Mark Gallagher wrote:
The original research policy can be summarised as: "don't make shit up".
Excellent!
Since a small but significant proportion of the editors who fall afoul of this policy don't tend to think of their activities as "making shit up"[0], we had to craft a new stick with a nail in it (sorry, "policy") and write "WP:NOR" on the side[1]. NOR exists to deal with physics crackpots and the like; however, in our enthusiasm to follow policy, however poorly-written, to the letter, we trip over ourselves to explain that articles on TV programmes must be deleted, Jimbo Wales can't advertise his own birthday, diagrams must be copied from textbooks, and high-quality GFDL pictures from amateur photographer Wikipedians cannot be accepted.
I haven't read the /Star Trek/ uniforms article, but I can see several ways such an article could be written in a way that *isn't* in contravention of the spirit of the principle whilst still falling afoul of the letter of the policy. And in such cases, frankly: fuck policy.
I'm glad to read that classical Australian bullshit detection is alive and well. :-)
Ec