User:NE Ent/Policy fallacy
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
When there is a pattern of inappropriate behavior, it is sometimes thought rewriting/rewording guidance pages can fix the situation. This isn't necessarily true because
- Wikipedia practices are often nuanced; they can be fully learned only through experience.
- Our top level policies emphatically encourage editors to proceed without having read the instructions.
- Wikipedia is not a community; it is a set of overlapping sub-communities. Context changes.
- English is ubiquitous but not monolithic; connotations of the same phrases vary depending on the culture of the reader.
- Attempts to cover all situations leads to greater length which decreases efficacy.
- Editors bring pre-conceptions with them.
- Some editors are just stupid.
Written guidance is only one vertex of a triad of norm conveyance. Observation of other editor's behaviors and personalized communication during dispute resolution processes are equally valuable.
Policies should be concisely written to be understandable to a majority of editors. Trying to make policies cover all situations in a way that all editors will get them is counterproductive tilting at windmills.