[WikiEN-l] Tabloid sources (was Wikipedia leadership})

[Ken Arromdee]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2011, Fred Bauder wrote:
> Clearly there are issues. I'm on Jimbo's side with this though. Some of
> my earliest edit wars were over whether The People's Republic of China
> could be described in the introduction as a totalitarian dictatorship.
> What has currently been hit on is "single-party state governed by the
> Communist Party of China (CPC)." with a link to "single-party state" an
> artificial construct for which there is little published authority.
>
> We can't get so picky and bound up in rules that stating the obvious is
> forbidden.

It's easy for someone who is a little too anal-retentive at following rules
to cause trouble, because the fact that he *is* following rules makes it so
much easier for him to push his demands.  And if you rules-lawyer, it's still
easy to get away with it.

The reason is that having the rules on your side gives you one *heck* of an
edge in any dispute.  It's occasionally possible for common sense to triumph
over rules, but only in the very obvious cases will this happen--if the person
following the rules isn't demanding something so outrageous that anyone can
see how bad it is instantly, it'll work.