[WikiEN-l] Can sweet reason still work on en:wp? Occasionally.

[Ryan Delaney]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com>wrote:

> 2009/10/20 Ryan Delaney <ryan.delaney at gmail.com>:
> > I like this. Ideally IAR should never be "invoked", as its not a rule;
> IAR
> > should be assumed. That said, I agree with the call and want to give
> props
> > for the detailed explanation, which should help smooth things over.
>
> I disagree. Following rules should be the default. We should only
> ignore them if we have a good reason to do so. Otherwise, there is no
> point having rules at all.
>
>
This is a bizarre, but ancient, misunderstanding of IAR. All IAR means is
that priority number one is doing what is right, rather than pedantic
allegiance to a dictatorial interpretation of rules. Since IAR is not itself
a justification for anything, there is never any useful information added by
saying "I am invoking IAR." The only defense is "I did this because X" where
X is the reason that what you did was a good idea, so you might as well skip
to the end. Rather than saying "I am invoking IAR and I did this because X",
just say "I did this because X."

- causa sui