This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Carcharoth (talk | contribs) at 10:08, 11 April 2009 (start page on advertising discussions). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 10:08, 11 April 2009 by Carcharoth (talk | contribs) (start page on advertising discussions)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. |
Some discussions, and straw polls and votes on Misplaced Pages need to be advertised widely in order to gain consensus for wide-ranging or fundamental changes. This page is a list of suggestions for places where such advertising should take place. It generally only applies to the largerst and most structured discussions. Normal discussions do not always need large amounts of input.
The notices used should always be phrased neutrally, not be excessively posted in the same venue (though some regular updates may be appropriate), and should make clear when the discussion or poll will end (if it is not open-ended). Not all discussions need advertising widely, and most discussions will only use a few of the advertising methods shown. Consider a brief discussion to decide on which places to advertise in, but if the main discussion has started and you consider that wider input is needed, consider being bold and leaving notices in the appropriate places and making a note at the discussion that such notices have been left.
Best practice includes making a note of where the discussion has been advertised, to use what links here to check where particular discussions have been advertised, to set a time for the discussion to end, and to ensure that someone uninvolved closes the discussion, or an appeal is made for someone uninvolved to close the discussion (especially if the result is close). For more advice and common mistakes to avoid (such as inappropriate posting to individual user talk pages), please see Misplaced Pages:Canvassing.
- Village pumps (including proposals and policy village pumps)
- Various noticeboards (e.g. WP:AN, WP:RSN, WP:RNB, etc.)
- The Community portal and the Community bulletin board
- Various mailing lists, such as Wiki-en-l and foundation-l
- The talk page of the relevant policies and guidelines (depends on discussion)
- The talk pages of relevant WikiProjects (may be appropriate if notices posted elsewhere as well)
- Talk pages of pages in various namespaces dedicated to a particular issue or topic (e.g. WT:AFD, WT:RFAR, WT:CAT, WT:MOS, etc.)
- Community news media (such as Misplaced Pages:Signpost, Misplaced Pages:Wikivoices, Misplaced Pages:WikipediaWeekly, Misplaced Pages:Wikizine)
- Misplaced Pages:Request for comments (including Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Policies)
- Template:CENT (used for Misplaced Pages:Centralized discussion)
- Notices using the mediawiki software - see Template:MW notices - generally two sorts are used on Misplaced Pages:
- Watchlist notice (propose additions at MediaWiki talk:Watchlist-details - this is only for the biggest discussions)
- Site-wide notice at top of all pages (visible to all readers - extremely rarely used - propose at MediaWiki talk:Sitenotice)