On 2/8/08, The Mangoe the.mangoe@gmail.com wrote:
It bothers me that we have these policy pages changing around constantly. They should spend most of the time being locked down, with changes discussed and consensus reached before they are applied. It's particularly pernicious in cases like the late unpleasantness about WP:NPA, where it wasn't all that clear how different the changes were *from* personal attacks. But it's a problem in any case that the rules (or things that people will apply as rules) are continually in flux. (WP:NOR has 500 changes from late September, for instance.)
Agreed. There is little consensus over how policy operates. Various viewpoints seem to include:
1. Policy is whatever most people are doing. Policy pages simply describe this. 2. Policy is whatever most people think everyone should be doing. Policy pages describe that. 3. Policy is prescriptive, and policy pages capture the current set of rules. They should only be changed through consensus.
etc.
Steve