[WikiEN-l] need to work out clear policies on MANDATORY and OPTIONAL rules on WP

[Tom Cadden]

The Manual of Style is mandatory but is being overturned in once off cases as though it was purely a matter for local decision, not Wikipedia-wide policy. Instead of debating policy, this 'once off' page by page policy making is producing a mess. Efforts to point out the difference between mandatory and optional usually produces a 'no. We'll vote here on what rules to follow on this page' response, with those pointing out mandatory rules accused of 'highjacking' pages! 

Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com> wrote: On 11/17/05, Tom Cadden  wrote:
> I've been looking at some pages and noticed that there is a haphazard application of rules on WP, specifically a failure to distinguish between mandatory and optional rules.
...
> None of those are criteria recognised in the Manual of Style, which sets the simple criteria 'the most common name used in English', not 'the most common name likely to be used in the future', 'the name we would like to use', or 'the name the government tells us to use' but simply the most common name in use as of now.

WP:NC is "policy", which means it is official. But the page does carry
this proviso:

"It is important to note that these are conventions, not rules written
in stone. As Wikipedia grows and changes, some conventions that once
made sense may become outdated, and there may be cases where a
particular convention is "obviously" inappropriate. But when in doubt,
follow convention."

It's interesting to note that all of the individual naming
conventions, for example [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common
names)]], are specifically tagged as guidelines, and not policies.
Although they carry much weight, they nevertheless fall into your
category of the rules that "may" be followed.

--
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com
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