On Oct 1, 2006, at 1:22 PM, Jimmy Wales wrote:
As far as not biting the newbies, well, of course I agree. A kind and loving template which says "Thanks so much for your submission to Wikipedia, but it was deleted. Before submitting again, please read <this>, <that>, and <the other> policy, and if you have questions, please raise them at <an appropriate page>."
This would work great if <this>, <that>, and <the other> weren't cruft-ridden hacks of process, and if the regulars at <an appropriate page> weren't excessively prone to misreading the aforementioned <this>, <that>, and <the other> as didactic laws that must be obeyed at all cost.
As long as that is the case, we're in the unfortunate position where it's entirely likely the god-given common sense a user comes to the project with is going to do them more good than our policy pages. Or, rather, we're in the unfortunate case of trying to have policy pages replace that common sense. As long as that's the case, they're not really even worth citing.
-Phil