On 6/16/06, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
Don't you love it when things come full circle. Policy is meant to refect what is done. If it doesn't then policy is in error. At least that was the theory back when I was first involved. I understand things have changed a bit.
Purely descriptive policy is pointless. Purely prescriptive policy with no basis in common practice is hard to make effective. Policy on Wikipedia should be somewhere in the middle - prescribing behaviour that most people agree with, and that many people already follow.
Alternatively put: Descriptive policy describes what people do do. Prescriptive policy describes what people should do. Good community policy describes what most people think people should do.
Steve