Archive:Proposals (old)

This is a proposed page where general proposals can be made by the community-at-large under various topics.

The justification for having this page is that all serious policy proposals would be able to have a central location on-wiki that everyone could see, monitor, and make comments on.

Additionally, this page will be a feeding point for those proposals to make it up the various ladders for adjudication. It is not recommended that actual policy is to be established in ad-hoc style or by de facto on this page--rather, it facilitates the ability to make proposals and represent community evaluations.

This will provide a better scope for members, as not everyone is involved in the forums, as well as are recipients of dispatches from the various mailing lists.

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 or not even read at all!). 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.

Justification(s):

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

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.

How not to make a proposal

Bad proposals are not supported by any statements, and are not formatted well. Also notice that either 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.

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 appropriate 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.

Queue

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