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)

It has been over a week since anyone has commented here. Auror above mentioned concerns with the proposal, so I'd like to know if others share her concerns. Remember that this is a collaborative process, so if there's something you don't like about the proposal, suggest a change. I'd rather compromise in order to pass needed changes, than stand on principle and oppose all changes to my proposal. As well, I'd rather people recommend changes or accept compromises in the proposal, rather than vote it down because it contains a few elements out of the whole that they don't like. Being biased, I think the proposal is ideal as written, but I'm open to compromise and change, as long as others are open to compromise as well.

Let's work this out. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 17:49, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

Here are my current opinions as to which users should be allowed to start votes in addition to admins.

• Rollbackers - Support
• Regular autoconfirmed users - Weak support (leaning towards neutral)
• Unregistered users - Oppose

Here are my current opinions as to which users should be allowed to vote once the voting has started. Any user groups that aren't listed below have my full support.

• Unregistered users - Neutral (leaning towards weak support)

-- C.Syde (talk | contribs) 07:10, October 15, 2014 (UTC)

The current policy says that you have to be registered and have at least one edit on the wiki before voting; the amendment I've proposed doesn't change that. I personally feel that unregistered users should not be allowed to vote. As for creating a vote... I would personally say that the requirement for creating a vote and participating in a vote should be the same. My proposed version, for instance, states that the requirements for voting and starting a vote are the same.

Again, that's just my personal take on this. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 07:17, October 15, 2014 (UTC)

That works for me. -- C.Syde (talk | contribs) 07:21, October 15, 2014 (UTC)