What 20 million bans reveal about the strain on wikipedias volunteers?

A billion tiny people work together to keep giant, living books up-to-date, but sometimes they get into fights that make it harder for everyone.

Imagine you and your friends are building the biggest LEGO castle ever. You all take turns adding new parts, fixing mistakes, and making sure everything looks good. But then, some kids start arguing over who gets to add a red brick or where the castle should be moved. They keep fighting, and instead of helping build the castle, they spend time telling each other off, sometimes even kicking others out of the LEGO club.

That’s what's happening on Wikipedia right now. There are 20 million bans, which means 20 million times people got kicked out or stopped working together because of arguments. These tiny fights are making it harder for everyone to keep the giant, living books updated, and that’s a lot of work!

• Wikipedia is like your LEGO castle, full of cool facts and stories.
• The volunteers are like you and your friends, helping build and fix things.
• But if too many people get banned, it's harder for the rest to keep everything working smoothly.