Wikipedia:Common sense and decision making

This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

While Wikipedia tries to make sure that every decision its admins make is backed up with policy, unfortunately there are times when decisions will be made based on an admin's perception of what appears to be the common sense thing to do even if it is not clearly backed up by a specific policy. This essay is designed to outline why this is sometimes necessary, but also to help draw a line between making necessary decisions based on common sense and abusing one's authority as an admin by making a controversial decision (e.g. issuing a block) without sufficient justification.