MarioWiki:Proposals

 http://img33.picoodle.com/img/img33/9/9/17/f_propcopym_9045f2d.png A proposal section works like a discussion page: comments are brought up and replied to using indents (colons, such as : or ::::) and all edits are signed using the code. Signing with the signature code (~) is not allowed due to technical issues.

How To
 * 1) Actions that users feel are appropriate to have community approval first can be added by anyone, but they must have a strong argument.
 * 2) Users then vote and discuss on the issue during that week. The "deadline" for the proposal is one week from posting at:
 * 3) Monday to Thursday: 17:00 (5pm)
 * 4) Friday and Saturday: 20:00 (8pm)
 * 5) Sunday: 15:00 (3pm)
 * 6) Every vote should have a reason accompanying it.
 * 7) At any time a vote may be rejected if at least three active users believe the vote truly has no merit or was cast in bad faith. However, there must be strong reasons supporting the invalidation.
 * 8) " # " should be added under the last vote of each support/oppose section to show another blank line.
 * 9) Any proposal that has three votes or less at deadline will automatically be listed as "NO QUORUM." The original proposer then has the option to relist said proposal to generate more discussion.
 * 10) All proposals are archived. The original proposer must take action accordingly if the outcome of the proposal dictates it. If it requires the help of a sysop, the proposer can ask for that help.
 * 11) Proposals can not be made about System Operator promotions and demotions. Sysops can only be promoted and demoted by the will of Bureaucrats.
 * 12) There shouldn't be proposals about creating articles on a underrepresented or completely absent subject, unless there is major disagreement about whether the content should be included. To organize efforts about completing articles on missing subjects, try creating a PipeProject.

The times are in EDT, and are set so that the user is more likely to be online at those times (after work/school, weekend nights). If a proposal is added on Saturday night at 11:59 PM EDT, the deadline is the next Saturday night at 8:00 PM. If it is a minute later, the deadline is a day plus 15 hours (Sunday), as opposed to a day minus 4 hours.

CURRENTLY: , 27 2024 (EST)

Create Good Articles 2.0
Hmmm... how to start? Oh, yes. I'm sure many of you have seen articles that are very good, but not good enough to become a FA (like Luigi's Mansion or Koopa Troopa), so I propose we create a new category called "Good Articles", this will give an acknowledgement (long word) to this articles. In order to become a FA, an article needs to fulfill all of this, so a Good Article will only need to fulfill most of them, excluding points number 7 and 9, and changing the 4000 characters to 2500. Who's with me?

Proposer: Deadline: February 10th 2009, 17:00

Create

 * 1) - Per... ME!
 * 2) - Well I guess it would work ok, I see. Per Tucayo.

DON'T create

 * 1) - Instead of arguing about what is a "Good Article," we should focus on getting articles to FA status (which itself is a long process - now imagine if we were having debates about if certain articles are Good, not bad but also not FA level).  Also, there are no details for how this system would actually work.
 * 2) - Per Son of Suns. If users actually worked on improving articles and making them FA's, it would probably be way better.
 * 3) - Per SoS. There would be no point, an article should just be plain well done to be nominated as an FA. BUt how could you nominate a..GA?
 * 4) - Per me.  Who to decide that non-lengthy articles, not long because it doesn't have to be, is not a "good article"?  The little ones with good, rock solid information should still be considered "good". Debates about what articles good and what's not good is rather dubious.  We don't need this.
 * 5) - Per Son of Suns. Not worth the trouble, plus "Good Articles" sounds unprofessional.
 * 6) - Per Dom who is "per-ing Son of Suns. And yes, Good Articles does sound unprofessional.

Comments
In all honesty, this sounds like a pretty good idea. However, before I vote, I'd like to ask a question. Exactly which standards would an article need to meet in order to become a "Good Article"?


 * 1,2,4,6,7 and 11

They have this on wookieepedia.

Okay, thanks Tucayo!

