Daniel Mayer wrote:
This is probably an artifact of my very Conservative
Christian/"Children should be seen and not heard" upbringing where
people in authority often say "please" in order to sound nice but
you are still expected to comply as if it were a request (unless the
please is highly qualified - weird, I know).
I think this is very common and easy to understand. Particularly in
the context of a page that says 'policy' and particularly when other
lines nearby describe(d) it as policy.
I'd probably like it best if it said something like "It is generally
considered courteous to let people who have worked on the page know
that it might be deleted, either by putting a note on their talk page
or by putting a note on the page itself that says something like
this..."
That makes it clear that it's just a request, and it also explains the
reason for the request (courtesy to others).
--Jimbo