MarioWiki:Proposals

Current time: Saturday, November 16th, 02:01 GMT

Proposals can be new features, the removal of previously-added features that have tired out, or new policies that must be approved via consensus before any action is taken. Voting periods last for two weeks. Any user can support or oppose, but must have a strong reason for doing so (not, e.g., "I like this idea!"). All proposals must be approved by a majority of voters, including proposals with more than two options. For past proposals, see the proposal archive and the talk page proposal archive.

A proposal section works like a discussion page: comments are brought up and replied to using indents (colons, such as : or ::::) and all edits are signed using the code {{User|User name}}.

How to

Rules

1. If users have an idea about improving the wiki or managing its community, but feel that they need community approval before acting upon that idea, they may make a proposal about it. They must have a strong argument supporting their idea and be willing to discuss it in detail with the other users, who will then vote about whether or not they think the idea should be used. Proposals should include links to all relevant pages and writing guidelines. Proposals must include a link to the draft page. Any pages that would be largely affected by the proposal should be marked with {{proposal notice}}.
2. Only autoconfirmed users may create or vote on proposals and talk page proposals. While only autoconfirmed users can comment on proposals, anyone is free to comment on talk page proposals.
3. Proposals end at the end of the day (23:59) two weeks after voting starts (all times GMT).
   • For example, if a proposal is added at any time on Monday, August 1, 2011, the voting starts immediately and the deadline is two weeks later on Monday, August 15, at 23:59 GMT.
4. Users may vote for more than one option, but they may not vote for every option available.
5. Every vote should have a strong, sensible reason accompanying it. Agreeing with a previously mentioned reason given by another user is accepted (including "per" votes), but tangential comments, heavy sarcasm, and other misleading or irrelevant quips are just as invalid as providing no reason at all.
6. Users who feel that certain votes were cast in bad faith or which truly have no merit can address the votes in the comments section. Users can ask a voter to clarify their position, point out mistakes or flaws in their arguments, or call for the outright removal of the vote if it lacks sufficient reasoning. Users may not remove or alter the content of anyone else's votes. Voters can remove or rewrite their own vote(s) at any time, but the final decision to remove another user's vote lies solely with the wiki staff.
   • Users can also use the comments section to bring up any concerns or mistakes in regards to the proposal itself. In such cases, it's important the proposer addresses any concerns raised as soon as possible. Even if the supporting side might be winning by a wide margin, that should be no reason for such questions to be left unanswered. They may point out any missing details that might have been overlooked by the proposer, so it's a good idea as the proposer to check them frequently to achieve the most accurate outcome possible.
7. If a user makes a vote and is subsequently blocked for any amount of time, their vote is removed. However, if the block ends before the proposal ends, then the user in question holds the right to re-cast their vote. If a proposer is blocked, their vote is removed and "(banned)" is added next to their name in the "Proposer:" line of the proposal, which runs until its deadline as normal. If the proposal passes, it falls to the supporters of the idea to enact any changes in a timely manner.
8. No proposal can overturn the decision of a previous proposal that is less than 4 weeks (28 days) old.
9. Any proposal where none of the options have at least four votes will be extended for another week. If after three extensions, no options have at least four votes, the proposal will be listed as "NO QUORUM." The original proposer then has the option to relist said proposal to generate more discussion.
10. If a proposal reaches its deadline and there is a tie for first place, then the proposal is extended for another week.
11. If a proposal reaches its deadline and the first place option is ahead of the second place option by three or more votes, then the first place option must have over 50% approval to win. If the margin is only one or two votes, then the first place option must have at least 60% approval to win. If the required approval threshold is not met, then the proposal is extended for another week.
    • Use the {{proposal check}} tool to automate this calculation; see the template page for usage instructions and examples.
12. Proposals can be extended a maximum of three times. If a consensus has not been reached by the fourth deadline, then the proposal fails and can only be re-proposed after four weeks (at the earliest).
13. All proposals are archived. The original proposer must take action accordingly if the outcome of the proposal dictates it. If it requires the help of an administrator, the proposer can ask for that help.
14. If the wiki staff deem a proposal unnecessary or potentially detrimental to the upkeep of the Super Mario Wiki, they have the right to remove it at any time.
15. Proposals can only be rewritten or canceled by their proposer within the first six days of their creation. However, proposers can request that their proposal be canceled by a staff member at any time, provided they have a valid reason for it. Please note that canceled proposals must also be archived.
16. Unless there is major disagreement about whether certain content should be included, there should not be proposals about creating, expanding, rewriting, or otherwise fixing up pages. To organize efforts about improving articles on neglected or completely missing subjects, try setting up a collaboration thread on the forums.
17. Proposals cannot be made about promotions and demotions. Staff changes are discussed internally and handled by the bureaucrats.
18. No joke proposals. Proposals are serious wiki matters and should be handled professionally. Joke proposals will be deleted on sight.
19. Proposals must have a status quo option (e.g. Oppose, Do nothing) unless the status quo itself violates policy.

