Wikipedia is not a social networking site

This is another pretty good theory I hadn't considered. If the problem is that Wikipedia went into decline due to restrictions at school, what's the strategy to fix it?

Focus on adult rules, while students banned: I think the school-based bans are fairly permanent, but there are some student-friendly plans for limited exposure to Wikipedia for young students. The focus now is to work with the adults as in: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. WP needs to change into a non-juvenile environment, based on clear, fair rules, which adults would expect to find in a mature, professional system, where people can socialize within rules of order (overview: "#Stop Wikipedia as an Anti-social Network").

Adults expect to get w:parking tickets, or speeding fines, for small violations of the rules. However, English Wikipedia is twisted, now, to allow severe w:WP:ANI sanctions (1-month block for a veiled insult), rather than a system of "w:proportional punishment" (no article yet?) for policy violations. It is analogous to parking a car over the line, with the punishment as getting your legs broken, to protect the 'pedia. New social systems, for centuries, have had to deal with unfairness, and learn: let the punishment fit the crime (an "eye for an eye") and punishments for false accusations (the false accuser goes to jail, as in the w:Code of Hammurabi). Why? ...it is one of the Top Ten Evils: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor". So, it happens a lot. That is why I recommend to switch to the cadet system of demerits (offset by earned merits), where posting an insult incurs only 100 demerits, acting as a type of fee (or fine) from an account of merit points, rather than a monetary fine. When the punishments are smaller (and proportional to the offense), then there is no need for the witch-hunt, drama-shows at enwiki w:WP:ANI (where hysteria often rules the outcome). One of the social problems, which I had overlooked, is that several people who are casting judgments at WP:ANI are currently serving sentences: there is no clear line between who is a reputable judge and who is a "convict" perhaps casting votes as revenge for their current WP edit-restrictions. Reduce all the juvenile bickering, such as issuing simple demerits for offenses, and more adults will see a mature system of social interaction, rather than a childish w:WP:PLAYground where bored kids come to fight. Change to a system where adults want to stay and edit articles, and that will reverse the growth above the bottom-limit of 3,400 highly active editors, where the decline is headed this year.