Forum:Reform of wiki policies

Proposal
On March 28, 2008, The Sims Wiki community enacted a set of rules governing basic behavior and editing on The Sims Wiki. Believe it or not, these same rules exist almost completely unaltered, and we continue to follow them now, at least in theory. Since 2008, several additions, separate policies and operating principles have been tacked on and added at various times to our policies. In addition, our community has come to accept several guidelines for operating which, depending on the circumstances, both are and are not treated as official wiki rules. The result is a collection of pages, subpages and sections that are labyrinthine and confusing, even to long-time editors and administrators.

The enforcement of these rules falls to administrators who have to determine whether or not existing policy should be ignored in the interests of making common-sense decisions or upholding guidelines. For instance, the wiki's general user policies mandate that certain actions require a definite action on the part of administrators; this concept directly competes with the principle of assuming good faith, meaning the administrator handling the situation must choose between enforcing a community-mandated mandatory punishment, or making a judgment call and possibly giving someone the benefit of the doubt. From the standpoint of a non-administrator, they may edit in good faith but be penalized for breaking a rule that they were not even aware existed, or penalized for overriding guidelines that are then enforced as rules.

The simple fact is, our current framework of wiki rules is severely flawed and needs to be reworked. Multiple proposals have been made in the past to attempt this, but have failed for one reason or another. It is my sincere hope that this time we might finally be able to create a new system that will serve the wiki well.

In-depth
My general idea is to restructure the policies layout and categorization, and replace our outdated general policies.

The centerpiece of the new policies would be a new page - The Sims Wiki:Policies - which would serve as a link between the different kinds of rules we have on the wiki. This page would explain the process for enacting policies and guidelines, and link to all the policies and guidelines and put them into context with each other.

There would be two "branches" of Wiki policy which would stem off of the main Policies page - The Sims Wiki:User Rules and Guidelinesand The Sims Wiki:Content Rules and Guidelines. Both of these branches would be given its own page, detailed as follows:

User Rules and Guidelines
This page would incorporate The Sims Wiki:Proposed user policies as well as rules about participation in voting and discussions on the wiki - information currently contained on the 'Participation Policies' subpage. The goal in this action is to put all the policies relevant to most users in one location. This page would also include other rules that are currently covered under The Sims Wiki:Policy/General Policies, such as a forum policy or a userpage policy.

The page would also include links to current guidelines - Assume Good Faith, Be Bold, and Don't Bite the Newbies. The User Rules and Guidelines page, as well as the aforementioned guidelines, would be categorized as 'User Rules and Guidelines'

Content Rules and Guidelines
This page would serve as a basic explanation of the idea of standards and best practices for articles on the wiki. It should specify that most practices followed on the wiki were not decided through consensus, but in cases of disagreement can be established through consensus. This page could incorporate many of the community decisions listed on the current Guidelines page, such as the decision eliminating Player Stories, for instance.
 * Note - Since this decision (and others) was reached through consensus or vote, it holds the weight of the community behind it and is thus in effect a policy by its own right, even though it is currently listed merely as a guideline.

This page would link to the current content policies - the Image & File Policy, Notability Policy, Spoilers, Unreleased Games Policy, and a consolidated list of Fanon policies. In addition, this page would include a list of guidelines about the wiki and its content, like the Manual of Style, What The Sims Wiki is Not and Five Pillars. All these pages would collectively be categorized as 'Content rules and guidelines'.

Enactment
I envision a multi-step approach to this revision, since it would be sizable. First, I suggest that we discuss the merits of this proposal, revise the overall plan laid out above (as necessary), and ultimately reach a consensus on whether a change should be pursued. Assuming that the community indicates it should occur, we could begin making the necessary changes as outlined in the plan we ultimately devise. The User Rules & Guidelines and Content Rules & Guidelines pages will have to be drafted. This process, I think, can largely be undertaken without needing to get every piece of language approved individually. During this time, we keep the current Policies in place and in the structure as exists now. However, once the new framework is set up, we return to a final discussion and ultimately consensus on adopting the whole framework, thus putting all new policies into force simultaneously, while scrapping the old framework. Assuming this passes, we then clean up - change navigation templates, delete old categories, etc.

Conclusion
In closing, I would like to emphasize that this revision is important for everyone who utilizes The Sims Wiki. Having updated and clear policies will allow administrators to more effectively address issues on the wiki, allow editors to understand what is and isn't allowed, and ultimately lead to a stronger community and better wiki. I strongly encourage an active discussion of this proposal, and am open to any and all suggestions for revision. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 01:17, January 26, 2014 (UTC)

Initial discussion
Yeah this seems like exactly what we need (and exactly what we've been trying to get for a while). Nothing currently comes to mind for amendments. So yeah, I have no complaints here. 00:49, January 27, 2014 (UTC)
 * Policies aren't written in stone. They can change and evolve over time. So I have no objections to this. K6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 13:39, January 27, 2014 (UTC)
 * Don't really see any problems with this and I've read it a fair few times. New policies will surely bring new life to the community, so I'm all for that. Beds (parlare - da leggere ) 17:03, January 27, 2014 (UTC)

K6ka, I think it's important to remember that Wikipedia and TSW do differ in some ways. Rules on Wikipedia are few and far between (the only ones that come to mind have to do with legal issues - copyright, biographies on living people, etc). Because of the nature of this community and Wikia, there are a fair few more rules here, and it's harder to "ignore all rules". That means the rules we do have need to be clearly-defined and approved by the community. All the rules outlined on The Sims Wiki:Policy/General Policies and the individual policy pages (Image and File, Notability, et al) were at one time or another agreed to by the community.

Writing the rules down and sending them through an approval process isn't as flexible as simply letting the policies evolve over time, or writing policies to conform to current practices - that's where our guidelines come in. Our guidelines (e.g. AGF) reflect established principles, which can change over time. They don't require a definitive decision by the community, they only require that the community continue to support the concepts behind the guidelines. On the whole, this proposal is meant to clarify what is an "absolute" policy - one that can't be ignored and needs explicit community approval to change, and what is a "flexible" guideline - one that need not be precisely defined and which can be adapted or ignored based on the situation. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 18:48, January 27, 2014 (UTC)

To me, this looks like a really good plan to start changing the current policies. When I first started editing on the wiki, I definitely found all the policy pages and links confusing, and even now I can have some trouble locating a specific page. LiR, I really like the setup that you described for the new page and subpages and I also admire your passion and detail in your proposal. I am all for this reform! ~ Waikikamukow  ( Anyone wanna chat? )  06:07, February 1, 2014 (UTC)

Implementation of this discussion
I have created the Policy Project to oversee this reform. The purpose of that page is to allow multiple users to work on these reforms, and to get community involvement in the changes before an eventual proposal to adopt them before the whole community. If you are so inclined, please join the project and help out! --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:51, February 6, 2014 (UTC)