ignore all rules

"Ignore all rules" (IAR) is a policy in the English Wikipedia. It reads: "" . The rule was proposed by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger to encourage editors to add information without focusing excessively on formatting, though Sanger later criticized the rule's effects on the community. The policy is discussed in other pages on Wikipedia, such as the essay "What 'Ignore all rules' means". It allows Wikipedia users to use a policy to occasionally work-around the site's rules without rejecting the entire rule system. A study in 2012 found that in "Articles for Deletion" discussions, which determine whether a Wikipedia article should be deleted, comments were given more weight when they used IAR as justification. Critics of Wikipedia have variously opined that the rule is abused in practice, or should be used more often. History Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, with few policies, the intention being that users would determine rules via consensus. "Ignore all rules" was proposed by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger on a "rules to consider page", and became one of the first formal guidelines of Wikipedia. Sanger later said that his intention was to convey that "people should not worry about getting formatting right and getting every single detail of policy under their belts before they started contributing". Having conceived of the rule as a "temporary and humorous injunction", he rejected it in his later project Citizendium as "other people were taking it seriously". The original formulation of the rule was: If rules make you nervous and depressed, and not desirous of participation in the Wiki, then ignore them and go about your business. The modern formulation of the rule is: