Matt Brown (morven@gmail.com) [050609 07:42]:
I'm also concerned that turning policies into rigid rules, procedures, committees and the like may advantage those who like to rules-lawyer over those with less patience for minutae.
Yes. That's precisely my uneasy feeling about this discussion. POV pushers won't go away, they'll adapt to circumstances. If a hundred editors say Rush Limbaugh outdraws a peer-reviewed scientific paper as a reference on science, do they win the vote 100-1?
Also, I've seen no plans for when such content decisions are reviewable. Never? Once you win, is the question officially fixed?
Every rule set down in stone is a rule behind which a troll can hide. Or turn into a club to beat those they want to antagonize. Every time we are tempted by instruction-creep, we should think "How will this rule be abused by the ill-intentioned?"
"This proposal will create a stick for idiots." i.e. an idiot stick. Yep.
- d.