You can't fault people for disobeying a rule you just invented

It seems that some people follow this process when they see behavior they dislike:

1. Think up a rule that disallows the behavior.
2. Assert the existence of that rule.
3. Chastise the people engaging in the behavior for violating the rule.

On Stack Exchange, some behaviors people sometimes complain about are downvoting posts without a comment and closing older questions as duplicates of newer ones. (There are plenty more, of course.)

Relevant Old New Thing article: Sometimes people don't like it when you enforce a standard. The last paragraph is the best part.

To be fair, sometimes the real rules are bad and should be changed. It's happened before. But declaring that reality is other than of how it really is does nothing other than display the complainer's ignorance. And indeed, such SE comments usually earn their poster a link to the relevant help center page or meta post.

Instead of denying reality, people who feel wronged by the system should do something like this:

1. Go look up the relevant rules to see who is mistaken.
2. Try to figure out reasons for the rules being how they are.
3. If desired, explain why you believe the rules should be changed.
4. Post your ideas for discussion.

That way, if your ideas do make sense, you stand a good chance of correcting the problem as opposed to just stirring up annoyance.

Oh, and if you're curious, the two behaviors mentioned above have been constructively discussed on Meta Stack Exchange:

• Encouraging people to explain downvotes
• Should I vote to close a duplicate question, even though it's much newer, and has more up to date answers?