Forum:Voting Policy - final draft

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Contents
Overview Voting Policy - final draft Draft Discussion Voting for ratification

Overview

Prompted by a request from WikiManager TimeShade, this discussion is part of the Harry Potter Wiki's Policy Review and will help shape how the community governs itself in the years to come.

Based on the votes held for Forum:Voting Policy proposed changes, a new draft of the Harry Potter Wiki:Voting policy has been completed that integrates the text of the original Voting Policy with the voted for updated. For clarity, I have modified a few lines:

The introductory paragraph has been simplified
As mentioned, language has been added that for site-wide changes that affect both the Wiki and Discussions Communities either of the minimal contributions in each area qualify a user for voting.
Added that a vote is required to override a previous vote on a matter, not just new discussion
Clarification on how ineligible votes are handled
Parenthetical comments have been changed to inline text
Example has been changed to reflect to use of For and Against sections which will be part of the Vote template.

Please review this draft for completeness and clarity. While minor changes can be made to facilitate those goals, no change to the substance of the policy can made. Once the draft has been reviewed and any improvements to the wording completed, a site-wide Announcement will be made and a vote completed for its adoption or rejection.

Voting Policy - final draft

In the absence of unanimous consensus, proposed changes to individual articles, nominations for additional permissions, and suggested modifications to community-wide policy are determined by a vote, as mediated by one or more Administrators.

When an issue is settled by this method, attempts by any individual to counteract or violate these decisions without community consensus, as determined by a renewed discussion of the issue and a vote with participation equal to or greater than the original discussion, will be considered vandalism/disruptive editing under the blocking policy.

Votes related to article changes will be held on their respective Talk Pages. Votes related to site-wide policy changes will be held at Forum:The Wizengamot and votes related to granting wiki-related User Permissions will be held at Harry Potter Wiki:Requests for permissions. Votes related to Discussions issues will be held in Discussions, but linked to in either the Forum or Requests for Permissions as needed for tracking and archiving purposes.

User eligibility for Voting

A user's first contribution, either Wiki edit or Discussions post, must be at least 1 month prior to their vote being cast.
For Wiki-only-related topics, users must have at least 50 edits, counted across the Main article, File, Template, and Category namespaces, to be eligible to vote.
For Discussions-only-related topics, only autoconfirmed registered users with more than 20 Discussions posts may participate in voting.
For site-wide changes, including changes to general Policies and nominations for Administrators, users with either the minimum Wiki or Discussions contributions are eligible to vote.
Users returning from a block on their account are not immediately eligible to make new proposals or nominations or participate in any votes. They regain their ability to participate in these activities 1 month from the expiration of their block.
Votes cast by ineligible users will be stricken and not tallied by the Administrator mediating the vote.

Voting

Users can make a proposal and formally announce it to Administration via Harry Potter Wiki:Requests for administrator attention. Up to 7 days of discussion will then follow. An Administrator can open a vote at any point during these 7 days, or at the end of the 7 days can state their reasons for not opening a vote. Other Administrators can then take up the issue should they choose.
At the time of announcing a proposal to Administration or the opening of a vote, a user may request attention be drawn toward the proposal via Community lists, Announcements, and other related tools.
If no discussion happens during the 7 day discussion period with attempts made to draw attention to the proposal, then the proposal is considered closed, but can be resubmitted after 1 month.
The {{Vote}} template is used to officially open a vote, and will display which Administrator opened it, the opening date, the closing date, and the relevant voting subsections.
The Administrator who has begun a process may not partake in the voting directly.
A vote is to remain open for at least 7 days and expires at the same time as it opened after the full 7 days have passed, unless Extended or Closed Early in accordance with those provisions.
Users should vote by declaring whether they are For or Against the topic at hand (and by signing with four tildes (~~~~ for votes held in the Wiki). A comment can also be added if a user wishes.
The Administrator who opened a vote can extend its duration by 7 days should more time be needed to handle ongoing and unresolved discussions.
7 votes need to be cast for a vote to be a valid measure of Community consensus. Any vote without at least 7 votes cast by its closing date will be closed with no changes taking place.
If a dispute concerning a proposal occurs after the vote is started and it cannot be solved, a vote can be shut down by the Administrator who opened it. The user has a 7 day period to petition for a new Administrator to open a new vote. The first Administrator cannot be involved in opening and closing the new vote. If another Administrator does not open a vote, the matter is considered closed and the petitioning user has to wait 1 month to resubmit their proposal. It would be encouraged that any concerns raised during the vote try and be improved upon during that period.
If a vote has +7 in support it may be closed early by an Administrator as long as at least 7 days have passed from the proposal's original announcement to Administration.
The Administrator who opened a vote must formally close, tally, and archive the vote.
Any proposal for which a vote is completed, but which does not pass, must wait 1 month from the closing of the vote before being resubmitted.
These rules can be modified for particular processes that have their own voting policy, such as Featured articles and Requests for permissions.