Basic proposal and support/oppose format

This is an example of what your proposal must look like, if you want it to be acknowledged. If you are inexperienced or unsure how to set up this format, simply copy the following and paste it into the fitting section. Then replace the [subject] - variables with information to customize your proposal, so it says what you wish. If you insert the information, be sure to replace the whole variable including the squared brackets, so "[insert info here]" becomes "This is the inserted information", not "[This is the inserted information]". Proposals presenting multiple alternative courses of action can have more than two voting options, but what each voting section is supporting must be clearly defined. Such options should also be kept to a minimum, and if something comes up in the comments, the proposal can be amended as necessary.

---

===[insert a title for your proposal here]===
[describe what issue this proposal is about and what changes you think should be made to improve how the wiki handles that issue]

'''Proposer''': {{User|[enter your username here]}}<br>
'''Deadline''': [insert a deadline here, 14 days after the proposal was created, at 23:59 GMT, in the format: "November 16, 2024, 23:59 GMT"]

====Support====
#{{User|[enter your username here]}} [make a statement indicating that you support your proposal]

====Oppose====

====Comments====

---

Users will now be able to vote on your proposal, until the set deadline is reached. Remember, you are a user as well, so you can vote on your own proposal just like the others.

To support, or oppose, just insert "#{{User|[add your username here]}}" at the bottom of the section of your choice. Just don't forget to add a valid reason for your vote behind that tag if you are voting on another user's proposal. If you are voting on your own proposal, you can just say "Per my proposal".

Talk page proposals

Proposals concerning a single page or a limited group of pages are held on the most relevant talk page regarding the matter. Proposals dealing with a large amount of splits, merges, or deletions across the wiki should still be held on this page.

For a list of all settled talk page proposals, see MarioWiki:Proposals/TPP archive and Category:Settled talk page proposals.

Rules

1. All active talk page proposals must be listed below in chronological order (new proposals go at the bottom) using {{TPP discuss}}. Include a brief description of the proposal while also mentioning any pages affected by it, a link to the talk page housing the discussion, and the deadline. If the proposal involves a page that is not yet made, use {{fake link}} to communicate its title in the description. Linking to pages not directly involved in the talk page proposal is not recommended, as it clutters the list with unnecessary links. Place {{TPP}} under the section's header, and once the proposal is over, replace the template with {{settled TPP}}.
2. All rules for talk page proposals are the same as for proposals (see the "How to" section above), with the exceptions made by the additional rules below:
3. The talk page proposal must pertain to the subject page of the talk page it is posted on.
4. When a talk page proposal passes, it should be removed from this list and included in the list under the "Unimplemented proposals" section until the proposed changes have been enacted.

List of ongoing talk page proposals

• Merge Orbs that share names with pre-existing Mario Party series items with those items (discuss) Deadline: November 14, 2024, 23:59 GMT
• Create a number of articles for special buildings in Super Mario Run (discuss) Deadline: November 15, 2024, 23:59 GMT
• Merge Mushroom, Dash Mushroom, and most of Super Mushroom (discuss) Deadline: November 18, 2024, 23:59 GMT
• Expand and rename List of characters by game (discuss) Deadline: November 20, 2024, 23:59 GMT
• Decide whether to create articles for Ashita ni Nattara and Banana Tengoku and/or include them on List of Donkey Kong Country (television series) songs (discuss) Deadline: November 23, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Unimplemented proposals

Proposals

Break alphabetical order in enemy lists to list enemy variants below their base form, EvieMaybe (ended May 21, 2024)

Standardize sectioning for Super Mario series game articles, Nintendo101 (ended July 3, 2024)

^ NOTE: Not yet integrated for the Super Mario Maker titles, Super Mario Run, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Create new sections for gallery pages to cover "unused/pre-release/prototype/etc." graphics separate from the ones that appear in the finalized games, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended September 2, 2024)

