However good your intentions, if you don't
strictly abide by the rule,
you must take the punishment. If you break the 3RR, you break policy.
If we apply the rules one way for some people and another for others,
chaos will ensue. If we apply policy objectively, then no-one can make
accusations of favoritism.
Smoddy
Absolutely. If your edits really are the editorially correct thing for
the article, it should be no problem to get someone else to revert
with you. Thus only the allegedly irrational party of an edit war will
break the 3RR, but not the supposedly NPOV editors do. Applying the
3RR to individuals and not "versions" is a kind of built-in safety in
my opinion.
Already people make excuses for breaking the rule, and I don't think
we should legitimize them.