User:Kirbanzo/Unintended consequences

All actions have consequences, and this is true, even on Wikipedia. However, not all can be seen right away. Sometimes, implementing a new policy causes new issues to arise besides the one it was intended to solve, and blocking someone threatening legal action could result in said legal action being taken.

Prevention
If you find that an action will result in negative consequences, bring it up. If the action's unintended consequences will cause more damage than the action was fixing, oppose the action or propose a better option. The best way to stop unintended consequences is to prevent them from occurring.

However, there are cases where the fix is the only solution to a problem - thus necessitating the action despite the negative unintended consequences - or compared to other options the costs are worth the fix. In that case, it's best to deal with the consequences when they arise.

Mitigation
If unintended consequences of a negative nature arise after an action is done, or if brought up but the action is taken anyway (i.e "despite the issues it would still be the better option"), steps should be taken in order to prevent too much damage from unintended consequences. For example, tweaking a new policy to remove any loopholes it creates, or removing libelous content if it turns out an editor threatening legal action was right about it being defamatory.

How not to mitigate policy issues
If a policy has unintended consequences, it's best not to implement new policies to fix the holes - like the original policy, this could result in more problems. Instead, propose a rewrite of the policy that fixes the issues without creating too many new ones. Avoid instruction creep while doing so.