When there is a pattern of inappropriate behavior, it is sometimes thought rewriting/rewording guidance pages can fix the situation. This isn't necessarily true because
- Wikipedia practices are often nuanced; they can be fully learned only through experience.
- Our top level policies emphatically encourage editors to proceed without having read the instructions.
- Wikipedia is not a community; it is a set of overlapping sub-communities. Context changes.
- English is ubiquitous but not monolithic; connotations of the same phrases vary depending on the culture of the reader.
- Attempts to cover all situations leads to greater length which decreases efficacy.
- Editors bring pre-conceptions with them.
- Some editors are just stupid.
Written guidance is only one vertex of a triad of norm conveyance. Observation of other editor's behaviors and personalized communication during dispute resolution processes are equally valuable.
Policies should be concisely written to be understandable to a majority of editors. Trying to make policies cover all situations in a way that all editors will get them is counterproductive tilting at windmills.
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