SmashWiki:Consensus

This page documents an official SmashWiki policy, a widely accepted standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page.

SmashWiki is a community effort, and as such, large changes that take place on the wiki should be determined by our editors in a consensus-based voting structure. Without consensus, such projects would be molded from the ideas of only one or two editors.

What is considered a consensus?

A consensus is an agreement between the majority of a party (in this case, our editors) that permits an action to take place. In SmashWiki's case, however, consensus is not purely determined via vote count. Instead, the dispute should be evaluated in an unbiased fashion to determine which "side" of the debate has the strongest arguments.

Some disputes may require a stronger consensus than others. Requests for adminship, for instance, will require a much more in-depth consensus than a simple article move would. Such disputes will also most likely be left open to vote for longer, as to be absolutely sure that everyone has had their say in the most important matters concerning this site.

Consensus on a given decision does not mean the decision is irreversible. If the feelings of the wiki's editors as a whole on a given decision change a reasonable amount of time after consensus has been reached, another discussion may be held to revert or modify the changes.

What happens when a consensus cannot be reached?

If it appears that neither side of a debate can agree or compromise with the other, and their arguments are evaluated at about the same strength, the debate is declared "no quorum" and the subject of the debate fails to pass. Beginning a new or similar debate shortly after this occurs, especially if no change in the situation has been made, is generally discouraged, unless a new argument can be presented.

What actions require consensus?

The following actions always require consensus:

• Expanding or contracting the wiki's general scope
• Making or repealing policies
• Making major or potentially controversial updates, amendments, or changes to existing policies
• Obtaining adminship or bureaucratship

These actions generally require consensus, but exceptions do exist:

• Merging or splitting articles
• Moving or deleting articles
• Major style changes, especially in templates and MediaWiki
• Removing large chunks of information
• Mass editing multiple articles with similar edits
• Complex reorganizing of articles, especially when information is to be removed

These actions generally do not require consensus in most cases, unless the action is directly disputed by another user:

• Removing falsehoods, spelling and grammar corrections, manual of style corrections, etc.
• Removing irrelevant or out-of-scope information
• Adding in-scope information or creating new in-scope articles
• Basic article layout and style changes