Wikipedia:Articles are more important than policy
 | 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 and may reflect various opinions. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Although Wikipedia requires a certain amount of administration and governance in order to further the project's goals, reader focused editors are Wikipedia's greatest asset in support of achieving it's purpose |
Many Wikipedia editors try to get involved with as many aspects of Wikipedia as possible. That's great, and shows a strong sign of caring about the project's goals. However, it may not be the most constructive use of most editors' time.
Wikipedia has many protocols, and noticeboards. However, the overwhelming majority of people who visit Wikipedia have no knowledge of most of these, and only read articles. While familiarizing yourself with Wikipedia's administration and governance is good, the rules are principles, not civil code or exacting law and it is acceptable to use common sense as you go about editing. What's most important is writing good accessible articles, keeping them accurate and providing references for verification and research. Doing this will help more people, and have a far more reaching effect than becoming involved with WikiDrama.
Exopedianism (meta) is the philosophy of focusing on the encyclopedic side of Wikipedia (articles and related content) rather than the social and institutional side of the project (talk and policy page discussions). Users who practice the philosophy of being a content editor are called exopedians and fall on the opposite end of the spectrum from metapedians (meta), with mesopedians (meta) positioned somewhere between the two. Unlike administrative namespace and cosmetic editors (whose edits generally have no direct effect on the content of an article except for presentation in some cases), reader focused exopedians and counter vandalism editors may exhibit behavior associated with article ownership. Stewardship or shepherding of an article or group of related articles may be the result of efforts to build the content up to its present quality assessment (see WP:FAOWN).