User:TransporterMan/Sandbox/2

{{essay}} IAR and policy: reality check

Reading the most basic principles and policies of Wikipedia can lead an editor to believe that he or she is authorized to blithely ignore Wikipedia policies and guidelines^[1] and that Alister Crowley's principle of "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" is the guiding principle here. In reality nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that the fate of an editor who on a daily basis tries to edit just using common sense and without knowing and conforming to Wikipedia policy is likely to be much like the result of the conflict between the laws of nature and human pollution portrayed in Tom Lehrer's satirical song, "Pollution":

Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly...
But they don't last long if they try.

^ Wikipedia has pillars, policies, guidelines, and essays. While in theory there is less obligation to conform to guidelines than there is to policy, on a practical everyday level guidelines carry much the same weight as policies (though it does vary somewhat from guideline to guideline). In this essay, guidelines will be regarded as no different than policies and the term "policy" generally should be read as "policy and/or guideline." Essays are just personal opinions, though some of them are so universally accepted and influential that they might as well be policy.

[1] Wikipedia has pillars, policies, guidelines, and essays. While in theory there is less obligation to conform to guidelines than there is to policy, on a practical everyday level guidelines carry much the same weight as policies (though it does vary somewhat from guideline to guideline). In this essay, guidelines will be regarded as no different than policies and the term "policy" generally should be read as "policy and/or guideline." Essays are just personal opinions, though some of them are so universally accepted and influential that they might as well be policy.

[1]