[WikiEN-l] A narrower concept of boldness

[Todd Allen]

Charlotte Webb wrote:
> On 6/7/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> You should see the crap people have tried to pull with IAR. Would I be
>> right in guessing off the tp of my head that the people trying to make
>> "be bold" more timid have previously failed to add subclauses and
>> riders to IAR?
>>     
>
> Would I be right in guessing that anyone who understands either of
> these pages is not going to check them for asterisks before performing
> an action, or possibly ever?
>
> —C.W.
>
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>   
I don't think you necessarily are. I've had -plenty- of people cite both
BOLD and IAR for breaking the three-revert rule after I blocked them.
"But I was improving the article, and not being able to revert the 6
idiots who disagreed with me was preventing me from doing it, so I
ignored the rule! I can do that, right?" People need to comprehend "be
bold" doesn't mean "put the match to the gunpowder to see what happens",
and "ignore the rules" doesn't mean "do whatever you damn well want".

Unfortunately, some people don't get that, so we need to spell it
out-"Be bold, but don't be a flaming moron about it" and "Ignore the
rules if you need to, but you better have a damn good reason for doing
it and be ready to accept the consequences if you screwed up."
Bureaucracy we may not be, but we're also not an anarchy, and the rules
generally are there for good reason. If you need to break them, you
better think carefully about whether the need really is so pressing, and
if it really is, how you're going to explain yourself once you do.

People who have that mystical attribute of actually what they're doing
will properly implement BOLD and IAR anywhere they go, whether it's
written down or not, and will generally do it well. The problem comes
when someone without the first clue tries to emulate them (or even when
someone smart happens to screw up, it does happen...)

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