Proposals can be new features, the removal of previously-added features that have tired out, or new policies that must be approved via consensus before any action is taken.
Voting periods last for two weeks, but can close early or be extended (see below).
Any autoconfirmed user can support or oppose, but must have a strong reason for doing so.
All proposals must be approved by a majority of voters, including proposals with more than two options.
If you would like to get feedback on an idea before formally proposing it here, you may do so on the proposals talk. For talk page proposals, you can discuss the changes on the talk page itself before creating the TPP there.
If someone has an idea about improving the wiki or managing its community, but feel that they need community approval before acting upon that idea, they may make a proposal about it. They must have a strong argument supporting their idea and be willing to discuss it in detail with other users, who will then vote on whether or not they think the idea should be implemented. Proposals should include links to all relevant pages and writing guidelines. Proposals must include a link to the draft page. Any pages that would be largely affected by the proposal should be marked with {{proposal notice}}.
Rules
Only autoconfirmed users may create or vote on proposals. Anyone is free to comment on proposals (provided that the page's protection level allows them to edit).
Proposals conclude at the end of the day (23:59) two weeks after voting starts (all times GMT).
For example, if a proposal is added at any time on Monday, August 1, 2011, the voting starts immediately and the deadline is two weeks later on Monday, August 15, at 23:59 GMT.
Users may vote for more than one option, but they may not vote for every option available.
Every vote should have a strong, sensible reason accompanying it. Agreeing with a previously mentioned reason given by another user is acceptable (including "per" votes), but tangential comments, heavy sarcasm, and other misleading or irrelevant quips are just as invalid as providing no reason at all.
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. Voters can remove or rewrite their own vote(s) at any time, but the final decision to remove another user's vote lies solely with the wiki staff.
Users can also use the comments section to bring up any concerns or mistakes in regards to the proposal itself. In such cases, it's important the proposer addresses any concerns raised as soon as possible. Even if the supporting side might be winning by a wide margin, that should be no reason for such questions to be left unanswered. They may point out any missing details that might have been overlooked by the proposer, so it's a good idea as the proposer to check them frequently to achieve the most accurate outcome possible.
If a user makes a vote and is subsequently blocked for any amount of time, their vote is removed. However, if the block ends before the proposal ends, then the user in question holds the right to re-cast their vote. If a proposer is blocked, their vote is removed and "(blocked)" is added next to their name in the "Proposer:" line of the proposal, which runs until its deadline as normal. If the proposal passes, it falls to the supporters of the idea to enact any changes in a timely manner.
Proposals cannot contradict an already ongoing proposal or overturn the decision of a previous proposal that concluded less than four weeks (28 days) ago.
If one week before a proposal's initial deadline, the first place option is ahead of the second place option by eight or more votes and the first place option has at least 80% approval, then the proposal concludes early. Wiki staff may tag a proposal with "Do not close early" at any time to prevent an early close, if needed.
Tag the proposal with {{early notice}} if it is on track for an early close. Use {{proposal check|early=yes}} to perform the check.
Any proposal where none of the options have at least four votes will be extended for another week. If after three extensions, no options have at least four votes, the proposal will be listed as "NO QUORUM." The original proposer then has the option to relist said proposal to generate more discussion.
If a proposal reaches its deadline and there is a tie for first place, then the proposal is extended for another week.
If a proposal reaches its deadline and the first place option is ahead of the second place option by three or more votes, then the first place option must have over 50% approval to win. If the margin is only one or two votes, then the first place option must have at least 60% approval to win. If the required approval threshold is not met, then the proposal is extended for another week.
Use {{proposal check}} to automate this calculation; see the template page for usage instructions and examples.
Proposals can be extended a maximum of three times. If a consensus has not been reached by the fourth deadline, then the proposal fails and cannot be re-proposed until at least four weeks after the last deadline.
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 an administrator, the proposer can ask for that help.
After a proposal passes, it is added to the appropriate list of "unimplemented proposals" below and is removed once it has been sufficiently implemented.
If the wiki staff deem a proposal unnecessary or potentially detrimental to the upkeep of the Super Mario Wiki, they have the right to cancel it at any time.