Add film and television ratings to Template:Ratings, TheUndescribableGhost (ended October 1, 2024)

Use the classic and classic-link templates when discussing classic courses in Mario Kart Tour, YoYo (ended October 2, 2024)

Split articles for the alternate-named reskins from All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros., Doc von Schmeltwick (ended October 3, 2024)

Clarify coverage of the Super Smash Bros. series, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended October 17, 2024)

Remove all subpage and redirect links from all navigational templates, JanMisali (ended October 31, 2024)

Prioritize MESEN/NEStopia palette for NES sprites and screenshots, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended November 3, 2024)

Stop considering reused voice clips as references (usually), Waluigi Time (ended November 8, 2024)

Allow English names from closed captions, Koopa con Carne (ended November 12, 2024)

^ NOTE: A number of names coming from closed captions are listed here.

Talk page proposals

Split all the clothing, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended September 12, 2021)

Split machine parts, Robo-Rabbit, and flag from Super Duel Mode, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended September 30, 2022)

Make bestiary list pages for the Minion Quest and Bowser Jr.'s Journey modes, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended January 11, 2024)

Allow separate articles for Diddy Kong Pilot (2003)'s subjects, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended August 3, 2024)

Split Banana Peel from Banana, Doc von Schmeltwick (ended September 18, 2024)

Merge Spiked Thwomp with Thwomp, Blinker (ended November 2, 2024)

Split Cursed Mushroom from Poison Mushroom, Pseudo (ended November 12, 2024)

Writing guidelines

Get rid of or heavily restrict the "Subject origin" parameter

I can already sense a murmur rising in the crowd, but hear me out. I've made it no secret on here that I don't really like the Subject origin parameter on the species infobox. The term "subject origin" is a bit of a misnomer. It really should've been called "design inspiration", because rather than explaining where the subject comes from in pieces of media, it's only ever been used in instances where the subject took any sort of inspiration from another entity, either real or fictional. If that sounds oddly broad... then yes, it is very broad.

This line of reasoning is used for bizarre classifications such as Mincers being derived from Zingers because they're both spiky enemies (is Mincer even an enemy, or just an obstacle?) that follow specific paths, or every "Bone" enemy variant being derived from Dry Bones even if they don't actually fall apart. There's even a few cases where "subject origin" has taken priority over confirmed relatedness between species, despite the term not in itself suggesting a close relationship between subjects, thus losing useful information in the infobox in these cases (e.g. Rocky Wrenches which were formerly Koopas, Whomps which are said to be "cousins" of Thwomps, Krumples being blue Kremlings that follow the same naming scheme as their predecessors Krusha and Kruncha).

The most awkward instances, however, are easily the instances of a subject being "derived" from a generic concept. Kleptoads, though based on frogs, have little to no relevance to any of the generic instances of frogs present in the Mario franchise. Similarly, Rabbids are entirely separated from the Mario series' depictions of rabbits, not only because they don't act like generic rabbits in the Mario series, but also because they're not even from the same franchise. It's not even restricted to entities that actually have pages on the Mario Wiki. Kremlings are stated to originate from "crocodilians", a page that only exists as a category, Crazee Dayzees are derived from "flowers" (which are in a similar situation), and Krimps are listed as being derived from "dogs". Who's to say Boos aren't derived from "ghosts", or that Flaptacks don't have "bird" as a subject origin, or that Octoombas aren't based off of both "aliens" and "octopuses"?

I hope you can see that the unrestricted references to generic or real-world species at the very least are a problem. But even for non-generic subject origins, the vast majority of the time (I'm tempted to say all of the time, but there could be an instance I'm struggling to think of that doesn't fall under this), this kind of info is covered sufficiently in the introductory paragraph, or the General information/Appearance section when applicable. I propose we deal with this in one of the following ways:

Option 1: Axe the "subject origin" parameter entirely. (My primary choice)
Option 2: Ban usage of subject origin to refer to generic species, in addition to switching priority of "Related" and "Subject origin/Derived subjects". (I'm fine with this)
Option 3: Simply ban usage of citing generic species as the subject origin.
Option 4: Ban usage of subject origin to refer to species from the Mario franchise.
Option 5: Just switch priority of "Related" and "Subject origin/Derived subjects"

Proposer: DrippingYellow (talk)
Deadline: June 25, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Option 1

