User talk:Andrewa/Rules, rules, rules

Why this page
I've recently returned from a regatta (we won) and did a lot of thinking there about my concerns about NPA and other rules being disregarded.

Our secret was not our skill or equipment (although those were both needed obviously, we are a forty-foot ultralight offshore racing yacht and the competition has spent big bickies on beating us, including in some cases hiring professional sailors, no law against that... we had two professionals in our crew but they were there unpaid for the fun and experience, and they're not the only highly skilled ones we have) but the commitment the crew had to each other based on our common goal.

There are lessons there for Wikipedia. This has been our secret weapon too. The radical and intersupporting rules we have, notably consensus, AGF, NPA and IAR, are based on and support this mutual commitment.

To disregard them weakens this fabric. But to enforce them already admits defeat. People should want to follow them, and if they don't, we're sunk. Metaphorically. Andrewa (talk) 07:14, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Enforcement
As a peacetime army we are in a perhaps unique position in that the very instant we are called upon to exercise those skills that we work so hard to attain, we have in a sense already failed. We are not here to enforce the peace. That is impossible. We are here to build it.

I think my great-uncle hit it right on the nose. And something similar applies here.

Note for example that blocks are never authorised as punishment. They are to protect Wikipedia. That's part of the radical and intersupporting fabric of rules we have.

It's part of being what Bill Hybels calls a volunteer rich organisation. People are not going to follow the rules unless they want to. Get over it.

And part of being here as part of the team is to want to follow the rules. Andrewa (talk) 19:46, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Comments please
Like all pages here, this page belongs to the project, not to me. So any Wikipedian is entitled to edit it. But I recommend discussing here first, particularly if the change is important. Andrewa (talk) 19:39, 2 February 2018 (UTC)