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) Anyone can comment on proposals whether logged-in or not, but only registered users can create or vote on proposals.
 * 3) 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.)
 * 4) *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.
 * 5) Every vote should have a reason accompanying it. Agreeing with or seconding a previously mentioned reason given by another user is accepted.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) 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.
 * 8) No proposal can overturn the decision of a previous proposal that is less than 4 weeks (28 days) old.
 * 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 that end up in a tie will be extended for another week. Proposals with more than two options must also be extended another week if any single option does not have a majority support: i.e. more than half of all votes cast must be for a single option, rather than one option simply having more votes than the other options.
 * 11) If a proposal has more than ten votes, it can only pass or fail by a margin of three votes. In other words, one option must have 50% + 3 of all votes cast. This means that if a basic two-option 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. Proposals with more than two options require more precise counting of votes to determine if an extension is necessary.
 * 12) 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.
 * 13) 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.
 * 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) 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.
 * 16) 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 setting up a collaboration thread on the forums.
 * 17) Proposals cannot be made about promotions and demotions. Users can only be promoted and demoted by the will of the administration.
 * 18) 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. (14 days for Writing Guidelines and Talk Page Proposals)

====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 section's header, and once the proposal is over, replace the template with.
 * 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

 * Merge Mini Door with Door article. (Discuss) Deadline: January 14, 2013, 23:59 GMT
 * Move Podoboo to Lava Bubble. (Discuss) Deadline: January 15, 2013, 23:59 GMT
 * Split one of the Luigis from Super Mario Galaxy into a new article. (Discuss) Deadline: January 15, 2013, 23:59 GMT
 * Split Tick Tock Clock into Tick Tock Clock (Super Mario 64) and Tick Tock Clock (course) (Discuss) Deadline: January 18, 2013, 23:59 GMT
 * Move Question Block to ? Block (Discuss) Deadline: January 20, 2013, 23:59 GMT
 * Split from Boom Boom (the character). (Discuss) Deadline: January 21, 2013, 23:59 GMT

Writing Guidelines
None at the moment.

New Features
None at the moment.

Removals
none at the moment.

Reduce the Talk Page Proposal deadline to one week
I propose reducing the TPP deadline to one week. Two weeks is too long in my opinion, since most talk page proposals are for minor changes. They don't require double the time of regular proposals. TPPs aren't noticed any less than regular proposals.

If this proposal passes it would only affect TPPs created after the change.

Proposer: Deadline: January 8, 2013 January 15, 2013 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) Per my proposal.
 * 2) I would of argue that some TPPs are too big to be settled in one week, but then I thought about it for a second and remembered that usually when a TPP is too big, it is usually turned into a proposal on this page. I support it because I don't see why users need more than a week for TPPs; usually, the arguments settle and editing, for the contribution, stop by the fourth or fifth day.
 * 3) Per 0777.
 * 4) Per proposal.
 * 5) Per Zero.
 * 6) Two weeks is too much, I agree.
 * 7) Per all. And the comments below.

Oppose

 * two weeks give more users the chance to express their opinion, reaching a more widespread decision
 * 1) Per PTR.
 * 2) - It's not about discussion length, it's about attendance rates. Whereas proposals sit around staring you in the face, if you're not sure about a TPP at first (or don't want to tackle a huge pile of new TPPs all at once) and decide to come back to it, it could take time before you notice the little bullet and remember again (out of sight, out of mind). Also, if someone makes a good point after the initial rush of votes, since TPPs are out of the way, folks are less likely to check back in on them - ideally, a two-week window offers you more time to decide to revisit them than if it was one week long only (but I don't know if that's actually the case). Plus, if the proposer forgets to list the TPP here and no one notices for a few days, there's still a fair chunk of time left to make up for it - if it was only one week, you might have to just tediously cancel and re-start it to ensure you get a fair amount of votes.
 * 3) Sometimes moving the page X to page Y takes some time to debate about. This also can apply to combining or separating two pages. These are all TPPs, and they can be really long to sort out.
 * 4) Per Walkazo.
 * 5) Per All.
 * 6) &mdash; Per Walkazo.
 * 7) Per all.
 * 8) &mdash; Per all, especially Walkazo.
 * 9) Per Walkazo.
 * 10) Per all

Comments
Well, PTR, if these proposals last one week, then why should TPP's be any different? I'm always looking for proposals wherever they are.--

I'm at odds with this one. On one hand, shortening the proposals would mean less votes... but on the other, it may make people check them more often and take them more seriously if they're only one week...
 * Wouldn't the latter cancel out the former? Aokage (talk) 07:35, 9 January 2013 (EST)
 * Well it could go either way. But then what's the point of having separate proposals if they all last the same amount of time? What's the policy on tpps?
 * TTPs are held on Talk Pages and only affect a couple pages. This page has the more important proposals. This is what I don't get: Why do the less important proposals last longer? Aokage (talk) 12:36, 11 January 2013 (EST)
 * I thought the TTPs were the more important proposals... hmm! I guess it makes sense then!

Now I'm wondering if we should make these proposals two weeks like the TPPs...


 * Point. This proposal is a perfect reason why. The time should be the same, but if we don't make it shorter for tpp's, we should make it longer for this page.  You want to make a proposal when this is over?  If not, I will. ;) --  23:46, 11 January 2013 (EST)
 * I'm not sure extending how long proposals on this page run is a good idea. Like Walkazo said above, these proposals attract more attention than TPPs, and for the record, just because we have set amounts of times for proposals to run does not mean that the amounts of times necessarily need to be adjusted if a proposal is not resolved after that time is passed. What I'm getting at is that modifying the default amount of time proposals run won't eliminate the need to extend them when it arises.

I agree with Mario4Ever. -- 03:52, 12 January 2013 (EST)
 * Yeah, the extra TPP week is to give them more chances to get noticed, but regular Proposals don't need that leg up. We do give an extra week to Writing Guideline proposals because they're complex and include off-site draft pages that need reading over, but regular proposals are usually more straightforward, so again, they don't need the extra time. Unless, of course, the vote's split, in which case it already gets the extension(s) it needs to address the discussions (like the ironic more-than-a-week duration of this proposal). In short, important decisions do get all the voting time they need under the current rules: the system's worked fine for nearly six years, and as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. -
 * I agree that a week is enough for regular proposals. But do TPPs really get noticed less than regular proposals? A week should be enough for TPPs as well. If a TPP needs more time then it gets extended like regular proposals. I prefer the saying "If it ain’t broke, improve it". Aokage (talk) 14:48, 12 January 2013 (EST)

Miscellaneous
None at the moment.