Wikipedia talk:Policy writing is hard

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Legal requirements

There's been a myth running around that we use absolutist language primarily in the context of legal mandates: Thou shalt not violate copyrights, etc. However, we actually use this kind of language more often in the Wikipedia:Manual of Style than in legal policies.

The current version of the MOS's main page contains the word never 21 times, always 15 times, and must 18 times – a total of 54 instances in a single page. By contrast, Wikipedia:Copyright violations does not contain the words never or always at all, and it uses the word must only once. In fact, looking at the text of the entire Category:Wikipedia legal policies (excluding the two policies that aren't hosted locally), all of the legal policies combined contain the words never a total of just 4 times, always only once (to say "often but not always"), and must 34 times (mostly about copyrights) – a total of 39 instances across all of the legal policies.

The MOS uses those words far more frequently, and IMO the MOS should be our primary example of how to use those words correctly. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:56, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]