Proposals can only be rewritten or canceled by their proposer within the first four days of their creation. However, proposers can request that their proposal be canceled by a staff member at any time, provided they have a valid reason for it. Please note that canceled proposals must also be archived.
Unless there is major disagreement about whether certain content should be included, there should not be proposals about creating, expanding, rewriting, or otherwise fixing up pages. To organize efforts about improving articles on neglected or completely missing subjects, try setting up a collaboration thread on the forums.
Proposals cannot be made about promotions and demotions. Staff changes are discussed internally and handled by the bureaucrats.
No joke proposals. Proposals are serious wiki matters and should be handled professionally. Joke proposals will be deleted on sight.
Proposals must have a status quo option (e.g. Oppose, Do nothing) unless the status quo itself violates policy.
Basic proposal formatting
Copy and paste the formatting below to get started; your username and the proposal deadline will automatically be substituted when you save the page. Update the bracketed variables with actual information, and be sure to replace the whole variable including the square brackets, so "[insert info here]" becomes "This is the inserted information" and not "[This is the inserted information]". Proposals presenting multiple alternative courses of action can have more than two voting options, but the objective(s) of each voting option must be clearly defined. Such options should also be kept to a minimum, and if something comes up in the comments, the proposal can be amended as necessary.
===[insert a title for your proposal here]===
[describe what issue this proposal is about and what changes you think should be made to improve how the wiki handles that issue]
'''Proposer''': {{User|{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}}}<br>
'''Deadline''': {{subst:#time:F j, Y|+2 weeks}}, 23:59 GMT
====[option title (e.g. Support, Option 1)]: [brief summary of option]====
#{{User|{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}}} [make a statement indicating that you support your proposal]
====[option title (e.g. Oppose, Option 2)]: [brief summary of option]====
====Comments ([brief proposal title])====
Autoconfirmed users will now be able to vote on your proposal. Remember that you can vote on your own proposal just like the others.
To vote for an option, just insert #{{User|[your username here]}} 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 another user's proposal. If you are voting on your own proposal, you can simply say "Per proposal".
Talk page proposals
Proposals concerning a single page or a limited group of pages are held on the most relevant talk page regarding the matter. All of the above proposal rules also apply to talk page proposals. Place {{TPP}} under the section's heading, and once the proposal is over, replace the template with {{settled TPP}}. Proposals dealing with a large amount of splits, merges, or deletions across the wiki should still be held on this page.
All active talk page proposals must be listed below in chronological order (new proposals go at the bottom) using {{TPP discuss}}. Include a brief description of the proposal while also mentioning any pages affected by it, a link to the talk page housing the discussion, and the deadline. If the proposal involves a page that is not yet made, use {{fake link}} to communicate its title in the description. Linking to pages not directly involved in the talk page proposal is not recommended, as it clutters the list with unnecessary links.
Currently, there is only one template dedicated to pages that have unsourced information, which is {{refneeded}}. However, this template is meant for tagging singular, specific instances of uncited facts in a page. My proposal is that we create a new notice template to tag articles that, in general, have multiple instances of unsourced information throughout and need citations added to them. The tag would have the tag date added to it with {{refrequest|April 29, 2017}} and could be added to a specific article section with {{refrequest|section=yes}}, similar to {{rewrite}} and {{rewrite-expand}}, and the tag would also add the article to a category, probably Category:Citation Needed. For example, the article on Nintendo literally has absolutely no references/citations in the article at all; rather than adding {{refneeded}} after every single individual unsourced piece of information, it would be much easier to add a notice to the top of the page indicating that the page as a whole is in need of citations. It's worth mentioning that Wikipedia itself has 2 notice templatesjust like this, as well as a refneeded template.
I actually attempted to create this template last night, but it was deleted since it was created without permission. You can see what the notice would look like here.
Baby Luigi (talk) Eh, I don't see the harm in creating this template. Some articles could fine uses for it, specifically the glitch articles where it could list a very specific problem that rewrite template couldn't. Having a template like this can easily tell editors that the article needs better sources at a glance, and while the usage of this template is rather niche it would still serve a purpose. I'd support, because I don't see the downsides of having an extra template for citations.
YoshiFlutterJump (talk)This is a good idea, and is better than repeatedly using the refneeded template. Plus, if Wikipedia has it, so should we.
