MarioWiki:Proposals

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r149/Deadringerforlove/dessert1.jpg 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
 * 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 start to discuss on the issue. 24 hours after posting the proposal (rounding up or down to the next or previous full hour, respectively, is allowed), the voting period begins. (The proposer is allowed to support their proposal right after posting.) Each proposal ends at the end of the day one week after voting start. (All times GMT).
 * 3) Every vote should have a reason accompanying it. Agreeing or seconding a previously mentioned reason given by another user is accepted.
 * 4) 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. The voter 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.
 * 5) All proposals that end up in a tie will be extended for another week.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) 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.
 * 8) No proposal can overturn the decision of a previous proposal that is less than 4 weeks (28 days) old.
 * 9) Proposals can only be rewritten or deleted by their proposer within the first three days of their creation. However, the proposer can request that their proposal be deleted by a Sysop at any time, provided they have a valid reason for it.
 * 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) 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.
 * 12) Proposals cannot be made about System Operator promotions and demotions. Sysops can only be promoted and demoted by the will of Bureaucrats.
 * 13) If the Sysops 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.
 * 14) No joke proposals. Proposals are serious wiki matters, and should be handled professionally. Joke proposals will be deleted on sight.

The times are in GMT, 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 Monday night at 23:59 GMT, the deadline is the night of the Tuesday of the next week at 23:59 PM. If it is posted a minute later, the deadline is 23:59 PM of the Wednesday of the next week, since midnight is considered to be part of the next day, as 00:00 AM.

Basic Proposal and Support/Oppose Format
This is an example how your proposal should 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]". - ===[insert a title for your Proposal here]=== [describe what you want this Proposal to be like, what changes you would suggest and what this is about]

Proposer: Voting start: [insert a voting start time here, f.e. "2 January, 2010, 14:00". Voting start times are 24 hours after the time at which the proposal was posted, as described in Rule 2 above.] Deadline: [insert a deadline here, 7 days after the voting start, at 23:59 GMT.]

====Support====

====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 anoother 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.

How To

 * 1) All active talk page proposals must be listed below in chronological order (new proposals go at the bottom). All pages effected 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. There is no 24 hour delay between the posting of a talk page proposal and the commencement of voting.
 * 4) Talk page proposals may closed by the proposer if both the support and the oppose sides each have fewer than five votes.
 * 5) The talk page proposal must pertain to the article it is posted on.

List of Talk Page Proposals

 * Merge Vs. Wrecking Crew into Wrecking Crew. (Discuss) Passed
 * Merge Shooting Star Summit into Star Hill. (Discuss) Passed
 * Split the weekly microgames from NinSoft and contests in WarioWare: D.I.Y. into separate pages. (Discuss) Deadline: May 7 2010, 24:00 May 14 2010, 23:59 May 21 2010, 24:00
 * Delete the "Golden Banana Table" in the Donkey Kong 64 article. (Discuss) Deadline: May 18, 2010, 23:59
 * Split from Star Hill. (Discuss) Deadline: May 27 2010, 23:59
 * Merge 1-Up Super into 1-Up Mushroom. (Discuss) Deadline: May 28 2010, 23:59
 * Split and Merge the the Mario and Luigi series part of 1-Up Mushroom into Mushroom. (Discuss) Deadline: May 28 2010, 24:00
 * Split from Mirror. (Discuss) Deadline: May 29 2010, 24:00

Beta/Proto
I've noticed a few beta pages/ references around but I was always fasinated by the developement of games and im sure other people are to so I was hoping that a page could be created organizing all the information from all the beta games

Proposer: Voting start: 14 May, 2010, 06:36 Deadline: 21 May, 2010, 23:59

Oppose

 * 1) Per Time Q's comment, and it remembers me of the old Glitch page.

Comments
How do you mean? We already have a page that shows shows a list of all the beta elements pages we have? .
 * Yeah. We also used to have exactly such a page you're proposing, but we split it.

Conjectural Team
I propose that we have a new team of users known as the "Conjectural Team". Basically each one or a group of users will be assigned to an article that is a conjectural, their job will be to surf everywhere on the web and look for the actual name of that character, thing, etc. from a reliable source.

Proposer: Voting start: 19 May, 2010, 05:00 Deadline: 26 May, 2010, 23:59

Support

 * 1) I am Zero! For some reason I believe that most but not all of the conjectural have a real name and there somewhere out there. Zero signing out.

Comments
This would be better off as a PipeProject, actually. --

Removals
''None at the moment.

Changes
''None at the moment.

Main Page Overhaul
Hm... How many "Main Page" proposals have we had? :P Although this proposal could technically be categorized under Changes, I put it under New Features because it will bring back and reform a process that was discarded last year, as well as making a new template to go on the Main Page (although it was already approved by Porple, I'd still like to see the user's opinions on this).

First off, I say that we rid the Main Page of the (actually heavily debated) Featured Image process and replace it with the Polls again (the system of selection was the reason it was removed; however, I think that a solution has been created).

