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The Sims Wiki has adopted a discussion policy to govern official community discussions and votes on The Sims Wiki.
Definitions
- Discussion in this policy refers to a conversation related to the operation, organization, or content of the wiki. It is assumed that discussions are started with the goal of reaching some conclusion that can be acted on, but discussions do not necessarily need to reach a definite conclusion or achieve a consensus.
- Discussion venue refers to a place where a discussion takes place. Some processes on the wiki have their own official discussion venues.
- Consensus basically means "broad agreement". Consensus exists if the people participating in a discussion generally agree on a decision. Consensus can exist for some parts of a discussion, even if consensus doesn't exist for other parts of the discussion.
Discussions and consensus-building
Discussions on The Sims Wiki are open, collaborative, and aim towards achieving a consensus among the community. These rules and guidelines exist to facilitate community decision-making.
Any person can begin or participate in a discussion, as long as they are not banned from doing so or blocked from editing the wiki. Discussion participants do not need to be registered users. Participants are required to sign all comments they make in on-wiki discussions; signatures can be inserted to any discussion by adding four tildes (like this: {{~~~~}}).
Discussion participants are bound by all wiki policies, including rules on behavior; all discussions must remain civil and appropriate for all audiences. Participants are strictly forbidden from sockpuppetry—the creation and use of multiple accounts to create the illusion of greater support for/opposition to an idea.
Discussions do not end after a set length of time; however, generally, consensus is not deemed to have been established if a discussion has gone for less than five days. This minimum time exists to give all users an opportunity to participate in a discussion, even if they are not present or online when a discussion starts. This five-day requirement can be waived if it is abundantly clear based on the course of the discussion that a proposal will not be accepted. User rights requests follow their own set rules for discussion duration.
After the minimum period of time to allow for participation, a user can determine whether consensus exists in the discussion. This should generally occur only when a discussion has run its natural course; if there is still active conversation even after the minimum period, discussion should be allowed to continue. In most circumstances, it is preferable to err on the side of leaving a discussion open for extra time rather than closing it prematurely.
Discussions which end with a consensus are adopted as community precedent. Users are empowered to implement these precedents on the wiki if they are able and willing to do so, and administrators/moderators are empowered to act in cases where specific user rights are required in order to implement the precedent. Discussions which have reached a consensus may be left open for a suitable length of time afterwards, if desired, or may be closed and archived. Discussions which are archived should not be re-started in the same thread or page section, but should go into a new thread or section.
Unless otherwise stated, discussions which end (either with consensus or not) can be restarted or re-considered at any time. However, reconsidering a discussion which reached a consensus and/or established a precedent should not be done unless there is cause to believe that the consensus would be reasonably likely to change if discussed again.
Discussion venues
Some wiki discussions are, by rule, held in specific discussion venues:
- Discussions related to deleting pages are held at Pages for deletion (PfD)
- Discussions related to promoting users to new user roles are held at Requests for rollback (RfR), Requests for moderatorship (RfM), or Requests for administratorship (RfA), depending on what rights are being sought
- Direct requests for the administrative team go to the admin's noticeboard
- Requests for editing or game help go to the help desk
Discussions which are related to a specific page on the wiki should be held on the page's associated talk page; this includes discussions related to specific templates, categories, and project pages. Discussions which are related to the wiki more broadly, including discussions of wiki policies and precedents or large-scale changes to multiple pages simultaneously, should take place in a thread on the community discussions forum.
Discussions on Discord
The Sims Wiki has a Discord server, and the server has a designated "wiki-forum" for wiki-related consensus-seeking discussions. The wiki has adopted the following rules governing discussions on the wiki and on the Discord server:
- Wiki-related discussions aiming towards a consensus can take place on the Discord server, in a thread of the "wiki-forum" forum, that is read-only for all members of the server except those who have the 'confirmed wiki users' role on the server. This applies only to discussions which do not have their own designated discussion venue; those discussions must continue to take place in the designated venues.
- Discussions can be started in a thread on the Community Discussions forum (CDF) and then relayed by server ops/mods to a thread on the server's wiki forum, or they can be started on the server's wiki forum and then relayed to the CDF.
- Discussions on the server are bound by the server's rules (listed in text channel #rules) and are moderated by the server ops and server mods, just as discussions on the wiki are bound by the wiki's policies.
- Discussions on the server or on the wiki must be open to contributions for a minimum of five days before a consensus can be declared.
- Discussions which reach a consensus on the server cannot be formally adopted by the wiki until they are relayed to a thread on the Community Discussions forum. The CDF thread needs to include a log of the Discord conversation (either copy/pasted directly, or pasted externally and then linked) so that anyone on the wiki who isn't a server member can see what was written and weigh in within the CDF thread.
