Forum:Amendment to voting policies

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In light of a few recent issues regarding votes on The Sims Wiki, I would like to propose the following changes to The Sims Wiki:Policy/Participation Policies.

1. Rename the page to The Sims Wiki:Voting policy for sake of clarity.
2. Eliminate the standard voting format listed in the policy.
3. Remove the administrators/bureaucrats-only limitation on initiating votes.
4. Eliminate the strict two-week duration on wiki votes, replacing it with a five day minimum vote duration.
5. Prohibit the use of the Poll feature in official voting.
6. Clarify and organize the page.

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I've written up some draft language for the policy with amendments included, as well as some polishing and reorganization of the policy itself. You can see the draft version here.

What do you think? -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 18:00, October 2, 2014 (UTC)

Explanation of reasons

This is a point-by-point list of the proposed changes. If you're curious as to why I'm proposing these points, read this section. Otherwise, feel free to skip it and go into the discussion below.

1. The current name doesn't make it clear what the policy is for. Naming the page "Voting policy" makes it pretty unambiguous what the policy is about.
2. The vote format as is currently written works only on certain methods of voting and to resolve certain questions. However, there are different and sometimes more effective ways of managing a vote, so having a formal procedure limits flexibility on a case-by-case basis.
3. Making vote initiation admin-only creates a divide between admins and regular non-admins. As we have been pushing recently to close this gap, it only makes sense to do so here as well. Additionally, there are many trusted non-administrators who are more than capable of starting votes but are currently limited by the admins-only policy on the books.
4. Two weeks in the terms of a wiki is a very long time. And while the idea of instituting the 2 week minimum was to ensure that all viewpoints are heard, a fourteen day vote can sometimes border on the insanely long, especially if everyone interested in the vote voted within the first couple days. The five day minimum was chosen because that's the minimum discussion length on an RfA and RfB. This rule doesn't stop someone from making a vote with a longer duration, if they so choose.
5. The Poll feature is especially vulnerable to tampering, does not allow users to give their justifications for/against an option, and allows non-registered users to vote (which is specifically disallowed in current policy). This is also a codification of current practices, since polls have never been treated as official methods to vote in my entire time on the wiki.
6. Miscellaneous changes to make sure the policy itself makes sense.

-- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 18:30, October 2, 2014 (UTC)

Discussion

This proposal is fairly understandable and certainly makes the voting area of the wiki a lot simpler. It's a good thing that non-admin users are allowed to start a vote as it is fairer. I support this amendment and hope the community does so too. Beds ^{(talk - blog)} 18:39, October 2, 2014 (UTC)

Support Votes are mostly used to decide on stuff that consensus has failed to resolve, or for stuff that really can't be decided by consensus (like the wiki theme, as LiR ranted about on #wikia-sims). Thus reforming our voting policy will push us to be more prepared when situations like this happen in the future. --I am k6ka ^{Talk to me!} _{See what I have done} 19:44, October 2, 2014 (UTC)

Oppose The 5 day vote duration is too long and using polls is still a viable method to gain consenus. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 20:25, October 2, 2014 (UTC)

What length of time would you suggest? And, if polling is a viable method, how do you prevent poll tampering, especially considering you can't see who is voting (thus you can't see who is tampering)? -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 06:12, October 4, 2014 (UTC)

I support this amendment. It appears that the current policy we have has some flaws, especially regarding to the issue where only admins may start a voting procedure. It should be noted that although regular users can start a vote, admins should still moderate it so that the procedure is not overused. Do the voting requirements remain unaffected? Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 08:08, October 5, 2014 (UTC)

In my draft version of the policy, at least, the requirements are folded into the rest of the policy. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 08:11, October 5, 2014 (UTC)