Wikipedia:Suggestions on how to ignore all rules
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community. |
Most users have no special privileges, and their actions can be countered by any other user (with some exceptions, which we shall not go into here). Mistakes can be easily corrected by anyone. Conflicts can and do arise, but revision histories are kept; they will not result in any damage, and in fact they should be resolved without resulting in anyone getting upset. Regular users, and especially new users, are encouraged to just be bold, ignore all rules, and work on writing an encyclopedia.
Administrators, on the other hand, can do things which cannot be undone by most users, and can act to block and unblock other users, as well as each other. Conflicts over administrative actions are called wheel wars, and are considered particularly harmful. This exhortation to ignore all rules is therefore sometimes a source of controversy, usually surrounding disputed special actions. This is not to say administrators should not be bold or ignore rules when appropriate. But if you are an administrator, you're expected to know how Wikipedia works.