Yoshi876 (talk) I'm sure no one else will join me, but I really think this is unnecessary. I do agree that pages like Nintendo should have more sources, although mainly just in the history section, but I don't think a garish template at the top of the page is best for an otherwise fine article. Same with the glitch pages, in all honesty I see no issues with the {{refneeded}} being used in relevant areas. Also, should the proposal pass, I massively oppose the creation of a new category for it. It's asking for the exact same thing as Category:Citation needed, just on a more large-scale situation.
Alex95 (talk) Per Yoshi876. I held off on voting for a while, but I really don't see the need for more than one template calling for the same thing. {{refneeded}} asks for a specific source, whereas this would cover the whole page, which I can see getting confusing as it wouldn't be clear exactly what needs to be sourced. And having both templates on the page would just look terrible and be redundant.
Mario4Ever (talk) Per Yoshi876 and Alex95. It's more important to let users know what specifically needs fixed (so they are better able to do it) than it is to let to know that something needs fixing. Doing the latter in this case makes it more difficult to determine whether or not citation issues have been (accurately) addressed down the line without someone poring over and interpreting the citation policy after every potential problem sentence. I would say that if an article requires users to do that, then that article has bigger issues than the source(s) of its information.
Wikipedia has a different policy than us when it comes to creating citations though. We're far more lenient with trusting the userbase on information they have gained from playing video games. The only articles this would be really useful in are articles dealing with real world matters, like reception sections, development, rarely trivia sections, legacy, etc which are very few articles on this wiki. I don't think this template would be as useful as it is in other wikis and having just refneeded actually works (and most of the time when we come across that, we usually just outright delete it if people can't source their claims). Ray Trace(T|C) 14:14, 29 April 2017 (EDT)
For example, Wikipedia does not count YouTube as a reliable source, while we do, as long as the video is relevant to the questioned info. If anything, there could be a "better source needed" tag for sources that don't necessarily prove the into cited. (T|C) 15:04, 29 April 2017 (EDT)
You mean like this? Niiue (talk) 03:50, 1 May 2017 (EDT)
My only concern with an additional template is we already have {{refneeded}} and we could do something more clever with it. Is there any way to put an alert at the top of the page automatically by editing the already existing template? --Wildgoosespeeder (talk) (Stats - Contribs) 18:55, 1 May 2017 (EDT)
@Yoshi876: The point of a "garish" template is to direct editors to the main problem of the article, as being unsourced is clearly not fine. If it is being "garish", it's doing its job exactly as it is intended of informing readers of bad problems. In fact, I think it's even uglier on the flipside to what we're currently doing seeing the {{refneeded}} all over the place in the article (some articles can be mostly devoid of necessary cited sources) instead of all of those issues being congested into one template that does its job of immediately pointing out readers that a good chunk of statements that isn't sourced. It immediately notifies the reader, rather than the less apparent {{refneeded}} template. But this is an argument from an aesthetics point of view, which is, in itself, fallacious; we intentionally designed those templates to be hideous, garish, and ugly in the first place, you can't really fault it when we designed it that way to begin with. Though the new category proposed isn't such a great idea that I pretty much agree with. Ray Trace(T|C) 15:38, 2 May 2017 (EDT)
A lot of our articles are unsourced, as you say we trust editors from what they find in game. Articles like Nintendo and Sega I think should be better sourced, but I don't think a template like that at the top of the page is the correct way to do so, especially since much of the information is likely to come from the same place, so in all honesty I think a {{refneeded}} would suffice rather than a template at the top, especially when not everything is going to need be sourced. I can see the point with glitch pages, but in all honesty I think a better policing system is required, rather than a template. Yoshi876 (talk)
