Wikipedia:Jamaican Bobsled Team clause
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 | This page in a nutshell: While something might not appear to have ignore process until you are sure it is sensible to do so. |
malleable guidelines, policies, and processes reached via consensus
within the Wikipedia community.
The Jamaican Bobsled Team
In short, the Jamaican bobsled team should have never had a chance to compete, bobsledding being a winter sport with snow and ice, and
Olympics
numerous times and winning numerous events and trials.
Relation to Wikipedia
Often, after a short time, a consensus may appear evident during the run of a process, whether it be at
ignore the process
and end discussion prematurely, citing an emerging/evident consensus after a short time.
The Jamaican Bobsled Team clause implores editors, when faced with this temptation, to think of the real-life team. Initially, most people would have probably thought that a team of bobsledders from a tropical region would not have
a snowball's chance in hell of success. However, the team defied the odds. Often, even if a significant number of editors feel, for instance, an article should be deleted after one day due to lack of evidence of notability, it doesn't harm anything to allow the deletion process
to run for its full seven days. At worst, nothing changes and the article is deleted. At best, either (a) a true, incontrovertible consensus is reached, reducing possible challenges and appeals in the future, or (b) evidence that was not clear at the beginning of the process is presented closer to the end, and a good article becomes the end result.
See also
- Wikipedia:Process is important
- Wikipedia:Consensus
- Wikipedia:Ignore all rules, which implores editors to ignore the rules only if they "prevent you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia's quality."
- WP:STEAM, Wikipedia's "Steamroller clause," a humorous essay.
- WP:SNOW, Wikipedia's "Snowball clause," the opposite of this essay and things that bobsleds tend to ride over.
- Wikipedia:No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man, self-explanatory, perhaps.