Generally speaking, being passionate about something is considered a positive, or at least neutral, trait. It's also something most of us have in common: almost everyone is a fan of something, and "fan" comes from the word fanatic. Sometimes, however, a person's affinity for one single thing — be it a piece of entertainment, a social issue, or anything else you can imagine — goes from passion to zealotry, obsession, or even monomania. When this happens, the Single-Issue Wonk comes into being.
The Single-Issue Wonk isn't necessarily a bad person at first blush. In most situations, they may be quite friendly, benevolent to newbies, and contribute productively to discussions. However, when that one subject comes up, they undergo a shocking transformation: they start aggressively pushing their position, sometimes to the point of starting a Flame War, edit warring, or even vandalizing wiki pages. They might keep this up for days, until everyone else gives up, a moderator shuts them down, or they flame out in spectacular fashion. Needless to say, such people are primo targets for malicious Trolls who want to pour gasoline on a fire, if they aren't actually trolls themselves.
The Single-Issue Wonk may take a number of forms. On the more benign end, you may have a person who's simply really opinionated and doesn't know when to let the matter drop. Others may assert that only they are right and only their opinion is valid. Yet others may be so convinced of their own "rightness" that they desire to punish anyone who disagrees with them, whether or not they actually have the power or ability to do so — if they do, the result is often horrifying.
Given the nature of this site, we've had Single-Issue Wonks wonking over all kinds of inconsequential things, some of which beggar rational description:
- Complete Monsters and Magnificent Bastards
- Shipping Wars
- Censoring Profanity
- Joel Vs. Mike
- Which fictional character would win in a fight
- Seriously contending that slightly bratty children in children's shows are actually true sociopaths
- Troping and/or gushing over non-existent works
- Crusading against all mentions of using the bathroom on the wiki
Regardless of which form they take or what their Berserk Button is, Single-Issue Wonks are at best annoying and disruptive, and such behavior is naturally discouraged on this site.
What's much less amusing, however, are the Wonks who insist on Righting Great Wrongs or injecting their real-life sociopolitical opinions into almost every single thing they do or say on the site, whether it's warranted or not. A handful of these users may be genuinely well-intentioned (if misguided), but the fact is that TV Tropes is about storyteling devices used in fiction. The site is not, and was never intended to be, a soapbox or platform for any person's or group's ideology.
Unfortunately, a certain percentage of the Wonks determined to push sociopolitical agendas tend to push ideologies with intent to cause harm to others, with vulnerable groups such as racial minorities, women, and the LGBT population being perennial targets. Needless to say, we do not tolerate this site being used as a weapon against vulnerable groups. In cases such as these, it's generally best to avoid engaging the offending poster directly, and notify a moderator via PM or posting on Ask The Tropers.
While this page primarily discusses Single-Issue Wonks as relates to TV Tropes, they also appear on The Other Wiki and pretty much everywhere else, both online and off.