- If a discussion takes place on the wiki and on the Discord server, community consensus is determined based on the input from both venues. If there is strong consensus on the Discord discussion and little or no input in the CDF, it counts as community consensus. If there is consensus on the CDF but little or no input in Discord, it counts as consensus. If there is consensus on Discord but no consensus on the CDF, or vice versa, then the determination of whether consensus exists depends on the overall level of consensus in both areas; one venue does not outweigh the other. In these situations, it's important not to "double count" people who participate in the discussion in both venues.
- These rules do not apply to minor conversations or discussions which, had they taken place on the wiki, would not have required community consensus.
- Currently, formal voting (as defined below) is not permitted in discussions on the Discord server.
Voting
Shortcut TSW:VOTE |
Consensus, rather than voting, is always the preferred method of reaching a decision. Voting as a means to determine consensus for a decision should be avoided unless a resolution is necessary and consensus fails to develop. If a vote must occur, it should be held only after significant time has passed for all viewpoints to be taken into account.
Voting requirements
In order to participate in a vote, users must:
- Be a registered and non-blocked member of The Sims Wiki
- Have at least one edit on the wiki
- Sign their vote correctly with four tildes (~~~~) or a proper signature template
If a user is blocked after voting begins, the user's vote should be discarded if the block is set at one month or longer, or indefinitely, or if the user was blocked specifically for tampering with an official vote or use of a sock puppet. Only an administrator may discard votes.
Starting a vote
Users may start a vote only if they meet all the voting requirements, and have been engaged in the discussion where the vote is to take place. This requirement does not apply if the user initiating a vote is a neutral administrator.
Voting procedure
Any user meeting the requirements above may initiate a vote on a matter that has failed to garner consensus. All votes must clearly state the question or questions being voted on, all the eligible options for vote, the method of voting, and the duration of the vote (preferably using {{Countdown}})
The exact method of voting is left in the hands of the user initiating a vote. However, the method chosen must be fair, unbiased towards one particular resolution, and suitable for the questions being voted on and the options available. Additionally, all votes must have a defined duration, and that duration may not be less than five days. Users wishing to start a vote may wish to (but are not required to) consider consulting with the administrators beforehand to ensure that the vote method they choose is valid and effective for the situation.
Votes which fail to adhere to this rule may be closed early, nullified or modified as needed by the administrators.
Prohibited methods
The user starting a vote has leeway to determine the proper method for voting on a particular issue. However, the following methods are expressly prohibited:
- Setting a vote duration of less than five (5) days
- Holding a vote on the IRC Channel, Chat, or at another location outside The Sims Wiki
- Conducting a vote using the wiki Poll feature
Unanimous consent
Any user who meets voting requirements (see above) may propose unanimous consent to adopt a matter that is either under discussion or that might be placed under discussion. The proposal for unanimous consent should include a description of what is being consented to. Unanimous consent may be requested at the beginning of a discussion, or during discussion on a particular matter.
Once unanimous consent is requested, any user meeting the voting requirements may object to consent. When objecting, the user should include a brief explanation of why they are choosing to object; users do not need to object to the matter under discussion itself in order to object to the use of unanimous consent. If any eligible user objects to unanimous consent, then unanimous consent fails and the proposal is discussed and handled through the normal discussion, consensus and/or voting processes. If no user objects to a request for unanimous consent within five days, then the matter being considered is deemed to have received community consensus and is adopted.
Unanimous consent may only be requested once for a particular matter under discussion, and may not be requested if users demonstrate opposition to a proposal in the discussion. Discussions in progress may continue while a unanimous consent request is being considered. Requests for unanimous consent may not be made in user rights request/nomination discussions.
Extent of policy
These policies apply only to discussions and/or votes conducted in order to reach an official community decision. On-wiki games, votes for featured content, or other informal votes, polls, or conversations on the wiki or on the Discord server are not bound by these rules.
Policy history
- 12 March 2008: The voting policy was established and voting requirements were adopted.
- 17 January 2011: Voting procedures were adopted.
- 28 November 2014: Changes to established voting procedures and the name of the policy were decided by consensus.
- 21 February 2015: A replacement of established policies was determined by a vote, concluded on 21 February 2015; Previous voting policies have been repealed, but can be viewed in the page history.
- 17 January 2016: Unanimous consent rules were adopted, following a community discussion.
- 20 May 2023: Policy was amended and renamed, including the addition of discussion definitions and rules, and inclusion of rules governing discussions on Discord. This is the result of a discussion which ended via unanimous consent in October 2022.
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