Wookieepedia:Consensus

On Wookieepedia, the community's established consensus dictates the site's policies and procedures. Every Wookieepedian is obligated to follow these consensus-based decisions. Any attempt to go against or undermine consensus without community backing will be regarded as vandalism/disruption and could result in administrative actions. Wookieepedians are encouraged to engage in consensus discussions and provide justifications for their viewpoints, rather than disrupting the site to prove a point.

Community votes are the method by which consensus is reached, determining the course of action for the entire Wookieepedia. Only eligible Wookieepedians are permitted to participate in these voting processes. Wookieepedia's consensus rules apply to the following voting mechanisms:

To reverse a consensus decision made within the past two years, a new vote must occur with an equal or greater number of participants than the original discussion. It's important to note that this participation requirement does not apply to changes to a previous decision, which includes any modification that isn't a direct repeal, or to votes about images, as described below.

Rules

To establish consensus, a minimum of ten eligible Wookieepedians must cast a vote in the relevant forum. To reach consensus, the following vote ratios must be met:

  • Forums with 10-16 votes require a 3:1 ratio
  • Forums with 17-22 votes require a 5:2 ratio
  • Forums with 23 or more votes require a 2:1 ratio

Closing a consensus forum

A standard duration of two weeks (336 hours) is allocated for consensus votes, but a forum may be closed sooner if a clear consensus emerges:

  • Snowball : If one option secures a 9:1 voting ratio after seven days (168 hours), the vote can be closed.
  • Holdo Maneuver : If one option receives unanimous support of 20-0 after five days (120 hours), the vote can be closed.

A consensus vote can be closed as "no consensus" if it remains open for two weeks, hasn't been edited by a vote-eligible Wookieepedian for at least five days, and hasn't achieved consensus. This indicates that an agreement within the community has not been established. In this case, an administrator may close the forum and suggest that the issue be discussed in the Senate Hall to gather additional feedback.

For forums with multiple votes, each section or vote can be closed independently from other ongoing votes within the same forum.

A Wookieepedia administrator must close all consensus forums after they have been open for a minimum of fourteen days (336 hours). After a forum is closed and its outcome is determined, an administrator is responsible for implementing any new site changes and documenting the result of the initiative on the policy and consensus updates page. When closing a forum, administrators should consult the ratio chart in the administrators' how-to guide to ascertain whether consensus has been achieved.

Modifying discussions

Once a proposal has been made in a consensus forum, it is expected to remain unchanged after voting begins, with the following exception:

Minor changes to wording or punctuation are acceptable if they clarify the intended meaning of the vote without altering its approved substance, particularly when incorporating the results into policy pages.

File consensus votes

Image consensus votes

Votes to decide the main infobox image(s) for articles or images used in widespread maintenance templates will be decided by a simple majority vote, or plurality vote. As stated above, these votes must still meet the ten-voter minimum to achieve consensus. In the event of a tie, the article should display the image revision that was in place before the disagreement that initiated the vote. Image consensus votes should always include the previous revision as one of the options. Furthermore, these votes should not use "Oppose" sections; instead, the selection of which image(s) will be used on the relevant pages or templates is determined solely by which image receives the most support votes.

Once an infobox image has reached consensus, it will remain the article's primary infobox image for at least six months. This means that a new vote to change the infobox image cannot occur until six months after consensus has been reached, unless a completely new image has been released in official source material. In this case, the new image can replace the consensus infobox image without a new vote if there is no dispute over the change, effectively nullifying the original consensus decision.

New votes to change an article's infobox image that was previously approved through consensus are exempt from the voter-participation clause outlined above.

Animation and video consensus votes

Animations and videos can be uploaded for use on main namespace pages, but a Consensus track vote must be started within 24 hours of the upload to allow the community to decide whether the file should be allowed to remain on the article(s). Animations and videos used on main namespace pages without a Consensus track vote after 24 hours will be deleted.

Plurality votes

In some cases, a simple majority vote, or plurality vote, may be conducted alongside another Consensus vote. This is typically done when an issue has already reached consensus but requires further clarification on minor details, such as formatting or titling. These votes must state that the outcome of the plurality vote is only valid if the main vote also achieves consensus. It must also be clear to voters that the vote is a "plurality vote" by either linking to the Consensus policy and stating it will be decided by a "plurality vote," or by explaining that its outcome will be determined by a simple majority. These votes are still subject to the consensus policy's ten-voter minimum.

See also

Appearances