On Wookiepedia, they have a Good Articles system - but that is only for articles that basically meet all FA requirements except for achieving a certain level of content. Here, that would be the 4,000 characters rule. By Wookiepedia standards, an article that filled all FA criteria except rule 11 would be a Good Article. The criteria Tucayo provided left out rules like must be sourced with all appearances and cannot have an improvement template on the page. So these "good articles" may end up being not very "good" at all. --


 * Well, it sounds better like that


 * Might I suggest making "Good Articles" fit the same profile as a FA, with the exception of rules 6, 7, and 9? And change the 4,000 character rule to 2,500 characters?


 * Come again?

Stooby: Sounds good, should i specify that in the proposal?
 * I'd recommend Since it's your proposal, it's up to you.

K, done, but it seems that pont 6 is important, so I didnt include it

Wikipedia has these, and it works for them. Besides, it'd be a good way to highlight articles that are as good as they can be, but not good enough to be featured. On the other hand, we may have too few articles for it to be prudent to have GAs and FAs.
 * I think it's too much trouble for what it's worth to set up a GA system here - Wikipedia is HUGE, so it's worthwhile there. However, I do see the benefit in allowing smaller well-written articles to get recognition. Maybe there should be a simpler "Good Article" system that allows smaller articles to be featured every few weeks (like what's been set up for Featured Lists). -
 * Not a bad idea. We have some short articles that are really great.
 * That is most definitely true. The level articles are a great example.

Create a Rules Page
How do I begin? Oh yes, umm...I am making a proposal for a rules page. Like any other wiki, website, or collaborative project, we must have a set of rules and a page to find them. I wanted to create this myself, but I also wanted community approval. So how about it?

Proposer: Deadline: February 15th 2009 15:00

Support

 * 1) don't see anything wrong with it.
 * 2) - Per Lu-igi board!  Amen.

Comments
We have many Rules pages. See: Category:MarioWiki Policy. --
 * Yeah, but this is a directory of rules. --
 * I don't understand. That is what the category is for - it generates a directory of rules. --

Funny, I was going to write two versions of the MarioWiki Rule/guidebook (it's in my to-do list), the professional version; for you SoS. ...And the more user-based/funny version, for me, Neu, and maybe others with comical drawings I can make with it. :3 Oh, MarioWiki:Help is like a contents section; from a book. And the one Mr. SoS posted, it's like you can make whole pages appear together with and read them all together as a bundle. :o Sadly, I don't have time for that right at this moment. :o The book will cover just about every single rule that is in effect, if I can try that is. :o

What Son of Suns said, exclamation mark, smiley face, etc.
 * Personally, I think we should have a page directory that's easier to find than a category. Even Ghost Jam thought of doing this.
 * Very true, and the fact that some "rules" aren't even found on the MarioWiki pages, but on Help pages makes it all the more difficult. For example, there are currently no MarioWiki pages pertaining to Template policy, while there are regulations about them floating about, such as the rule against creating template redirects I stumbled upon by chance in the ending paragraph of Help:Redirect. Having everything together in a point-by-point list would be quite usefull. Even though many aspects of the Wiki require long, windy explanations, having a bare-bones list to build upon would make it much easier to understand the more abstract concepts as a whole (especially the ones spread out over multiple pages, such as vandalism, warnings and blocking). However, this will require a lot of work and collaboration, and might not be something any one user should undertake on their own. -

Removals
''None at the moment.

Splits & Merges
None at the moment.

Use First Official English Title for Articles
Although we are an English wiki, we are first and foremost an international English wiki, reaching out to English speakers from all over the world, including many non-native speakers. However, some of our de facto naming practices for articles have shown a heavy North American bias. Therefore, I believe we should create a rule stating that the name of articles should reflect the official English name from their region of first release. All official English names would be stated in the introduction of course; only the title would change. For example, Mario Strikers Charged would be changed into Mario Strikers Charged Football, as that game was released in Europe before North America. Similarly, articles about subjects from games released in Europe or Australia before North America would also have their titles changed. In this case, the kart articles from Mario Kart Wii would change to their PAL titles (example: Daytripper becomes Royal Racer). Games and article subjects first released in North America would keep their original titles. I feel this is the best way to resolve any conflicts about different English titles from around the world - release dates are the most objective standard we have.

