[WikiEN-l] New way to discourage newcomers invented

[Charles Matthews]

Ryan Delaney wrote:
>
> That's the point made in the OP. Apoc2400 thinks that, since the 
> reality is that Wikipedia has become greatly bureaucratized (he and I 
> think that's a bad thing, you think it's a good thing, but that's 
> beside the point) then we should stop kidding ourselves and get rid of 
> WP:BURO.
No, I do not think it is a "good thing" - where did I say that? I think 
it is important not to be confused between discussions of what is really 
going on, within Wikipedia as it actually operates, and discussions at 
an idealised level (normally only backed up with some anecdotal if 
slight evidence). The other point I would like to make is that the 
problem really comes with people who think you make a bureaucracy work 
by being bureaucratic, when the opposite is true. WP:BURO is basically 
prescriptive, not descriptive (I'm against people who weasel by saying 
policy is basically descriptive not prescriptive whenever that suits 
them), and it tells us not to do that bureaucratic thing of using 
sensible procedural features in an obstructive fashion.

Charles