I wrote:
Our rule-boundedness is relevant in another way, as
well:
though it's loved by pedants and petty bureaucrat wannabees,
it's absolute death to the truly intelligent and creative...
So while there are good reasons for our tendency towards
firmer and firmer policy... it's a trend which has to be
intelligently resisted[.]
One huge thing to watch out for is when our policies end up
hurting our responsible contributors more than the vandals
and trolls they're supposed to protect us from. If every new
contributor is guilty until proven innocent of being a vandal,
POV warrior, linkspammer, copyright violator, or non-notable
vanity article pusher, we're going to turn off and drive away a
lot of new contributors. (The only way to make it worse would be
if the process for proving yourself innocent involved following
-- to an absolute T -- a bunch of elaborate policies which new
contributors aren't likely to be aware of.)