G'day Ray,
Society has a long history of the term "common
sense" being interpreted
by those who don't have it. "Ignore all rules" strikes me as more
pro-active than "Use common sense." A person who invokes it cannot do
so effectively unless he knows what rule he is ignoring, and needs to be
able to substantiate his stand with something more than infantile ignorance.
You need to know the rules so you know what you're breaking.
Consequently, the rules aren't there to say "you must always follow
these rules". They're there to encourage people to think before
breaking them.
There is nothing wrong with a chap breaking the rules if he has a good
reason (on Wikipedia, defined as "to benefit the encyclopaedia"). When
we confront rule-breakers (e.g. vandals), the problem, despite popular
belief, is not that they're breaking rules in the first place, but
because in doing so they're harming the encyclopaedia. They aren't
trying to benefit the encyclopaedia.
It's a short leap from there to ignoring all rules altogether, except as
a handy reference guide for people who are new and unclueful[0]. If I
enforce the rules to the benefit of the encyclopaedia, then I am doing
the Right Thing. Rules lawyers would agree, but what they miss is that
the important thing is the benefit, not the rule. If I enforce the
rules to the detriment of the encyclopeadia, then I am doing the Wrong
Thing, as the important thing is the detriment, not the rule.
Moving from there, it's important to strive to do the Right Thing, and
not the Wrong Thing. Knowledge of what this is only comes with
experience on Wikipedia, and a willingness to expose one's self to Clue.
Even then, though, there are things on which a clueful person will be
unclear. In such cases, one makes reference to the rules and to the
advice of more knowledgeable persons.
Ignoring all rules is not making it up as one goes along. It's knowing
what the Right Thing and the Wrong Thing are, and acting appropriately.
When you lack this knowledge, you don't ignore the rules, because you
don't have a good reason for breaking them.
[0] Contrast "clueless", which has an element of wilfulness, that the
person has deliberately evaded cluefulness, with unclueful, which we
can take to mean that the person simply hasn't attained Clue yet.
--
Mark Gallagher
"'Yes, sir,' said Jeeves in a low, cold voice, as if he had been bitten
in the leg by a personal friend."
- P G Wodehouse, /Carry On, Jeeves/