Another simple explanation of editing trends

"Nobody would want to write guidelines, if there isn't anybody to follow them." Actually, the policy and guideline pages are often inhabited by people who do mostly that: legislate for those who actually write stuff, so then they can smack them in the head with their new rule for endashes, punctuation relative to quote marks, and what not. You're ignoring what motivates most people who edit Wikipedia for a long time, which I've described elsewhere here.

You made the right distinction: policies and guidelines. By guidelines I meant rational, useful recommendations that editors can use at their own discretion in order to make their work easier. I was talking about decent people doing decent work. You are addressing the dark side of the Wikipedia. Does the dark side rule Wikipedia? Anybody that has to ask that question doesn't know a thing about the making of Wikipedia. I took notice of your contributions here, but if you would care to send me a message through «E-mail this user» or to the e-mail address listed no my user page, with a link to your description, I would appreciate that very much.

Sincerely,

Virgilio A. P. Machado