Wikipedia:Jamaican Bobsled Team clause
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This is an essay. It is not a policy or guideline, it simply reflects some opinions of its authors. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page. |
Wikipedia's Jamaican Bobsled Team clause is a humorous relative to Wikipedia:Process is important. The essay concerns the importance of following the malleable guidelines, policies, and processes reached via consensus within the Wikipedia community.
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[edit] The Jamaican Bobsled Team
In short, the Jamaican Bobsled Team should have never had a chance to compete, bobsledding being a winter sport with snow and ice, and Jamaica being a tropical country. Against the odds and beliefs of many people "in the know," the team became an eventual success, competing in many world events, qualifying for the Olympics numerous times and winning numerous events and trials.
[edit] How this relates to Wikipedia
Often, after a short time, a consensus may appear evident during the run of a process, whether it be at Articles for Deletion or Requests for Adminship, or even something minor such as a discussion on a source at an article's talk page. There is often a temptation to ignore the process and end discussion prematurely, citing an emerging/evident consensus after a short time.
The Jamaican Bobsled Team clause implores editors, when faced with this temptation, to think of the real life team. Initially, few people would have seriously thought that a team of bobsledders from a tropical region would have a snowball's chance in hell of success, but they defied the odds. Often, even if a significant number of editors feel, for instance, an article should be deleted after one day due to lack of evidence of notability, it doesn't harm anything to allow the deletion process to run for its full five days. At worst, nothing changes and the article is deleted. At best, either a) a true, incontrovertable consensus is reached, reducing possible challenges and appeals in the future, or b) evidence that was not clear at the beginning of the process is presented closer to the end, and a good article becomes the end result.
[edit] See also
- Wikipedia:Process is important
- Wikipedia:Consensus
- Wikipedia:Ignore all rules, which implores editors to ignore the rules only if they "prevent you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia's quality."
- WP:STEAM, Wikipedia's "Steamroller clause," a humorous essay.
- WP:SNOW, Wikipedia's "Snowball clause," the opposite of this essay and things that bobsleds tend to ride over.
- Wikipedia:No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man, self-explanitory, perhaps.
[edit] Examples of Wikipedia's Jamaican bobsled team in action
- Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers: initial consensus seemed clear - the book was a hoax. However, with some investigation and discussion three days later, it turned out that the book in fact did exist, and the article was saved.
