User:Martynas Patasius/On form and substance
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Sometimes in Wikipedia a choice between form and substance has to be made.
Substance and not form[edit]
Usually, when the choice between form and substance has to be made, substance is more important. Although that does not mean that form is not important: if substance is not endangered, the most beautiful form can be chosen. Also, if the form doesn't allow to get the content ("substance"), it might be worth to remove that content.
Examples[edit]
The need to make a choice between form and substance can arise while writing artices and lists. For example, some users think that an article with infoboxes looks nicer and more professional, and that it is also true when it is impossible to fill the infobox in the way that would not mislead the readers. Yet in that case substance is more important than form (not misleading the readers is more important than professional look of the article), thus the infobox is not to be used.
On the other hand, the content that is given in a way that is impossible to understand is also useless. That is one of the reasons why an article can end up deleted.