Tallying

Votes are tallied using a +/- system: voting For something adds one to the total, voting Against something subtracts one from the total.
A majority opinion is considered when there is a clear +3 votes for a particular opinion.
In situations where there are more than 2 options, a vote for an option is a positive one, and a vote for any other option is a negative one for all other options.
If there is no clear majority opinion the topic will be closed with no changes taking place.
- If there are more than 2 options being voted on and no majority is reached, the option(s) with the lowest number of votes will be removed and voting will be reopened.

Example Topic (+2)

For (+3)

-- User1 00:00, 1 January 1970 (UTC)
-- User3 00:00, 3 January 1970 (UTC)
Some comment. -- User4 00:00, 4 January 1970 (UTC)

Against (+1)

Other comment. -- User2 00:00, 2 January 1970 (UTC)

Definitions

Administrator: A user in either the Harry Potter Wiki:Administrators or Harry Potter Wiki:Bureaucrats groups.
One Month: Defined by the date so 15 February is 1 month from 15 March, as 15 July is to 15 August, regardless of the number of days in any given month.
Proposal: Any formal suggestion for a change to an article, Policy, or User Rights.
Nomination: A proposal to grant a user additional rights.
Discussion: A conversation held by multiple users regarding the proposal which officially begins when a second user replies to the initial proposal.
Vote: A formal poll taken to determine community consensus as mediated by Administrators.

Draft Discussion

Please review to make sure all the voted-for proposals are included and that the policy is clear and understandable. Thanks! --Ironyak1 (talk) 23:46, August 11, 2020 (UTC)

Maybe we could add the definitions in bullets and with bold. Also when does the discussion start, is also important to note. Any user other than the nominee/or the one making a proposal makes a comment on the nomination/proposal regarding it, marks the beginning of the discussions. -- latest?cb=20200717054417

Reverb frost 11:57, August 18, 2020 (UTC)

Bullets help; however this with bold as well seems overly strong compared to the rest of the text. I've added some minor wording to the definitions to help make them clearer. Thanks for the feedback! --Ironyak1 (talk) 20:22, August 18, 2020 (UTC)

I was suggesting we make the words bold, not the entire text. But either works. Bullets is an improvement! -- latest?cb=20200717054417

Reverb frost 05:18, August 19, 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I see there were some good discussions made. Though these were voted in, I have a little concern over a couple of the eligibility requirements:

Users returning from a block on their account are not immediately eligible to make new proposals or nominations or participate in any votes. They regain their ability to participate in these activities 1 month from the expiration of their block.

Though a user had been blocked, they should be given a fair chance to voice their opinion if their block had been expired, as they are still a member of the community. Unless the user is disruptive during a vote, their opinions shouldn't be invalidated.

—TIMESHADE |Talk/Wall| - |C| 22:54, August 18, 2020 (UTC)

Hi TimeShade - so that proposal was raised on Forum:Voting Policy proposed changes a couple weeks ago, based on Wookieepedia's realted policy that was enacted 6+ years ago, but then modified based on local user input, and voted For the community by a tally of 5 to 0. As this is now the final vote that's already commenced, it's a little late, and contrary to the established community consensus, to try and change just that part of the draft. It of course can be brought up as part of amending or adjusting the policy some time after this vote has concluded should there be enough community interest.

While users returning from a block cannot immediately participate in votes, they still can participate in the related discussions so they still have a a fair chance to voice their opinions and have them validated, the same as any user, regardless of voting eligibility. This appears to be a fair balance IMO, but again can be revisited as needed in the future should the community feel otherwise. Cheers --Ironyak1 (talk) 00:49, August 19, 2020 (UTC)

Voting for ratification

In order to adopt this draft as the new Voting Policy, a vote will now take place.

Ironyak1 will administrate this vote. It will remain open for 7 full days and then be closed and tallied.

The current Harry Potter Wiki:Voting policy applies with the clarification that as these potential changes to Policy affect all users of the site, autoconfirmed registered users with either 20 article edits OR 20 Discussions posts are eligible to vote. If a majority of at least +3 votes is in support at the closure of the vote, this draft will replace the current Voting Policy.

User should sign under For or Against the adoption of this policy with four tildes (~~~~). A comment can also be included with any vote if a user wishes.

If there are any questions, please post them in the Draft Discussion area above. Thanks --Ironyak1 (talk) 20:50, August 18, 2020 (UTC)

The following discussion is an archived discussion. Please do not modify it.

New Voting Policy ratified and adopted (+8) --Ironyak1 (talk) 21:51, August 25, 2020 (UTC)

Ratification and adoption of this Voting Policy - final draft

For (+8)

~~>Ali - “ It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that..” 21:02, August 18, 2020 (UTC)~~ (Insufficient edits or posts to vote)
-- Reverb frost 05:15, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
-- Harrypotterexpert101 Talk 05:26, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
- Kates39 (talk) 11:31, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
MrSiriusBlack Talk 12:01, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
MechQueste 12:18, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
Newt Strike Talk Contribs 15:57, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
--Dragonfly2178 (talk) 20:26, August 19, 2020 (UTC)
Sam Hermione(It's me Sam_Hermione!) 04:16, August 25, 2020 (UTC)

Against (+0)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.