IRO Wiki:Policies and Guidelines

Policies are the rules and regulations adopted by the iRO Wiki community that govern wiki content. Policies are enforceable and binding on all users and content of the iRO Wiki. Wiki moderators are tasked with the enforcement of said policies.

Guidelines are suggested and recommended practices adopted by the iRO Wiki community that affect wiki content. Unlike policies, guidelines are not enforceable and the repeated violation of them does not warrant punishment, though it is advised that they are followed nonetheless.

New Policies and Guidelines

New policies and guidelines may be proposed by including Template:Proposed Policy to the header of the article. The community shall discuss the proposal on its talk page if there are any ambiguities or problems raised. While the new policy remains a proposal, it may be edited by anyone so long as the edit does not violate other policies (such as iRO Wiki:Vandalism).

Ultimately, the community will vote on whether or not to adopt the policy. All users may vote. If sockpuppetry is suspected to be a problem, an administrator shall confirm if the suspected sockpuppets are in fact different people. The voting period shall last one week. Edits to the proposal (with the exception of minor edits such as spelling or grammar which do not actually alter the content) will not be permitted during the voting period.

When the votes are tallied, if more than two-thirds support the policy, it becomes policy. If less than two-thirds support the policy, the proposal may be dropped or tabled for more discussion at the choice of the person who proposed it.

If there is some dispute as to whether a given proposal should be a policy or a guideline, a vote may be taken on this matter as well. This voting period shall be one week but shall require only simple majority to be accepted. Note that this only applies to currently proposed policies and guidelines; current policies and guidelines have a different procedure described below.

Changing Policies and Guidelines

A proposed change to any existing policy or guideline, including this one, or an attempt to change a policy into a guideline or a guideline into a policy requires taking a vote and two-thirds majority to be accepted. As with new policies, the voting period shall be one week.

Note that minor edits, ones which do not in any discernible way affect the integrity or content of the policy, may be made at will without a voting process. Such edits include spelling or grammar corrections or other edits which do not actually change the content of the policy.