User blog comment:Sannse/Calm Over Conflict/@comment-25205196-20180203172802/@comment-8-20180207183656

I would urge caution in using rules that are too strict. They can lead to rigid and unwelcoming communities that penalize newbies for exploring the wiki. I know people will say that the newbie should have read the policies first - but be honest, when is the last time you read completely though a site's Terms of Use or Community Guidelines before joining?

Newbies make mistakes, but guidance is generally better than a bang on the head with a rules book

Overly rigid rules can also attract "rules lawyers". These are the people who do read the rules in full, and find every way to get around them. They are likely to do things just inside the rules, and then claim that you can't block them because they didn't quite break a rule - all while causing disruption to the wiki.

I've seen this on Wikipedia (among other places) where the rule is you can't revert other users more than three times a day. This is meant to stop "edit waring", but I have seen pages where the two people arguing both revert exactly three times a day... for months!

This is turning into a blog in itself (literally, I think a blog on both sides of this subject might be useful) so I'll stop. Except to say I totally agree with learning to apologise being a good skill for all. A genuine apology can help in all sorts of situations.