Wikipedia:Avoid instruction creep

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Wikipedia:CREEP)
Jump to: navigation, search
Shortcuts:
WP:CREEP
WP:KUDZU
While this essay is not a policy or guideline itself, it is intended to supplement Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page.
Like Kudzu, instructions can grow much too fast.

Instruction creep occurs when instructions increase in size over time until they are unmanageable. It is an insidious disease, originating from ignorance of the KISS principle (keep it short and simple) and resulting in overly complex procedures that are often misunderstood, followed with great irritation, or ignored.

The fundamental fallacy of instruction creep is thinking that people read instructions. What's more, many bureaucracies also arise with the deliberate intent to be alternatives to regulations; this is almost always noticed by the other side, and tends to antagonize. It tends to antagonize even when it appears to the instigator that he's acting with proper intent.

Instruction creep is common in complex organizations where rules and guidelines are created by changing groups of people over extended periods of time.

Contents

[edit] Instruction creep on Wikipedia

Instruction creep begins when a well-meaning user thinks "This page would be better if everyone were supposed to do this" and adds more requirements.

Procedures are popular to suggest but unpopular to follow, due to the effort to find, read, learn and actually follow the complex procedures.

Page instructions should be pruned regularly. Gratuitous requirements should be removed as soon as they are added. All new policies should be regarded as instruction creep until firmly proven otherwise.

Policies are not articles: while all articles should strive for FA status, editors should not be motivated to have a favorite essay or proposed solution "promoted" to guideline or policy status. This simply clutters the policy system if other guidelines and policies already sufficiently address the problem.

[edit] Avoiding instruction creep

For proposed new instructions, instruction creep can be avoided if all of the following hold:

  1. There is a good indication of an actual problem (as opposed to a hypothetical or a perceived problem)
  2. The proposed instructions truly solve this problem (as opposed to treating symptoms or making symbolic gestures)
  3. The instructions have little or no undesirable side effects (such as false positives, overcomplexity, or unnecessary prohibitions)

Sometimes, it may be useful to make a policy change temporary, to see if it is really helpful. If it has no measurable positive effect at the end of its trial period, it can be revoked.

[edit] See also

[edit] Source

This page was inspired by the meta-wiki concept: m:instruction creep.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_instruction_creep"
Personal tools
Languages