Jump to content

User:NE Ent/Policy fallacy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.