Delirium (delirium(a)hackish.org) [041023 07:51]:
I've only been skimming this thread, but I think
people proposing
policies upon policies are missing what actually makes wikipedia work:
people just do things that need to be done. When I see a crap article
Yes, it's [[m:instruction creep]].
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Instruction_creep
From that page:
Instruction creep is an insidious disease, originating from ignorance of
the KISS principle and resulting in bloated pages that are harder to
maintain. High traffic, interactive pages (e.g. Village pump, Featured
article candidates) tend to be most susceptible. Over the long term,
instructions balloon in size until they are unmanageable.
Instruction creep occurs when a well-meaning user thinks "Hrm ... this page
would be better if everyone was supposed to do this" and adds more
requirements to the instructions.
The fundamental fallacy of instruction creep is thinking that people read
instructions. If people read instructions, we wouldn't have the problem the
new instruction is meant to solve.
Instructions must be pruned regularly. Gratuitous requirements must be
removed as soon as they are added.
Logging and archiving requirements are probably the most common form of
instruction creep. Procedural steps are popular to add, but unpopular to
follow. In the future, the Mediawiki software may automate some common
labour-intensive tasks.
- d.