Wiki143:Don't stuff beans up your nose

As an old story goes: Template:Quote In our zeal to head off others' unwise actions, we may put forth ideas they have not entertained before. As the popular saying goes, "don't give 'em any ideas".

For example, don't give potential vandals examples of how to cause disruption. This may will tempt them to do it.Template:Refn

In a similar vein, there are many areas of the encyclopedia that rely on, or benefit from, some level of security through obscurity, such as WP:SPI. For this reason, specific cases and abuse mitigation are often left undiscussed on-wiki, and this essay is sometimes cited in such situations (often using the shortcut WP:BEANS) to drop the hint that further public explanation of a matter could be unwise. An essay explaining this in more detail is Wikipedia:There's a reason you don't know.

See also

• Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:Don't
• Wikipedia:Avoid instruction creep
• Wikipedia:Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point
• Wikipedia:Don't delete the main page
• Wikipedia:Don't stuff beans up the developers' noses
• Wikipedia:No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man
• A counterpoint to this essay
• Every time someone clicks this link, an innocent kitten, a person, a cow, a bat, a frog, a whale, a dolphin, an axolotl, and a tiger die. (not necessarily in that order)

Articles

• Negative suggestion
• "Beans in My Ears", a 1960s song
• Reactance (psychology)
• Reverse psychology
• Security through obscurity
• Streisand effect
• Ostension
• Pandora's box