MarioWiki:Proposals

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.

This page observes the No-Signature Policy.

How To Rules
 * 1) If users have an idea about improving the wiki or managing its community, but feel that they need community approval before acting upon that idea, they may make a proposal about it. They must have a strong argument supporting their idea and be willing to discuss it in detail with the other users, who will then vote about whether or not they think the idea should be used. Proposals should include links to all relevant pages and Writing Guideline proposals must include a link to the draft page.
 * 2) Proposals end at the end of the day (23:59) one week after voting starts, except for Writing Guidelines and Talk Page Proposals, which run for two weeks. (All times GMT.)
 * 3) *For example, if a proposal is added at any time on Monday, August 1, 2011, the voting starts immediately and the deadline is one week later on Monday, August 8, at 23:59 GMT.
 * 4) Every vote should have a reason accompanying it. Agreeing with or seconding a previously mentioned reason given by another user is accepted.
 * 5) Users who feel that certain votes were cast in bad faith or which truly have no merit can address the votes in the Comments section. Users can ask a voter to clarify their position, point out mistakes or flaws in their arguments, or call for the outright removal of the vote if it lacks sufficient reasoning. Users may not remove or alter the content of anyone else's votes. Voters can remove or rewrite their own vote at any time, but the final decision to remove another user's vote lies solely with the administrators.
 * 6) If a user makes a vote and is subsequently blocked for any amount of time, their vote is removed. However, if the block ends before the proposal ends, then the user in question holds the right to re-cast their vote. If a proposer is blocked, their vote is removed and "(banned)" is added next to their name in the "Proposer:" line of the proposal, which runs until its deadline as normal. If the proposal passes, it falls to the supporters of the idea to enact any changes in a timely manner.
 * 7) No proposal can overturn the decision of a previous proposal that is less than 4 weeks (28 days) old.
 * 8) 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.
 * 9) All proposals that end up in a tie will be extended for another week.
 * 10) If a proposal has more than ten votes, it can only pass or fail by a margin of three votes. If a proposal reaches the deadline and the total number of votes for each option differ by two or less votes, the deadline will be extended for another week.
 * 11) Proposals can only be extended up to three times. If a consensus has not been reached by the fourth deadline, the proposal fails and can only be re-proposed after four weeks, at the earliest.
 * 12) 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 an administrator, the proposer can ask for that help.
 * 13) Proposals can only be rewritten or deleted by their proposer within the first three days of their creation. However, proposers can request that their proposal be deleted by an administrator at any time, provided they have a valid reason for it. Please note that cancelled proposals must also be archived.
 * 14) If the administrators deem a proposal unnecessary or potentially detrimental to the upkeep of the Super Mario Wiki, they have the right to remove it at any time.
 * 15) There should not be proposals about creating articles on an 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.
 * 16) Proposals cannot be made about promotions and demotions. Users can only be promoted and demoted by the will of the administration.
 * 17) No joke proposals. Proposals are serious wiki matters and should be handled professionally. Joke proposals will be deleted on sight.

Basic Proposal and Support/Oppose Format This is an example of what your proposal must look like, if you want it to be acknowledged. If you are inexperienced or unsure how to set up this format, simply copy the following and paste it into the fitting section. Then replace the [subject] - variables with information to customize your proposal, so it says what you wish. If you insert the information, be sure to replace the whole variable including the squared brackets, so "[insert info here]" becomes "This is the inserted information", not "[This is the inserted information]". Proposals presenting multiple alternative courses of action can have more than two voting options, but what each voting section is supporting must be clearly defined. - ===[insert a title for your Proposal here]=== [describe what issue this Proposal is about and what changes you think should be made to improve how the Wiki handles that issue]

Proposer: Deadline: [insert a deadline here, 7 days after the proposal was created, at 23:59 GMT.]

====Support====
 * 1) [make a statement indicating that you support your proposal]

====Oppose====

====Comments==== - Users will now be able to vote on your Proposal, until the set deadline is reached. Remember, you are a user as well, so you can vote on your own Proposal just like the others.

To support, or oppose, just insert " # at the bottom of the section of your choice. Just don't forget to add a valid reason for your vote behind that tag if you are voting on another user's Proposal. If you are voting on your own Proposal, you can just say "Per my Proposal".

