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 | This page in a nutshell: For purposes of applying Wikipedia policy, the edit count shouldn't matter. |
Wikipedia is a project of collaborative encyclopædia, and this is its first and foremost goal, from all others derive. However, Wikipedia's articles don't write themselves, and because of that, Wikipedia uses folks known as human resources or editors, and has a number of rules -- dubbed WP:POLICY designed to keep editors productive. By Wikipedia's principles, the editors are supposed to treated in an egalitarian manner.
Some people believe that high edit count means an editor may spit on the rules, and do whatever he wants -- from behaving uncivilly to editwarring unceasingly. But this is not so. Wikipedia is not an anarchy; Wikipedia is not an organisation of rights; Wikipedia is a project to build an encyclopædia. The policy is a tool for allowing encyclopædia-writing to take place, and it is not optional. If a user wantonly violates the policy, it does not really matter if he's got 100 edits or 10,000 edits under his belt -- either way, he is disrupting the project, and should be treated accordingly.
That is to say, WP:DTTR is wrongheaded, and avoiding blocking clearly disruptive people merely because their edit count (which may have been collected through pervasive edit-warring) should not be done. After all, blocking is not punitive -- in which case, it could be claimed that the high edit count outweighs the seriousness of the misdeed --, blocking is preventative -- and its disruption-prevention aspect applies just as well to a new encyclopædian as to an experienced troll.
Of course, it is to be recognised that editors new to the Wikipedia may not have mastered all the rules, and may accidentally violate some of them out of ignorance. When that happens, Don't bite the newcomers applies, and the newbies must be helped to lose their ignorance so they can become productive editors. But assumption of good faith can only go so far, and experience is not a substitute for usefulness to the project.