Proposer: Deadline: February 17, 17:00

Support

 * 1) - Per above.  This should help us curb American cultural imperialism at the wiki while simultaneously fostering a spirit of internationalism. =)

Oppose

 * 1) - Sorry, Son of Suns, I'm going to have to oppose this proposal for three reasons (1) The founder of this wiki as well as the HQ of this place is based in the United States (if I'm not mistaken), (2) the majority of visitors are in the United States area, I believe... and, (3) for game articles, we usually make sure to place different titles in there anyway (basically at the start of the articles themsevles). So, once again, I'm going to have to say "no deal" on this front.
 * 2) - For me it would be good, as I bought my DS and Wii games in Spain, but I'm per MeritC.
 * 3) - Your overall goal for internationalism is highly considerate and very thoughtful towards our viewers who are from locations outside of North America, but I have to oppose. My reasons are that inconsistency in an encyclopedia (especially one of high standards, such as ours), is very unprofessional. Mentioning the PAL regions' names for games and objects in the opening sentence of an article is good enough; it still keeps this valuable information, yet it keeps all of our articles consistent. If I'm not mistaken, this proposal would also get rid of . I'd also like to note that Wikipedia, an encyclopedia with a much larger user base, and an even higher page view ratio does not do this. All articles have a North American English name, so long as there is one to provide. (An example is that Mario Strikers Charged is not called Mario Strikers Charged Football.) I'm not saying that we should follow Wikipedia to a tee, but overall, I feel that the inconsistency will only cause confusion and unprofessionalism throughout the site.
 * 4) - MeritC is correct that the website operates out of the US and most of our users (by far) are North American.  I oppose this simply because of how confusing such a regulation would be to implement.  For the editors: It would require users who wish to use the linking function to memorize where each title was originally released and whether each subject's first appearance was released in North America or Europe first to avoid linking to redirects.  Furthermore, we would have to comb through the entire Wiki, conforming it to this new standard.  It's going to be very messy and confusing without some way to monitor which articles have been updated and which ones have not.  For the readers: We'd simply be confusing them, especially in the time it would take us to update the Wiki for this new policy.  It's going to lead to a large amount of clicks just to find out that, for example, Mario Strikers Charged Football is NOT a new game where Mario and friends play American football, but rather our new name for a subject that we previously called Mario Strikers Charged.  Yes, it's a hassle for our non-US editors and readers to have to check around for the American names of subjects, but it's easier than making every contributor find out the correct name according to this policy.  And, for the record, I'm not being an imperialist. :)  If most users here were from, say, the UK, I'd be up for using the UK names.

Comments
To respond to MeritC:


 * 1) The founder of this wiki is not only from the United States, but from the Earth. The wiki itself is "based" in a global communications network.
 * 2) That's a big assumption. I would say a majority of our visitors are from outside the United States.  Besides, we will always have redirects of any American English name to the game or subject article, so American visitors won't get list, and...
 * 3) ...the game articles, as I stated above, will have both names in the intro. Only the title on the top of the screen would be the first international English name.  So European titled articles will have both European and American English names in the intro, just as American titled articles will have both American and European English names in the intro.

Again, this is not for every article - only those subjects which were released in a different English region before the United States (and most of the time, the titles are the same anyways). --
 * Actually, MeritC is right on point 2... last I heard. I believe Steve can shed more light, but the last time I saw the figures we are ridiculously US-based in terms of readership.  15:10, 10 February 2009 (EST)

Miscellaneous
None at the moment.