1. DrippingYellow (talk) As derived from my proposal.
2. DrBaskerville (talk) Per proposal
3. 7feetunder (talk) This parameter is, as it is currently written, not well defined at all. It was originally meant to be only for connections to real-world species, but was given a wishy-washy, vague rewording so it could be used to make flimsy claims like Bazuka being based on Kutlass because they're both "small Kremlings with oversized weapons" or the aforementioned Mincer thing (which I was unaware of before this proposal).
4. Hewer (talk) Per proposal, and especially per 7feetunder. It's an awkwardly named, unnecessarily confusing, arbitrarily used, unhelpfully broad parameter that feels like it's spiralled and descended from its intended purpose to uselessness (plus random speculation at worst), and it feels weird for links to the fictional species that something's a variant of (like with Galoomba) and debatably necessary listings for the generic real thing it's based on (like with Crazee Dayzee and Moo Moo) to use the same parameter. In short, this subject is the origin of much confusion, and little good can be derived from it.
5. Nightwicked Bowser (talk) Per all.
6. Nintendo101 (talk) Per all and my comments below.
7. TheUndescribableGhost (talk) After enough consideration, I'll go with this option. This category got flanderized.

Option 2

1. DrippingYellow (talk) Secondary choice.

Option 4

1. LinkTheLefty (talk) I think, right now, it's a little confusing, myself. Back when I thought to have the parameter revived, I thought of only using it for genericized subjects, and this option seems to be closest to what I had in mind. For that matter, we don't need to list every single variant of something under derived subjects; just the base version is fine. I'd rather not go back to listing generic subjects broadly listed under comparable again, and insist that the parameter would benefit from focus.

Option 5

1. DrBaskerville (talk) Second choice

Do nothing

1. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - I don't really see the issue. If anything, the "relatives" parameter not having directional counterparts is the weakest link. Plus the "listing Galoombas as Goomba relatives rather than variants because a source distinguished them from each other and happened to used the word 'related'"-type of thing might be itself getting out of hand...
2. MegaBowser64 (talk) Per Doc

#SolemnStormcloud (talk) Per Doc von Schmeltwick.

Comments

Oh, looks like I'm involved with this proposal to some degree. You see; I was the one who did the Kremling edit and especially the recent Dry Bones edits. For the latter, my explanation is that subject origin refers to things based on another entity while not actually being the entity. For example, Galoombas have been considered not Goombas, but they were meant to be inspired by them and even their name reflects it. There are various subjects that are definitely inspired, while not considered relatives of the original entity. Goombrats are weird, because they are stated to be relatives, although it's not made clear if they are a variant, as Super Mario Run loved to throw a wrench at us. The initial existence of subject origin appeared to be more generic species that had multiple fictional variants off of it. I always had this issue with penguins on this, because the Mario franchise equivalent of penguins are meant to be based on those from SM64, yet the derived section brings up entities that existed before it. The blue color seems to derived from Bumpties, so there's that MIPShole for you. As for my Dry Bones edit, they've inspired various skeleton enemies over the years. It's obvious that Bone Piranha Plants were inspired by Dry Bones, because their designs have the same type of texture. The same applies to Fish Bones, because they are meant to be underwater Dry Bones, especially given in Maker, where an underwater Dry Bones becomes a Fish Bones. Poplins are not confirmed to be relatives of Toads, but it's wrong to say that aren't inspired by Toads. Really, I got the impression that subject origin = inspiration. We know that Dry Bones and Fish Bones are definitely two different entities not even related, but we know one took inspiration from the other. I guess this type of logic would make Shellcreepers being the origin for Koopa Troopas, although Shellcreepers are retroactively considered part of the Koopa clan. Yeah, relatives is another thing. For me, if its unclear what came first, its a relative. Paragoombas have the ability to spawn Mini Goombas. Mini Goombas aren't really a variant of a Paragoomba, so the relative label fits there. To get back on topic a little bit, I'm surprised Moo Moo didn't get mentioned here; it's in the same boat of Kremling, except I made it link to the Wikipedia article for cattle. My thought process behind these edits, where to tell the viewer what the species is based off on. This is somewhat true for Kremlings, who are sometimes called reptiles or lizards. A person who isn't familiar with this franchise might not know what the hell a Kremling is meant to be based on, so I figured that I mention its inspired by both crocodiles and alligators (not sure if Kremlings tend to crossover with these two, like how Diddy and Dixie are crosses between monkeys and chimps). I guess this could get out of hand when talking about fictional animals such as dragons or aliens, so there's that. My thought process is that someone might not realize what the species is based on. Like, if there was a fictional species based off on a spider monkey, which some people might not realize actually exists, that was the intended goal. Of course, it can resort to "well, no shit," situations regarding Kremlings who are just based on typical crocs and Moo Moos. So yeah, I'm not entirely sure what to choose here. I do want it to be obvious to non-Mario readers what the subject is based on. Are we considering making Galoombas be considered comparable to Goombas? TheUndescribableGhost (talk) 23:55, June 11, 2024 (EDT)

