[WikiEN-l] My views on policies and debates over content

Wed Jun 8 22:17:05 UTC 2005

Matt Brown (morven at gmail.com) [050609 07:42]:

>   I'm also concerned that turning policies into rigid rules,
> procedures, committees and the like may advantage those who like to
> rules-lawyer over those with less patience for minutae.

Yes. That's precisely my uneasy feeling about this discussion. POV pushers
won't go away, they'll adapt to circumstances. If a hundred editors say
Rush Limbaugh outdraws a peer-reviewed scientific paper as a reference on
science, do they win the vote 100-1?

Also, I've seen no plans for when such content decisions are reviewable.
Never? Once you win, is the question officially fixed?

> Every rule set down in stone is a rule behind which a troll can hide. 
> Or turn into a club to beat those they want to antagonize.
> Every time we are tempted by instruction-creep, we should think "How
> will this rule be abused by the ill-intentioned?"

"This proposal will create a stick for idiots." i.e. an idiot stick. Yep.

- d.