[WikiEN-l] I've Kicked the Process Habit

[Phil Sandifer]

[[Wikipedia:Policy trifecta]] makes it sound so easy...

So I figured why not try it? After all, I've been here for two and a  
half years. I've got a pretty good idea of what we're doing here. Why  
not just stop worrying about what all the policy pages say today, and  
about what the process to list something on AfD is?

So I'm not anymore. I understand [[WP:NPOV]], [[WP:DICK]], and I  
especially understand [[WP:IAR]]. I understand what an encyclopedia  
is. I understand how to do good research. (I'm a professional  
academic - I teach people how to do good research. I know this stuff.)

So as of today, I'm just going to go ahead and edit. Lord knows the  
rules are making me nervous and depressed. So I'll follow all the  
stuff I can remember, and not try too hard to learn the other stuff.  
If I can't remember how to list something for AfD today, I'll just  
use PROD. If I can't get it deleted via PROD, I just won't delete it.  
Someone who remembers how to use AfD can do it. If I can't remember  
how many warnings a vandal gets, I'll just zap 'em for 24 hours two  
warnings early, and call it a day. If I can't remember the status of  
blogs and personal websites as they apply to a specific topic, well,  
I'm a professional researcher. I teach people how to research. I'll  
trust my judgment.

Note that this means that if you cite a policy page to me and expect  
me to carefully divine the meaning of section 14, paragraph 3, clause  
2 of it, odds are I'll just say "Yeah, but what's ''wrong'' with what  
I'm doing?" "It violates policy" isn't enough. If it's against  
policy, it must be bad for some reason, so just explain to me what it  
does that's bad.

Otherwise... well, you might drive me off the page, but you sure  
ain't gonna convince me.

In the meantime, I'll be keeping [[User:Phil Sandifer/Process blog]]  
updated with anything I run into that's just impossible to handle  
without checking lots of policy pages. I'm doing this not so much  
because I'm trying to find the essential policies as because I'm  
trying to find the broken ones. I figure anything so complex an admin  
who's been editing for two and a half years can't do it is  
fundamentally broken.

Not that I'll be the one to fix it. I've got an encyclopedia to write.

-Phil