Charles Matthews wrote:
I really don't think it matters if recipes and other how to's are on
wikipedia or on wikibooks, as long as they are not deleted totally. Can we come to some agreement on what to do and just do it. I would like a policy in place so that they don't keep getting listed on VfD.
Theresa
Well, I believed it was policy they all went to wikibooks; I thought and think that that's a good, clear policy; and not one that hampers changing the policy later if other thoughts prevail.
When did that become policy? Some of the recipes have been there more than two years. The first that I knew about the moves was two days ago when the matter came up on the mailing list.
It seems that some proposed policy statements get posted on an obscure page, and if nobody notices it for some period of time (which is often of reasonable length) it's assumed that silence is consent. When a newbie comes along and reads it, he understandably interprets the statement as though it were policy. He proceeds to quite innocently act upon it, and set off a firestorm from the old-timers who never heard of this rule.
Wikipedia and it's related projects have become a huge undertaking where many contributors work away quietly in their own limited area of interest and expertise. Those contributors don't spend a lot of time analyzing a lot of rules; they want even less to be involved in rancorous debates about whether something should be deleted. For me the matters that come up on the mailing lists combined with administrative duties at Wiktionary and Wikisource are more than enough to satisfy any cravings that I might have for bureaucratic participation.
Those with a passion for rule making need to understand the human consequences of their rule-making. Today's rules fill many pages, and that is not to anybody's advantage.
Ec