[Wikipedia-l] Re: Deletions and respect.

Fri Sep 27 06:35:48 UTC 2002

The Cunctator wrote:
> I should continue: everyone has a habit of modifying policy through their
> actions on Wikipedia. I have a habit of modifying policy explicitly. As
> should everyone else.
> 
> I have changed policy pages to reflect de facto policies that I disagree
> with as well as ones that I agree with.
> 
> The policy pages aren't sacred and shouldn't be considered as such; but they
> should be followed. If you (being a reasonable and good person) think it is
> unreasonable or detrimental to follow something on a policy page, then you
> should change the policy page.

IOW, the policy pages _describe_ project policy, they don't _define_ it.

It's been frequently noted that policy and documentation pages aren't 
always consistent with practice. Sometimes this means the pages should 
be changed, sometimes this means practice should be changed, sometimes 
it means both.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)