 | This is an essay on Policies and guidelines. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Sometimes Wikipedia policy, guidelines, and ideas are not always followed. When this inconsistency occurs, it does not necessarily mean that the "rule" not enforced is wrong or has no support of consensus. Sometimes inconsistent enforcement occurs in both the real world and in Wikipedia. |
Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free encyclopedia based on a model of openly editable content. It is the largest and most popular general reference work on the World Wide Web, and is one of the most popular websites by Alexa rank. Initially an English-language encyclopedia, versions in other languages were quickly developed. With 5,743,394 articles, the English Wikipedia is the largest of the more than 290 Wikipedia encyclopedias. Overall, Wikipedia comprises more than 40 million articles in 301 different languages and by February 2014 it had reached 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors per month.
Sometimes, the users break the rules. When that happens, sometimes it is ignored and sometimes it is reported where the community comes to a decision on any action. There are policies, guidelines, and even essays assembled by users and editors worldwide to assist in this process. Still, sometimes there are disputes and inconsistent enforcement of rules on Wikipedia. Selective enforcement is nothing new to the world. Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes it is a bad thing... but it happens.
Sometimes inconsistent enforcement occurs in both the real world and in Wikipedia. When that happens, it does not mean that the "rule" was wrong or has been overturned.