# Wheaton's Law
Wheaton's Law is a three-word rule for the internet, "Don't be a dick," coined by actor Wil Wheaton during his August 2007 keynote at the Penny Arcade Expo. What began as a plea for better online gaming sportsmanship spread through geek-culture blogs and single-serving sites to become one of the most quoted etiquette axioms of the Web 2.0 era.
## Origin
Wil Wheaton coined the rule during his keynote address at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle in August 2007. Ars Technica's live writeup of the event described Wheaton walking the crowd through his history as a gamer, contrasting the arcade era with current Xbox Live and World of Warcraft culture, and asking the audience to treat other players better[1]. Joystiq's recap of the same keynote framed it as a speech "just for geeks" and amplified the three-word takeaway to a wider gaming audience within days[2].
Wheaton restated the rule in his own PAX recap on his blog on August 22, 2007, which is the written source most later writers point to when they quote him[4]. A fan-recorded clip of the keynote was later posted to YouTube as the standard reference video for the moment the rule was announced[5].
- **Platform:** Penny Arcade Expo keynote / blogs (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Wil Wheaton
- **Date:** 2007
## Overview
The law gets quoted as a one-line verdict on bad behavior, usually dropped into a forum reply, a Twitter dunk, or a mod note when a longer argument would be wasted. The joke works because the rule is almost comically short next to the famous Three Laws of Robotics or Murphy's Law, with the eponymic framing letting people pretend an actor's offhand remark deserves the same formal treatment[1].
Early use skewed hard toward video game communities and geek blogs, where "Don't be a dick" doubled as sportsmanship advice for Xbox Live and WoW and as a general-purpose shorthand against griefing, trolling, and bad-faith argument[2]. The phrase itself was not new in 2007. A Slashdot moderation guideline had already told users "as the bumper sticker says, 'Don't be a dick'" years earlier[3], but Wheaton's keynote attached the rule to a specific person and gave it a memorable name that outlasted the speech.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Wheaton's Law?
Wheaton's Law is an internet axiom coined by actor Wil Wheaton that reads, in full, "Don't be a dick"[1].
### Where did Wheaton's Law come from?
Wheaton introduced the rule during his keynote at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle in August 2007, in a speech focused on sportsmanship in online gaming[2].
### What does Wheaton's Law mean?
It is a shorthand code of conduct asking people, originally gamers and later anyone online, to treat others decently and not behave abusively[4].
### How do you use Wheaton's Law?
People invoke it as a one-line reply to bad behavior online, often linking the name as if citing a formal rule, as parodied by sites like RuleOfTheInternet.com[6].
### Is Wheaton's Law still popular?
The phrase stayed in heavy circulation through the late 2000s and early 2010s and is still cited as a classic rule of internet conduct, with later variants like Bill Willingham's "okay to play one on TV" amendment[7].
## References
1. [https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2007/08/ars-at-pax-the-event-keynote/]()
2. [https://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/24/pax-07-the-wil-wheaton-keynote-just-for-geeks/]()
3. [http://slashdot.org/moderation.shtml]()
4. [http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2007/08/pax-ftw.html]()
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-H0epcfoQ]()
6. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120302044346/http://ruleoftheinternet.com:80/]()
7. [https://x.com/i/status/5966635766]()
8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0la5DBtOVNI]()
9. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wheatons-law]()
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