Also, I feel that we should replace the Community template with a 'Shroom template. I am proposing this because, although Porplemontage already approved of this change, no action has been taken and no design for the new template has been come up with. I have a design I'd like to propose, and I will show that later on.

 Featured Images v. Polls  There are many problems with the Featured Images selection process. There have been a ton of proposals made to create rules, amend current policies, and how to fix the process. I find it funny... nay, ironic, how the same people who say that the system works and that we should not make changes to it are the ones making proposals to fix the system so that it can survive another week so that their favorite little character can star on the Main Page!

There are, from what I've seen from a recent proposal, many repeat nominations. There are also problems with some users about "fan votes"– that is, people who go voting on an image not for the quality of the image or because they feel it would do the Main Page some justice, but rather because their favorite character is in the image. There are also quite a few users that feel the system itself does not work at all (such as me).

Some feel that we should not feature images because they are not our creations, while others say that it brightens up the Main Page and makes it better. Overall, these are contested issues that are really never resolved; a proposal to fix it up is made, results in a tie for a week or two, and then no change is made when the proposal passes because one person felt that we should stick with the status quo.

This enough is proof to me that the F.I. system does not work. I know many will say that the Poll selection system never worked when it was around, but I would like to propose a new selection system for Polls:

We should create a special committee called the "Poll Selection Committee," with seven members; one of them being a chairman/chairwoman. Why seven? Well, it has enough people so that different opinions can be registered, yet there will almost never be a tie when all the selectors vote. Polls would be selected every two weeks, giving enough time for everybody to make decisions for the next poll.

The Chairperson would be almost like a regular committee member, except that in the case that if one of the committee members resigns or is fired, the chairperson gets to choose the leaving member's replacement. If a chairperson resigns, he or she can choose his or her replacement.

In order to fire a committee member (perhaps for disorderly conduct on the wiki or inactivity), a vote must take place among the other committee members (which should mean that there are six people involved in the vote). Four out of six of the committee members in the firing nomination have to agree in order to fire that member.

Chairperson elections would take place in the community after 26 bi-weekly polls are released (which should be the equivalent of about a year, when bi-weekly is interpreted as one poll every two weeks), to ensure that the Chairperson does not hold that position as long as they want to hold it against the will of the community. The incumbent Chairperson at that time can seek reelection, and can run as many times in the future as they want, though.

The committee would also have their own private forum board to discuss the polls, so that all discussions and decisions can be recorded in it for organized discussion and future reference.

Here is a summary of the things this proposal will change:


 * Replace Featured Images with Polls
 * Establish a committee in charge of the poll selection (explained in detail above)
 * Replace Community template with The Shroom template

A link to a test page for how the Main Page would look after these changes are made can be found here.

Proposer: Wiki Administrative Staff Voting Start: Sunday, 16 May 2010, 1:48 GMT Deadline: Sunday, 23 May 2010, 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) – I think this will improve the wiki.
 * 2) - Per the proposal.
 * Per SMB
 * 1) -- Per SMB.
 * 2) &mdash; Per SMB.
 * 3) Everything seems fine by me. I'm a bit sick of FIs now too.
 * 4) - Per proposal.
 * 5) - Per us =D
 * 6) I love and hate the Featured Images. Featured Images made me go to this wiki. However, it's very flawed because the image featured is based on subjective tastes, which shouldn't be there when deciding when a picture is good. Besides, some cruddy images got featured because of nostalgia, hype, and/or bias. >_<The only really bad thing about this proposal is the blandness of the main page.
 * 7) - I still have a bad feeling, but I think it will be better. Let's just do it and hope that everything listed above goes as planned...
 * 8) I am Zero! I loved the PS page, that was the funest of them all, that was one of the reasons why I became a user here. Though I disagree with removing the community page and replacing it with the 'Shroom is just my opinion; in that case it doesn't really change that much and part of it is just a mini-pipe project section. I support. Zero signing out.
 * 9) Per all. However, I think that replacing the community temp with the Shroom Box doesn't make sense for obvious reasons. The main reason is there is a link right here. <--- (It may not be here though, but look to the left.) I also agree with adding the featured image to the Music/Art Section of the Shroom. I still hope the main page has color and that the polls are not completely pointless...

Comments
I kind of missed out on the whole discussion about this, but why are we bringing back polls? Wasn't there a proposal before to get rid of them?
 * Did you read the proposal thoroughly? The poll system was ridden of by the Admins a while ago because it was horrible. One proposal to bring back the polls recently was shot down because it didn't suggest any changes or improvements from the old system. However, we suggest a completely new version of the poll selection process.

