.
- You need time to relax and think, so that when you do return to Wikipedia, you'll hopefully be refreshed.
- Your time on Wikipedia is having a drastic effect on your life outside of Wikipedia.
- Your computer has broken down.
- There is an emergency in your area.
- It takes you several hours to make and perfect a single edit, because you're worried your edit will be corrected by someone else.
- You find yourself checking your watchlist compulsively throughout the day to defend your edits against vandals and other ne'er-do-wells.
- You're giving up editing Wikipedia for Lent, Hajj or a similar religious observance.
- You have been grounded by your parents, business partner or significant other from using the computer.
- You have a baby.
- You've been blocked indefinitely from editing Wikipedia, per ruling of administrators, Jimbo Wales and/or the Arbitration Committee. See block log.
- You are addicted.
- You become disillusioned with the project.
- You find yourself suffering from Adminitis.
- You haven't received any satisfaction out of editing Wikipedia but don't wish to depart forever.
When to come back
- You came back from travelling.
- Your relatives (thankfully) left your house.
- You have either been unblocked or your block has expired.
- Your spouse asks you to buy a new car. Just buy it and come straight back.
- Your exams are over.
- You decide that your divorce has left you more time to be a Wikipedian.
- You find out your new girlfriend or boyfriend is a Wikipedian, too.
- Especially when you find that now you've been spending a lot of time editing, discussing, fighting over and making up with said friend.
- You have finished moving.
- You decide to give up smoking so that you can pay your Internet bill.
- You've recovered from your sickness.
- You have been reincarnated.
- You realize you really hadn't died in the first place.
- You've been resurrected and come back from the dead. (Don't forget to tell us how!)
- You've let go of all your Wikistress.
- You've done all the relaxing you can do and besides, all that talk about relaxation and thinking clearer is baloney anyway.
- Since your computer is broken, you find yourself at the library every day, editing Wikipedia under Windows 2000, Windows NT or gasp... Windows ME.
- Or you get a new one.
- You are cured from being a wikiaddict. (It may never happen. Most likely, you will never recover.)
- You've decided to take a break from your Wikibreak.
- After you've been arrested and suddenly find yourself with nothing else to do while serving time in jail.
- You feel like it.