PathfinderWiki:Policies and guidelines
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This page is an official policy on the PathfinderWiki. In accordance with policy, this page has been protected. You can suggest changes by following the revision procedure or discussing it on the talk page. |
PathfinderWiki operates under a series of policies and guidelines intended to maintain focus, encourage efficiency, and promote project-wide consistency. All members of the editing community are invited and encouraged to participate in discussions regarding policy creation, revision, implementation, and enforcement. These policies exist so that all chroniclers can easily reference touchstones of the project and ensure that we are all working toward the same goal and acting in good faith.
List of policies
- See also: Category:Policies
List of guidelines
- See also: Category:Guidelines
Revising policies
Changes in PathfinderWiki policy are decided by consensus of those who decide to take part in the discussion. However, in situations where such agreement can't be reached it falls to the Admins to decide among themselves the course of action that will be best for the project. If the Admins cannot come to a consensus, a vote among them should serve to decide the issue.
Any case of revising a current policy or proposing a new policy should be discussed at least two weeks before any decision is made in order to allow anyone who might have something to say on the matter the opportunity to do so. As a fairly casual project, it's important to remember that even our best contributors will, occasionally, take a break for several days to several weeks at a time. They should have as much an opportunity as any to provide input on such matters, but we also need to try and handle such matters as quickly as possible; unless the topic is still being actively discussed, two weeks should be long enough to come to a conclusion. At the end of two weeks, it is an Admin's discretion whether a discussion should be ended and changes implemented based on consensus or whether the discussion should continue among active Admins.
Proposing a new policy
- Anyone can propose new policies, regardless of how long they've been part of the project or how active they've been.
- Each proposed new policy should have its own article. The article's title should take the form PathfinderWiki Proposal:Proposal Title, and must include the {{Proposal}} template in its body followed by the idea itself. If the proposal is accepted as Policy, the template can be changed to the {{Policy}} template, and the article itself finalized and renamed to reflect existing policy articles.
- Any discussion regarding the proposal should take place on the article's Talk Page, as with proposed revisions to existing policies (see below). Sub-pages can be utilized to archive discussions should the prove too lengthy in the long run.
- Proposed new policies can be enacted in the project immediately, so long as they don't impact any policy that has already been put in place and provided their implementation is documented in the proposal's Talk Page. As long as all instances are noted, it should be a small matter for the Admins to clean up anything that needs tidying and putting such a proposal into practice is a good way to provide support for and/or against such a proposal.
Revisions to existing policies
- Anyone can recommend a revision to an existing policy, regardless of their tenure on the project or level of activity.
- Each policy should have its own article, and that article should be locked upon the policy's implementation. To recommend a change to an existing policy article, one would start a new section heading on the article's Talk Page, followed immediately by the {{Change policy}} template and the proposed revision. This not only creates a space to discuss the proposal, but will add the article to the category Policies with suggested changes. Once a decision regarding the proposal is made, the template would be removed but the discussion kept for future reference or continued discussion.
- All discussion about a proposal should be limited on the specific article's Talk Page, and anything discussed elsewhere should be moved. If such discussions cause the Talk Page to become too lengthy, we can use archival subpages to alleviate the text, but it is vitally important that all such discussion be kept with the policy itself.
- Changes to existing policies should not be implemented until a decision is reached.
- Once a decision is reached, the {{Change policy}} template on the talk page should be changed to {{Change policy|accepted}} or {{Change policy|rejected}} depending on the outcome of the discussion.