This very well could just be me, and I do not want to disregard the hard work of my fellow users. However, in my personal experience, the "subjects origins", "relatives", etc. entries for the species infoboxes have become so diluted and bloated with loosely-affiliated species that I usually just ignore whatever is written in those sections completely. This is a bit of a shame, because I remember them being quite fun and informative years prior. Today, I don't really trust/value the information written there because it seems either: (A) very subjective and promoting of drive-by edits; (B) derived from a proposal drawn chiefly from subtle similarities in Japanese nomenclature, to the point that they ignore everything about the species' physical appearance or canonized taxonomy; (C) declares it to be derived from a subject that is pretty apparent just by looking at the subject; (D) based on mechanical similarities within their respective games, which is not something that I think inherently means they are related, variants, or subjects of origins, and are details best left in the body paragraphs; or (E) are so long that it makes the whole concept of the infobox - something to quickly condense information - completely useless.

I do not know what would be the best amendment for the species infoboxes. Something to return them to their prior useage would be nice - it's not really clear if any of DrippingYellow (talk)'s options would really do that. (Possibly something to address D, I think.) But I am interested in sort of change. Too often, it feels like people are going out of their way to look for connections that are not real, rather than noting ones that unambiguously exist. - Nintendo101 (talk) 20:43, June 13, 2024 (EDT)

Abstaining from voting, but while I don't really have a problem with axing the subject origin parameter (we can move the information from that parameter to relatives or comparable), I do realize that by doing so, we're basically undoing this proposal about fixing how to handle the relations of generic/real-life species in infoboxes, meaning we might need a new solution for this issue. Do we have to list some of the fictional species as variants to the real-life species, related to the real-life species, or perhaps introduce a new parameter to replace subject origin that is far clearer and stricter in its definition? (e.g. "real life inspiration" or "real life counterpart"... okay tbh these aren't the best replacements, I'm basically spitballing) rend (talk) (edits) 15:16, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

I don't remember if randomly listing the real thing that something is based on even if it doesn't have an article (like on Crazee Dayzee) was already being done before that proposal, but either way that kind of thing shouldn't be in the infobox at all in my opinion. As for "real-world species" that we do have articles for, we can probably just treat them like we would any other species in these infoboxes. To quote Nintendo101 here, "A seagull is just as derived from real gulls as Goonies, and just as divorced from real-life components of those animals. It is inaccurate to present them as otherwise." Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 16:52, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

New features

Add parameters for listing related groups to character and species infoboxes

Alright, I know the "Affiliation(s)" parameter for these was deprecated many years ago for being dumb, but hear me out.

A few years after this proposal passed, this wiki added a group infobox for linking to and listing members, member species, and leaders of a group, similar to how the species infobox lists variants, notable members, etc of the species. Thing is, unlike the character and species infoboxes that are designed to link to each other (character's species/species' notable members, species variants/species variants of, and so on), group infoboxes are a one-way street as it currently stands. So, I propose that parameters be added to these infoboxes so they can list the groups they belong to. And to be clear, this parameter would only be used for groups, so we get none of that "Mario is 'affiliated' with his brother and sometimes Bowser" nonsense. This has a much more specific purpose. Right now this wiki doesn't really have lists of groups that characters and species belong to, you have to look through all the articles for groups to find that out, so I think these lists would be worth having.

I've come up with two options:

• Option 1: Template:Character infobox and Template:Species infobox get a "member of" parameter, which would be used to link to groups they are, well, a member of. Goomba and the like would link to Bowser's Minions, Vivian would link to Three Shadows, etc. This parameter would be used to list both memberships and leadership roles (the latter could maybe be distinguished by adding "(leader)" next to the link).
• Option 2: these infoboxes would also get a separate "Leader of" parameter. Bowser would use this to link to Bowser's Minions, King K. Rool would use this to link to Kremling Krew, Captain Syrup would use this to link to Black Sugar Gang, characters and species-characters would link to the baseball teams they lead, etc.
• Option 3: Only add the "member of" parameter to the character infobox, not the species infobox.

