Wookieepedia:Consensus

This page or section is an official policy onWookieepedia. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone must follow. Please use theConsensus track to propose changes to this policy.

On Wookieepedia,consensus determines site-wide policy and procedure, as established by the Wookieepedia community. All Wookieepedians are required to adhere to consensus rulings. Attempts by any individual to violate or counteract consensus without community support will be consideredvandalism/disruption and may be met withadministrative sanction. Wookieepedians are encouraged to participate in consensus forums and express the reasonings behind their logic, rather thandisrupting the site to prove a point.

Consensus is achieved through certain community votes designed to determine a set course of action for the entirety of Wookieepedia. Onlyeligible Wookieepedians may contribute a vote in these forums. The following voting measures are subject to Wookieepedia consensus rules:

• Consensus track
• Trash compactor

In order to overturn a previous consensus resolution made within two years, a renewed vote must be held with a voter participation equal to or greater than the original discussion. Note that this voter-participation requirement does not apply to modifications of a previous resolution, which is defined as any change to an existing policy that is not a straight repeal, or to image consensus votes, as defined below.

Rules

For consensus to be achieved, a minimum often eligible Wookieepedians must contribute a vote on a given forum. The following voting ratios must be satisfied to achieve consensus:

• 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

→SeeForum:CT:Voting ratios table

Closing a consensus forum

Two weeks (336 hours) is provided as the standard time frame for a consensus vote, although a forum may be closed early in the instance that a clear consensus is achieved:

• Snowball: A vote may be closed after seven days (168 hours) if support for one option achieves the voting ratio 9:1
• Holdo Maneuver: A vote may be closed after five days (120 hours) if one option achieves 20-0 support

→SeeForum:CT:WP:CON Early forum closing

A consensus vote may be closed asno consensus if the vote has been open for two weeks, its forum has not been edited by a vote-eligible Wookieepedian for at least five days, and it has yet to achieve consensus. This indicates that a community agreement has not been reached. At this point, an administrator may close the forum and recommend that the issue be discussed in theSenate Hall to gather further input.

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

All consensus forums must be closed by a Wookieepedia administrator after it has been open for at least fourteen days (336 hours). Once a forum has been closed and its result has been determined, an administrator is responsible for executing any new site changes and reflecting the result of the initiative on Wookieepedia'spolicy and consensus updates page. Administrators may refer to theadministrators' how-to guide for a breakdown of the vote-closing procedures.

Modifying discussions

Once a proposal is offered in a consensus forum, it must remain unchanged following the commencement of voting, unless:

1. All users who have cast votes prior to the desired change to be included are directly contacted, or the alteration to the vote is rendered invalid; or…
2. Individual amendments are drafted to alter the topical vote; these must pass separately within the same consensus forum and adhere to rules of consensus.

Exceptions to this include minor wording or punctuation changes that do not alter the intended approved meaning of the vote but are done for clarity when incorporating them onto policy pages.

File consensus votes

Image consensus votes

Consensus votes to determine an article's main infobox image(s) or the images used in widespread maintenance templates shall be decided by simple majority vote, or plurality vote. As defined above, these votes are still subject to the ten-voter minimum requirement in order to achieve consensus. In the case of a tied vote, the article should display the image revision in place prior to the disagreement that commenced the vote. Image consensus votes should always include the aforementioned revision as one of the proposed files as an option. Additionally, these votes should not utilize "Oppose" sections; instead, which of the proposed images will be placed on the relevant page(s) and/or template(s) is determined solely by which of them receive the most support votes.

Once consensus is reached on a given infobox image, that image shall remain the article's main infobox image for a minimum of six months. This means that a renewed vote to change the infobox image may not take place for six months post-consensus unless a brand-new image has been released in official source material. In this circumstance, a brand-new image may replace the consensus infobox image without the need for a renewed vote if there is no contention to the change, which will effectively render the original consensus decision moot.

Renewed votes to change an article's infobox image that was previously approved through consensus are not subject to this policy's voter-participation clause, as defined above.

Animation and video consensus votes

Animations and videos may be uploaded for use onmain namespace pages, with aConsensus track vote started within 24 hours of the upload for the community to decide whether the file should be allowed to be kept on article(s). Animations and videos used on main namespace pages without a Consensus track vote after 24 hours will bedeleted.

Plurality votes

In certain instances, a simple majority vote, or plurality vote, may be held in conjunction with another Consensus vote. This is typically done when a given issue has already reached consensus but still requires further procedural clarification for minor issues such as formatting or titling. These votes are required to state that the result of the plurality vote will only be valid if the main vote it is tied to also reaches consensus. It must also make clear to voters that the vote in question is a "plurality vote" either by linking to the Consensus policy and stating it will be decided by a "plurality vote," or otherwise explaining that its result will be decided by a simple majority. These votes are still subject to the consensus policy's ten-voter minimum.

See also

• Wookieepedia:Mofferences/March 6, 2016
• Wookieepedia:Mofferences/May 25, 2019
• Wookieepedia:Mofferences/July 25, 2020
• Wookieepedia:Mofferences/November 7, 2020
• Forum:CT:Revising the WP:CON Overturning Clause
• Forum:CT:Refining WP:CON
• Forum:CT:Image vote tie-defaults and template
• Forum:CT:CON plurality clauses (subvotes)
• Forum:CT:CON tweaks/Vote notice templates