Wikipedia:Policy/Procedure

(This was a proposed addition to the policy page Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines. Its main points have now been incorporated into that policy.)

Proposing guidelines and policies

Essays and how-to pages may be marked as such by any editor. Guidelines and policies, however, should be presented to the community for review and feedback.

Proposing a guideline or policy

1. Add the {{Proposed}} template to the top of your page.
2. Leave a message on its talk page that explains whether you are proposing this as a guideline or as a policy and why you think it should be adopted as a guideline (instead of an essay) or a policy (instead of an essay or a guideline). Try to identify the subcategory of guideline or policy (see {{subcat guideline}}).
3. Inform relevant groups of editors that may be interested. It may be helpful to list in the discussion all of the groups that you informed of the proposal.
   • Based on content area: If your proposal affects a specific content area, then related WikiProjects can be found at the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. For example, proposed style guidelines should be announced to Wikipedia:WikiProject Manual of Style.
   • Based on parent policies and guidelines: If your proposal relates to an existing policy or guideline, leave a note on the talk page of the related policy or guideline. For example, proposed style guidelines should be announced at Wikipedia:Manual of Style.
   • Central notification: Announce your proposal at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy).
4. Place the {{RFCpolicy}} template at the top of the talk page's discussion to further publicize your proposal.

Please leave the discussion open for at least one week.

Responding to a proposal

• Leave a message in the designated section of the talk page. Many editors begin their response with a statement like Support guideline status, Oppose policy status, or Comment for the convenience of the person evaluating the responses. Be sure to sign your response.
• Voting is not a substitute for discussion. Please explain your thoughts, ask your questions, and raise your concerns. All views are welcome.

Evaluating the consensus

Ending a discussion requires careful evaluation of the responses to determine the consensus. This does not require the intervention of an administrator, but may be done by any independent editor (i.e., not the primary authors, the editors proposing the guideline/policy status, or the editors strongly defending the proposal during the community discussion). For practical reasons, this editor will need to be familiar with all of the policies and guidelines that relate to the proposal.

• Consider the community response:
  • Consensus for guidelines and policies should be reasonably strong, but unanimity is not required.
  • Consider the number of respondents. If all of the responses are from the people that wrote the proposal, then please wait until more people have had the opportunity to respond. Consider publicizing the proposal in additional forums.
  • Does the community generally believe that Wikipedia is better off with, or without, the proposed guideline or policy? What status for this page will best contribute to the main goal of writing an encyclopedia?
• Consider the strength of the proposed page:
  • Have important concerns raised during the community discussion been addressed? Perfection is not required, and minor points may be addressed at a later date.
  • Does the proposed page contradict any existing guidelines or policies? If so, it should not be promoted to guideline or policy status. Consider leaving a note about the proposal on the talk page of any guideline or policy it contradicts.
  • Does this need to be a separate guideline or policy? Too many fragmented guideline pages are hard to maintain and make it hard for readers to find the guidance they are looking for. Consider whether the new proposed guideline or policy could be merged with an existing one.
  • Is the proposed guideline or policy, or parts of it, redundant with existing guidelines and policies? If so, it's better to link to the appropriate part of existing pages, or (if a link with a very brief description is not appropriate) to transclude common text into all pages.

Discussion may be closed as either Promote, No consensus, or Failed. Please leave a short note about the conclusion that you came to. Update the proposal to reflect the consensus. Remove the {{Proposed}} template and replace it with another appropriate template, such as {{Subcat guideline}}, {{Policy}}, {{Essay}}, {{Wikipedia how to}}, or {{Failed}}.

Disputing guideline or policy status

On occasion, Wikipedia's need for any given guideline or policy may change. An accepted document may become obsolete because of changes in editorial practice or common standards. It may become redundant because of improvements to other pages. It may represent unwarranted instruction creep.

The process for demoting a guideline or policy should normally be similar to the process for promoting a page: Add the {{disputedtag}} to the top of the page, start a discussion on the talk page outlining the reasons for the proposed demotion, and solicit community input. After allowing a reasonable amount of time for comments, an independent editor should close the discussion and evaluate the consensus.

When only one section is disputed, the normal process is to begin a discussion about improvements on the talk page. If wider input is wanted, {{disputedtag|section=yes}} can be used to mark the section.

Overuse of such tags is considered disruptive. This tag is not a badge of shame and may not be used as such. It will be removed if there is no active discussion underway, if it appears to be an effort by a dissatisfied editor to override recent decisions, or if it appears that the outcome favors retaining the policy, guideline, or section.

If a page was assigned guideline or policy status without seeking wider community input, and you believe that its current status would not be supported, then you can use the proposal process outlined above as an alternative to disputing it.

Changes to existing policies and guidelines

Minor edits to existing pages, such as formatting changes, grammatical improvement and uncontentious clarification, may be made by any editor at any time. However changes which would alter the substance of policy or guidelines should normally be announced on the appropriate talk page first. The change may be implemented if no objection is made to it or if discussion shows that there is consensus for the change. Major changes should also be publicized to the community in general; announcements similar to the proposal process may be appropriate.

The stability of major policies and guidelines is important to editors involved in the Wikipedia:Featured articles process and other areas of editing. Edit warring is particularly deprecated in this area. Bold editors of policy and guidelines pages are strongly encouraged to follow WP:1RR or WP:0RR standards. If your changes are removed, please make no further changes until the issue has been appropriately discussed on the talk page.