Archive:Proposals/Policy

What constitutes a proposal?

What makes a proposal? Why make proposals at all?

It's probably best to answer this question with what doesn't require a proposal.

• New templates
• Revisions of templates
• Small group initiatives

These things can be done swiftly, and by individual empowerment! It doesn't take a community to "spackle a wall" (or "fix a leak"). If a few citizens choose to band together to perform a content initiative, then there's no need to ask for input: as with a certain shoe company, "just do it!"

Things that do require a proposal though are issues that have sweeping impacts in the entire CZ community, or across different disciplines or workgroups. There are things like naming conventions, or article standards that should be followed in order to keep a "convention" that is used across the entire project.

There are some things which, under no circumstances, should be a proposal at all:

• Jokes, ironic statements, or other pithy comments. These will simply be deleted, probably with no explanation. This includes political rants, tirades, op-ed pieces, and essays.
• Proposals may not be to remove any person from any position within CZ or from the project altogether; nor may they have the explicit or implicit purpose of criticizing a person. Making such a proposal will be grounds for warning or removal from the project by the Constabulary.
• CZ:Proposals is not the place to start arguments, or stage a coup. You may not make any proposals that a citizen should be removed from the project, or a proposal that "so-and-so is a jerk." Any ill-intent caused will be taken very seriously, and will be removed from this page by the constabulary with swift impudence.

How to make a proposal

Part of making a clear proposal is stating what your proposal is, as well as providing statements that support your argument. Making a proposal without any reasoning will probably not be viewed very well, or convincingly (or worst case, ignored!). The justifications for your proposal should be written neatly, and succinctly. If the proposal being made has had prior discussion, it might be appropriate to include links to those discussions, and maybe a summary of the different views on the topic.

Example:

Proposal: The Citizendium Logo should be colored red.

Reasoning:

1. Red is a good, bright indicator color
2. Red draws attention
3. Red is known for it's "bold" appeal
4. Red is used to indicate something important

--Robert W King 07:47, 9 February 2008 (CST)

Always remember to include your name when making a proposal. You can do this by simply clicking the "Your signature with timestamp" button on the edit toolbar or by adding --~~~~ to the last line of your proposal.

The proposal template

The easiest way to make a proposal is to use the {{proposal}} template, located at Template:Proposal. This is a pre-formatted template that creates a subheader, and has variable fields that can be filled in to quickly establish your proposal.

Summary: Please edit your proposal record and provide a summary. Original proposer: Please specify original proposer (i.e., person who added the proposal to this page) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

To the proposer: please read the proposals system policy page if you want to fill out a complete proposal, not just this summary. If you don't, please ask around for someone (a "driver") to take over your proposal! Start complete proposal

How not to make a proposal

Bad proposals are not supported by any statements, and are not formatted well. Also notice that no name has been provided. Although you would be able to tell who made the proposal through the page history, it makes it inconvenient to your audience. Bad proposals are also vague; if something is inherently unclear, or confusing, then how is any action expected to be taken?

Example:

Proposal; the citiz should use green. I like green as a color, it looks better.

After a proposal has been made

When presenting an idea, it is good to get the appropriate community input on the proposition. If you are making a suggestion about the way mathematics formulae should be formatted, obviously you would not want to bring it to the attention of the 'History Workgroup'. The most concerned parties would be the Mathematics and Sciences workgroups.

Remember that the Citizendium is largely a volunteer-based project, and it may take some time in order to receive responses to your proposal. In some cases, making a small recommendation may have sweeping consequences, and those should be considered.

The response template

You can easily respond to a proposal by using the {{response}} template. It looks like this:

Response

By: --Robert W King 09:31, 9 February 2008 (CST)

It should be blue because it matches the rest of the wiki theme colors.

Things to think about!

There are several things to keep in mind when making a response. There is by no means a solely inclusive list; your own curiousity is limit! :

• Do you agree with the proposal?
• What caveats or problems do you forsee?
• What are the benefits? What are the negatives?
• What are the implications of accepting the proposal?
• How might it be accomplished?
• What would be needed to ensure use/employment of the resolution?

Moving the proposal forward!

So you've made a proposal--now what?

Part of what makes a proposal into an initiative, is stepping up and committing to making it happen! Citizens are encouraged, but not required, to be the ones to "do the legwork" on an adopted proposal. After all, what would be the point of the process if there was no result!

Example of a proposal in progress

Here is an example of a proposal which is moving forward by someone who accepted responsibility for handling the proposal.

Here, the {{Claimproposal}} is being used to indicate that this request has been passed onto the site designer, signed by Robert King, and indicated on the date at which it was picked up. Any additional notes can be added to the notes field to indicate it's status.

Summary: Please edit your proposal record and provide a summary. Original proposer: Please specify original proposer (i.e., person who added the proposal to this page) Next step: Fill in next step Driver: Driver needed (i.e., someone familiar with the proposals system who will move it through the system) To be done by: Fill in target date for next step

To the proposer: please read the proposals system policy page if you want to fill out a complete proposal, not just this summary. If you don't, please ask around for someone (a "driver") to take over your proposal! Start complete proposal

Approval page

A proposed page, CZ:Proposals/Adopted proposals might exist to collect those which have been accepted and are accounted for.

Queue

See CZ:Proposals/Queue for a queue of proposals if this page becomes policy.