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

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/10/20 Ryan Delaney <ryan.delaney at gmail.com>:
> 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."

It's not a misunderstanding, it is an understanding of how things
actually work in the real world. "X" will need to include an
explanation of why the usual rules don't apply (that may be obvious
from just explanation why what you did was a good idea), so it makes
sense to acknowledge from the beginning that you aren't following the
usual rules.