Talk Page Proposals All proposals dealing with a single article or a specific group of articles are held on the talk page of one of the articles in question. Proposals dealing with massive amounts of splits, merges or deletions across the Wiki should still be held on this page.


 * For a list of all settled Talk Page Proposals, see here.

Rules
 * 1) All active talk page proposals must be listed below in chronological order (new proposals go at the bottom). All pages affected must be mentioned in the brief description, with the talk page housing the discussion linked to directly via "". If the proposal involved a page that is not yet made, use to communicate its title. The Deadline must also be included in the entry. Linking to pages not directly involved in the talk page proposal is not recommended, as it clutters the list with unnecessary links. Place  under the heading.
 * 2) All rules for talk page proposals are the same as mainspace proposals (see the "How To" section above), with the exceptions made by Rules 3 and 4 as follows:
 * 3) Voting in talk page proposals will be open for two weeks, not one. (All times GMT.)
 * 4) *For example, if a proposal is added at any time on Monday, August 1, 2011, it ends two weeks later on Monday, August 15, 2011, at 23:59 GMT.
 * 5) Talk page proposals may be closed by the proposer at any time if both the support and the oppose sides each have fewer than five votes.
 * 6) The talk page proposal must pertain to the article it is posted on.

List of Talk Page Proposals

 * Split from Mega Mushroom (Discuss) Deadline: February 7, 2012, 23:59 GMT
 * Split from Mini Mushroom (Discuss) Deadline: February 7, 2012, 23:59 GMT

Writing Guidelines
None at the moment.

Allow talk page messages on one's talk page, excluding reminders/warnings, to be removed at the user's discretion
At times, I've been uncomfortable with some of the messages I receive, not because I don't like them, but as if I felt they immediately needed to an archive.

On many other wikis, it's okay to remove messages if you feel you don't want them to stay on your talk page. I don't like the fact that we can't remove messages from others on our own talk page. Sometimes you may remove them as acknowledgement that you read them. Of course, if this proposal passes, this will not include official warnings.

Proposer: Deadline: February 2, 2012, 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) I've always been wanting something like this since I came here

Oppose

 * 1) - Removing messages removes official records, and that is a very bad thing. In fact, instantaneous archiving itself muddles up page histories, and should be avoided. User histories should be clear as a bell, not encrypted by any means. (See comment below, as well.)
 * 2) Per Walkazo.
 * 3) - Per Walkazo.
 * 4) Per all.
 * 5) Per all.

Comments
A lot of the time, informal messages are given instead of official warning templates, and removing those would make it seem like a user wasn't spoken to when they actually have. Collaboration on projects should also remain because removing messages hides the other user's contributions. Even idle chit-chat should remain because removing it is rude (i.e. their removal could be interpreted as "your messages aren't good enough for my talk page"). Even speedy archiving isn't a welcome practice around here, and the admins have actually been discussing making an official policy against it for weeks before it catches on. A couple sections is not cluttered enough to need to be moved (and certainly not removed altogether), and doing so actually clutters up the page's history with unnecessary userspace edits, making it harder to find anything. Removing messages outright makes it nearly impossible because then you wouldn't even be able to see the end product: if you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't know to look for it, and even if you knew it'd still be way harder to dig up the edit than if the message was just left alone. Plus, immediate archiving is often used as a way to bury unsightly messages as a way to avoid looking bad. Of course, even archiving in chunks like one's supposed to do can be used to hide Warnings and informal wrist-slaps (if they just so happened to archive right after receiving a message), but archiving section-by-section is the epitome of that sort of slate-clearing. Removing stuff would be even worse: as I said before, a lot of stuff is said informally, and pretending like it didn't happen would be just as bad as removing a template. -


 * While I don't particularly mind archiving that's done to reduce clutter on the talk page, I do agree somewhat when it comes to informal messages and warnings. Archives end up making keeping track of warnings difficult by design; I imagine an alternate page(s) dedicated to keeping track of user warnings would be a viable compromise, though I doubt such a motion would receive much support.

Removals
None at the moment.

Changes
None at the moment.

Miscellaneous
None at the moment.