Wikipedia:Ignore all rules/Draft1

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This page in a nutshell: If the rules prevent you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore them.

To ignore all rules is a fundamental Wikipedia principle. While the policies and guidelines provide ideas and should be most of the time when making decisions, some of them should not be implemented in a few cases.

Contents 1 Interpretations 1.1 Snowball clause 1.2 WikiLawyering 1.3 Boldness 2 Examples 2.1 When to ignore all rules 2.2 When not to ignore all rules 3 In conclusion

[edit] Interpretations

[edit] Snowball clause

Some Wikipedians have used the snowball clause to implement this policy. It states. If an issue doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting an unexpected outcome from a certain process, then there is no need to run it through that process. This is especially popular in articles for deletion debates; if all votes are "keep" votes, the nomination can be "snowballed" as opposed to waiting out the whole five days.

[edit] WikiLawyering

See also: Wikipedia:WikiLawyering and Wikipedia:Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point#Gaming the system

In some cases, editors argue that the technical interpretation of the rules should override the principles they express. The principle WP:3RR expresses that edit warring goes nowhere. Many people believe that this policy grants them the privilege to make exactly three reverts a day. This, however, is not the case.

[edit] Boldness

Newcomers are often overly cautious with complying with Wikipedia policy. Wikipedia has a long tradition that encourages new contributors to not worry about the rules, and go about their business. If something is wrong with their addition, another editor will fix it for them.

[edit] Examples

[edit] When to ignore all rules

• If a certain article does not meet the notability guidelines, it does not mean it should be automatically deleted.
• If a citation does not meet the guidelines for reliable sources, it does not necessarily mean it's unusable.

[edit] When not to ignore all rules

• IAR can not be used to justify making blatant personal attacks, nor does it mean it's okay to treat editors in an uncivil fashion.
• IAR does not mean that you can ignore consensus, or shove your position through despite minority opinions.

[edit] In conclusion

Feel free to ignore all of the above.