Forum:Voting System For Policies/Rules

--I know this is a text wall, but please read the whole thing and give your thoughts on the details. If you don't have time to think about it, just come back to it later. If you skim this and say "yes, we should probably have some kind of voting system", I appreciate the support but unless you're going to come back later and say more, it really doesn't move this particular topic forward at all.--

As you all know, there are a lot of proposed rule changes and the like that are currently unresolved. Some of them are even widely supported, such as the fanon section removal, which came to a vote, and currently has six supports, a few people going neutral in the comments, and no opposes. Yet no one has ended this topic or executed the removal.

What I think Zeldapedia needs is a standard system by which policies or other actions, after having ample time for discussion to take place, are voted on, with predetermined rules about how long the voting goes on and what score is required for the proposal to be implemented. If the proposal is sufficiently supported, users (it wouldn't even have to be admins in a lot of cases if we don't want it to be) will make the change, and if it's a rule, the rule can be recorded. We already have a system like this working for promotions/demotions. We can easily use largely the same system. There's more of a need for discussion before you start voting, as a lot of rules and such may need to be tweaked from their original proposal before people will support them, and some discussion will be necessary beforehand to explore the pros and cons of a policy change. Still, it's not that hard to tell when a conversation has run it's course, and can be moved on to voting. People will either stop talking or eventually end up repeating the same points with no new ideas arising.

To start things off, I am going to propose we use the same rule list as for promotion/demotion, except only start a vote once the thing has been discussed in a forum first. Here is my suggested rule list (it's mostly just the promotion rules with some terms switched out, though there are a couple other key points):

Rule Proposals
A change to the rules should first be proposed in a forum, and discussed until the topic has been sufficiently explored. The exact wording of the rule that is to be recorded should be placed at the top as a level two header, and changed as the discussion warrants it. After this point, a voting section should be added to the bottom of the topic. The vote for each proposed rule will run for two weeks, during which members of the community will vote on the change. The proposer of a rule may and should inform other users of the proposed change. A rule must have a score of +6 or higher in order to pass.

If the rule meets the vote quota in that time, it shall be recorded on the rules page (<that doesn't exist but it's basically unanimous that we need one) and put into effect. If a rule obtains the needed support votes without obtaining any oppose votes before the allotted two weeks have expired, it may be implemented without having to wait the remainder of the two weeks. (Note to Users: In this situation, allow at least one full day before recording a rule in order to give users ample time to cast their votes.)

If the rule does not meet the required votes in two weeks, the request will be archived as "opposed". After a failed proposal, a rule should not be proposed again for 4 weeks (1 month).

Voting
To vote, a user must:
 * Be an active member of Zeldapedia for at least one month at the time the voting begins.
 * Have 150 or more mainspace edits at the time the voting begins.


 * Support votes count as +1 toward a rule's total
 * Oppose votes count as -1 toward a rule's total
 * Neutral votes do not affect a rule's total
 * A rule's vote total can be found by adding up the supports and opposes. For example, if a rule receives 5 support (+) votes and 2 oppose (-) votes, its total is +3.

From what I've seen we're not going to get much done efficiently as far as policy if we just leave open discussions and expect people to finish them and act on it. Note that this discuss/tweak/vote/record procedure can apply to existing rules that are simply not written down. Obviously those rules will continue to be enforced even when they haven't gone through this process, but they can be discussed/clarified and defined through this procedure. And yeah, we don't have a rules page yet, but it'd be easy to just make one and list the rules. Having a link pointing to the forum in which a rule was discussed would be useful so that people could see the reasoning behind it without having to ask about it. It's also important to note that this procedure can be applied to major actions that are not technically rules. I know it may sound unnecessarily complicated for some things, but we don't have to require this for every action. We definitely need some way to get things cleared to be implemented though, as right now a lot of things just kind of sit there even when supported. Another thing that has been mentioned before that would be a huge help in these matters is a sitenotice (a place on the front page stating major topics being discussed/voted on and giving links to them), or some other channel through which to informing everyone that an issue like this is going on, so that it's not just overlooked and pushed down the recent edits list (this is kind of one, though it can also be pushed down the recent edits easily). Tell me what you guys think.--Fierce Deku 06:19, April 8, 2011 (UTC)