[WikiEN-l] Re: WP:IAR

Tue Sep 20 13:09:41 UTC 2005

If WP:IAR were deleted, people would not suddenly say "Oh, my goodness, I see 
that the policy has changed, I will now start slavishly following the rules." 
So there's no particular reason to delete it.

But if WP:IAR were deleted, people would still be bold and occasionally 
ignore the rules. So there's no particular reason to have it.

Wikipedia is a community of people that have the technical capability of 
performing certain operations within Wikipedia. Wikipedian policy is whatever 
it is that Wikipedians customarily do. "Policy" statements inform, they do 
not coerce. 

It would be appropriate to delete WP:IAR if there had, in fact, been a sea 
change in general Wikipedian conduct, toward the direction of rigorously and 
literally following written policy at all times.

Should we consider deleting "Wikipedia:Be bold"?