And that's why I said that its purpose is niche, but the niche purpose fills a role that the rewrite template doesn't necessarily cover. A lot of articles on the wiki can benefit from this, and this additionally includes sections where a template like this is necessary, and while it's not a lot of articles and only some sections, it's a purpose that's there (many reception sections, such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's, needs references). For the glitch page, some glitches can be really sworn to be true but the glitch just happened at a bad time and bad place where you couldn't capture it (though I think better glitches are those that can be replicated, sometimes glitches are caused by faults in the CD and we don't count those). Also, you're making assumptions about Nintendo's article. You're saying that it's "likely" that the information in Nintendo's article comes from one source, but that is not necessarily true in cases like these. Some details you read and some links in between events can easily come from multiple sources, try reading any article on Wikipedia, you'll understand what I mean. Ray Trace(T|C) 16:10, 2 May 2017 (EDT)
My main thing with the Nintendo article is that, for me at least, not everything in it needs references. Having editing a fair few Wikipedia articles, and using sources, I am well aware that information can come from multiple sources, but in Nintendo's case what we have, is highly likely that there's a History of Nintendo website out there that can give us the needed reference. I can see the uses of the template, but I don't like the form is takes, perhaps something like {{redirectshere}} would be better. That way it draws attention to the issue, but isn't so in your face about it, because I do trust the majority of our editors, and so I believe the information is valid, but could be improved by being backed up; and it's not necessarily as bad as a poorly written article, or one that lacks images. Yoshi876 (talk)
Nintendo's article is only an example. What about the other company articles, or the people articles? Or development sections? Also, you're also making more assumptions: considering Nintendo is a huge, well-known company, many articles have been written about its history, Wikipedia's take on it dismantles your argument about a single website covering Nintendo's history. In my opinion, having no sources is just as bad as a poorly written article: if the poorly written article is correctly sourced with good information, we can believe it. However, with a well-written article with dubious sources, it's misinformation, and misinformation is arguably worse than no information. I also don't like the template being {{redirectshere}}, it's far, far too subtle when dealing with a clear, pronounced error with the article. Ray Trace(T|C) 16:35, 2 May 2017 (EDT)
Removals
None at the moment.
Changes
Create Template:Pmitem-infobox
I've noticed that pages for Paper Mario series items don't really have a consistent format, usually having either Template:Item-infobox or Template:Recipe-Infobox. The problem is, neither template works very well, especially in terms of documenting the items' descriptions between games (the item infobox looks bad with multiple descriptions stacked on each other, and the recipe infobox doesn't even have a description field). Because of that, I propose that we create a new infobox for Paper Mario items, that way it's easier to document series-specific info in a convenient way.
Here's the current draft in my sandbox, which is mostly incomplete at the moment.
Proposer: Niiue (talk) Deadline: May 04, 2017, 23:59 GMT
Yoshi the Space Station Manager (talk) Sure, but we would have to get rid of recipe-info box because it repeats everything already mentioned, while what is proposed will bring new info as well. I also like the proposed name better than the recipe one.
Baby Luigi (talk) Sounds like a good idea to me. Per proposal.
TheFlameChomp (talk) Per all. Would the Template:Recipe-Infobox be necessary anymore? All of the pages it is used on are Paper Mario items, and the new infobox would repeat certain information.
Toadette the Achiever (talk) That definitely sounds fine to me. I also agree that Template:Recipe-Infobox would no longer be needed should this proposal pass. However, I wonder if we can do the same to the Mario & Luigi series, since the items listed are also in need of an infobox. Nonetheless, it's a good idea, and I see no reason to oppose in the long run.
Alex95 (talk) I don't know why we don't have this already. Per all.
I think it should really be called Template:Fakelink, since I don't see why this can't include the Mario & Luigi series as well. (T|C) 20:28, 28 April 2017 (EDT)
I plan to make it easier to implement series-specific sections if necessary, though. Niiue (talk) 23:22, 28 April 2017 (EDT)
@Wildgoosespeeder: I wouldn't worry about that too much at the moment, considering that the Stickers/Battle Cards don't currently have their own pages. Niiue (talk) 23:23, 28 April 2017 (EDT)
@Niiue: Perhaps then it would be better to create Template:Fakelink as well...? Maybe both could be created, but then I think they would have to match the respective color schemes for navigation templates. (T|C) 11:14, 29 April 2017 (EDT)
Sounds good. Niiue (talk) 16:16, 29 April 2017 (EDT)
Ray Trace(T|C) 14:14, 29 April 2017 (EDT)
(T|C) 15:04, 29 April 2017 (EDT)
Ray Trace(T|C) 16:10, 2 May 2017 (EDT)
