WiKirby:Policy referendum

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Greetings, fellow Kirbites!

As many of you are doubtless aware, WiKirby is an old site, and many of its rules and policies were written back the early days, when the old staff were still operating. Over the course of time, as the wiki grew haphazardly, then fell into stagnation for a few years, many updates were made to the policy, some of these contradicted other policies, and many more were simply ignored in favor of unwritten mos maiorum (that's an old Roman term for unwritten rules of conduct, btw). Today, the old staff is largely gone, and the lot of you have seen fit to appoint me as your new Editor-in-Chief (thanks for that, btw. It really means a lot!) I believe that now is the time to look over the old policy pages and see what should and should not be kept, and what new policies should be written. To that end, I would like to obtain some input from you guys, to see if you have any ideas on how the wiki's policies should be adjusted.

Now, before we get too crazy, I should make it clear that I do not intend to completely overhaul the rules. Most of what's written already in spirit will be maintained as is, since it's still relevant today. This is more of an attempt to clean up some of the messier bits and to codify a lot of these unwritten norms we have going. I also mainly want to streamline the writing and organization so that it is more intuitive and easier to understand. For reference, you can find all of the current policies from the Help and policies page.

Here's where you guys come in. On the discussion page, I want you to bring up a proposal under a new section and then make your case. Any proposals made will be considered by me, and those I find appropriate will be placed in the section below labeled Proposals to form a list. Discussion and debate on proposals in the talk page are open to all members, and if one particular proposal gets a lot of support, it will be more strongly considered. Keep in mind, however, that this is not a fully democratic procedure, and I will veto any proposal, no matter how popular, if it is deemed unfit by me and/or Tacopill.

So here's your chance to help steer the wiki in a new direction. Is there anything about the current policy that bugs you? Are there any current policies that you really don't want me to change? Let me know in the discussion page! I will keep discussion open until 11:59:59 UTC on Sunday, September 22nd, 2019. See you around! --Fubaka (talk) 08:12, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

A further note on the policy reform

I should make something clear before I proceed with the rewritten policy. Several pages, including the WiKirby:About and WiKirby:Quality Standards pages are going to be completely rewritten (even if most of the information remains the same). It is my plan to archive the original pages so they can be there for reference when the new policy pages are implemented. That way, if anything in the new policy becomes disagreeable to you guys, you will still have the old page to reference for a comparison. That is all. I am going to write the new pages in advance and introduce them on the 22nd. I hope you are looking forward to them! --Fubaka (talk) 14:16, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

Also also, if you guys want a hint as to what the new quality standards page will look like, I will be taking inspiration from Pikipedia's policies and guidelines page in order to improve readability. I might also steal some of their policies, but we'll see. --Fubaka (talk) 14:23, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

Proposals

Allow anonymous users to edit unprotected pages by YoshiFlutterJump - Approved.
Determine a solid naming priority policy by YoshiFlutterJump - Approved, though some details still need to be ironed out.
Adjust how users should write articles on the Kirby Wiki by Owencrazyboy17 - Approved with qualifications.

Current Plans

The following are specific aspects of the policy that will definitely be revised unless enough editors want to keep it as is. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, and will only cover points that are more significant:

Featured content policy - Currently, the rules for appointing featured content stipulate that eight weeks must pass if a nomination does not receive ten supporting votes. The current plan is to adjust these numbers so that only two weeks must pass if a nomination does not receive five supporting votes.
Writing style - Currently, two contradictory policies exist on paper, one encouraging fanciful writing, and another discouraging it. The current plan is to rectify this in favor of fanciful writing while still keeping a concise and professional encyclopedic format. This is a Kirby wiki, after all.
Image policy - Currently, it is required that all images with blank white backgrounds be made transparent and all borders removed. The current plan is to change this policy to allow backgrounds and borders to remain so long as they are preserved from the game or other source and not a result of manipulation by image capturing or editing.
- In addition, policy regarding how to display images on pages will be revised to better reflect current practice.
Citing policy - Currently, there are a set of specific cite templates that are required for use for certain situations, despite the fact that these templates are largely identical to each-other. The current plan is to simplify this system as much as possible, instead focusing on how to properly cite a quote's source in the attribution section using plain text.
Article length policy - Currently, the rules stipulate that articles should be "lengthy", without specifying an appropriate upper limit. The current plan is to set more defined limits on how long an article or section ought to be. This will not be a specific number of bytes, and will vary depending on the subject matter, but the general idea is that if an article can be split up or shortened without creating stubs or otherwise compromising the information, then it should.
Trivia sections - Currently there are no rules regulating trivia sections, apart from where they go and that statements should be bulleted. The current plan is to impose limits on how long these sections can be, in order to encourage more information to be fit into the main body of the article.
Audio policy - Currently there is no policy regarding how audio clips should be handled. The current plan is to write a policy, and specifically stipulate that music clips should be shortened to no longer than 30 seconds length to avoid copyright issues.
RealMe policy - Currently, the rules stipulate that the {{RealMe}} template must be used at all times instead of "the player". This template was meant as a personalization tool for active users, but ultimately only causes confusion, especially when dealing with direct quotes or situations involving more than one player. The current plan is to remove the requirement and purge the template from all content pages, relegating it for use only as a novelty on user pages.
Theory policy - Currently, the rules seem to both discourage and encourage theories in articles at the same time. The current plan is to specifically disbar theories from any and all content pages. Instead, only the facts must be presented, and theories should be left for the reader to come up with on their own.
Game name policy - Currently, there are a number of different (and contradictory) policies regarding when and when not to abbreviate the names of games. The current plan is to streamline this standard to one where the full name of games should always be used in main body text, and abbreviations used only in tables and parentheses.
Disambiguation policy - Currently, the rules stipulate that no internal links to disambiguation pages should be made at any point. The current plan is to adjust this to allow links to disambiguation pages to be used in articles if and only if they are used in the {{articleabout}} template or in a "See also" section.
Disputes and edit wars - Currently, there is no policy discussing proper ways to settle editing disputes between users. The current plan is to write this policy, and set out a specific path that can be taken to settle an editing disagreement.
Video Nomination Policy - Currently, there are two opposing policies regarding submission of random videos for display on the main page. The current plan is to delete the excess policy and simplify to a system where videos can be suggested by users and approved by administrators.