Time Q would be very pleased with this proposal.
 * I hope he is. By the way, I had to remove your vote, KS3. It isn't past the first 24 hours, so only the proposer(s) (the Admins, in this case) can vote until tomorrow (unless I am mistaken). Of course, you are invited to add your vote back tomorrow at or after the voting start time.
 * I live in Central Standard Time, and it's Friday at 22:17 at CST. Add 6 hours to that and you get Saturday at 4:17 at GMT. So, technically, I can vote, unless they made a mistake in the proposal.
 * Hm... I think I made a mistake. I'll have to double check.

By the way, why 24. 26 bi-weekly polls is much closer to one year than 24.
 * My math was off, I guess. Also, you were right about the mistake in the proposal... I forgot that it was already the 15th in GMT. My apologies.
 * No problem.

Is Raphaelraven497's vote valid? He is opposing because he likes the Featured Image and Community box templates. He provides no reason as to why these proposed changes would be bad for the wiki. @BMB: You do realize that a new poll system is being proposed, not the old one, correct? The committee would be run by those who are dedicated to getting polls posted up and the such. Plus, more time for discussion about polls is allowed (as opposed to 6 days of discussion and a poll being selected on the 7th day, there are 13 days of discussion and the poll gets posted on the 14th day). If I'm correct, also said that a new board on the forum can be made so that the committee members have a private place to discuss coming up with polls. So it would probably eliminate the problems you stated.
 * "Any user can support or oppose, but must have a strong reason for doing so, not, e.g., ' I like this idea! ' " I think it's invalid.
 * @SMB: Yes, I do realize that this is not the old poll thing that we are talking about. But if I'm correct, and from other Main Page templates we have, it is going to drag over time, and it will just be annoying to update it, and I do realize that your going to constantly discuss it, but I can still see that happening. The slow part, well, I'm not so sure about, but I'm sure there will be some slowing down at the beginning if this happens. Now the last part is all I want you to read. This is fan stuff, a thing that is better as part of the Fun Stuff in the 'Shroom rather than the main page. The main page is suppose to look perfessional and suppose to help show what is so great of our Wiki. At least the FI and the Commiunity thing shows a better example of that then the poll box and the 'Shroom template.
 * @BMB: What do you mean by "drag over time"? A schedule will be set up, and it will be every other week. It won't be too effort-wasting to have to archive a poll and stuff every other week. Featured Images don't show any effort other than just a ton of bias and opinion into which images we have. The Community box uses DPL coding, which has shown to slow down our Main Page (see the Quote of the Day proposal from before). This proposal should both reduce some load time, and show actual effort going in to the Main Page. And the polls add something that our Main Page doesn't have now: interactivity. I think that the biggest things that makes the poll win over the images is that it adds more depth to our Main Page, and it shows the creativity of our wiki. The 'Shroom box will both advertise our official newspaper (which it desperately needs in these times), and the 'Shroom has the Pipe Plaza (which will soon be the place to find community happenings and events). And the Music & Artwork team of the 'Shroom can easily replace the Featured Images process, and showcase many more images in one month. I think it works out well if this proposal passes.
 * @SMB: ........those are very good points that I didn't think of. To tell you the truth, I would love to add it back as long as it is better than the old ones, and FI could just be in the M&A section of the 'Shroom. Yet, I don't know why, but I just have a twinge of something in my gut telling me this is not going to go well. But other than that, it is a decent idea.

I'm torn. FIs were the main reason why I came to this wiki in the first place. But another thing is that polls are fun, nice, and creative things. Are you sure we're going to axe it totally? It does add a bit of color to the main page and Wikipedia has their very own FIs. If we are going to remove it, at least (as suggested above) place it in the Shroom since it will look good on that particular section.

I'm curious, but what would happen if things doesn't turn out as expected? I'm not saying that this was unprepared or not tested, but I'm just saying what if it becomes a total mess like the previous poll system or the FI voting system? What are we going to do?
 * Wikipedia has FI's because they have users that take pictures of (non-copyrighted) interesting things in extremely high quality. Have you ever seen the way Wikipedia images get featured? It's a ridiculously complex and taxing process. No image here would ever make it over at Wikipedia. Please, do not try to bring in the Wikipedia argument. Also, the Main Page has color. I really don't understand why people think the FI's add color, since there is a nice rainbow of colors on the setup of the page itself. And if the system does begin to break down, we will surely be there to fix it before it completely goes down the tube.
 * Ok, I really did not know that Wikipedia fact since I don't know anything about anything. And the "colorful" thing is my opinion of the main page, don't take it as a fact. It's just, for me, that pictures are more interesting to look at than colors on a template. And now that I think of it, the Main Page shouldn't be a place of great art anyway. It should be a place of navigation, updates, interesting stuff, etc., but then, that's my opinion.
 * I want to add that Wikipedia's process is incredibly complicated. In my opinion, even ZW's one is. WiKirby chooses a random image, but I don't think that would work fine...
 * @BMB: I'm sorry, I feel that I may have come off as a bit rude. Please, forgive me. I just was trying to toss my opinion out there. I value yours, and I thank you for sharing it. ;)