EDIT: In case it wasn't clear, the parameters would be displayed in a two-column list similar to the species infobox parameters, and would only be used for links (e.g. groups that actually have articles, and not just any arbitrary category people come up with).

EDIT THE SEQUEL: Per LinkTheLefty (talk), added an option to only add this to the character infobox. I originally thought it would be weird to exclude it from the species infobox since some species-characters like Birdo are heavily associated with groups such as the Birdo Beauties, at least when these characters are treated as individuals rather than species, but in hindsight, it would be odd to, say, classify all Goombas as members of Bowser's Minions when that's obviously not the case. (At least Gary would be classified as a member of Bowser's Minions...)

Proposer: Dive Rocket Launcher (talk)
Deadline: June 14, 2024, 23:59 GMT Extended to June 21, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Option 1

1. Dive Rocket Launcher (talk) First choice per proposal.
2. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) The folly of the "affiliations" tab was that it was allowed to include characters, which led to nonsense like Fawful being affiliated with "himself" among other things. Restricting it to groups is perfectly fine.
3. MegaBowser64 (talk) Per all of yall

Option 2

1. Dive Rocket Launcher (talk) Second choice per proposal.

Option 3

1. Dive Rocket Launcher (talk) Third choice per proposal.
2. SolemnStormcloud (talk) Secondary choice.

Do nothing

1. DrBaskerville (talk) Whereas a nice idea in theory, I fear we'll see a repeat of everything that led to the previous iteration of this parameter getting deleted in the first place. Unless there will be heavy patrolling of this parameter, which seems unlike given how widespread the Template:Character infobox is, I don't trust leaving it to chance that it will be used responsibly and we won't end up with weird things like Mario being "member of" some ridiculous things like "Mario Bros.", or, just as worse, a long, long, exhaustive list of every organization Mario has ever participated in, e.g. Excess Express passengers, Mario Kart 8 racers (etc., etc.), and so on. Mario is obviously a "worse case" example, but the principles apply to virtually any character who has multiple appearances. In the Goomba example that you provided, for instance, not all Goombas are part of Bowser's Minions. What about the Goombas in Goomba Village or Rogueport or any of the other various non-Bowser-aligned Goombas. You'd just have to get really, really into the weeds to make specific rules for parameter usage, and it will be a pain to enforce them.
2. SolemnStormcloud (talk) Per DrBaskerville.
3. Nintendo101 (talk) Couldn't we just write this stuff in the body paragraphs? I worry an "affiliation" would be too often open to subjective interpretation and promote drive-by edits, further damaging the infoboxes.
4. Nightwicked Bowser (talk) I'd rather avoid adding parameters that could lead to unconstructive uses.

Comments

Would having single character and species infobox options satisfy some of the opposition's concerns? LinkTheLefty (talk)

Removals

None at the moment.

Changes

Include general game details on pages about remakes, and split "changes from the original" sections if necessary

An issue I've noticed with MarioWiki's coverage of remakes is that it doesn't explain much about the games themselves separate from the original games. This really concerns Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch), as its "Changes from the original game" section is very, very long (over three-quarters the page, by my count), while not really detailing anything about the game itself. I do understand the "once and only once" policy means that they shouldn't have to be exact duplicates of the original game's pages, but it also leaves the pages about remakes feeling somewhat barebones; if someone wants to learn about the TTYD remake in a general sense, should they have to go back to the original game's page to learn about it first and then go to the remake's page to dig through all the tiny changes to find out what's new?

I imagine this policy stems from early in the wiki's history for games like Super Mario All-Stars or Super Mario Advance, which makes sense, as those games are generally simple and don't need much explaining to get the gist of how they work (and the "changes" parts of those pages are generally much smaller). For games like the Super Mario RPG or TTYD remakes, however, it's pretty difficult to understand what the games are like without referencing the original game's pages, and in turn that leaves coverage on the remakes feeling somewhat incomplete. I actually feel like the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe page is a good example of how to handle this. It still lists differences from the original Mario Kart 8, but also explains the game's contents in a standalone manner well. (Maybe adding the rest of the new items and course elements would help, but it at least has the full cast, vehicle selection, and course roster.)

My proposal is essentially to have each remake page include general coverage of the game itself, rather than just a list of changes. From there, if each page is too long with general details and lists of changes included, then the list of changes can be split into a sub-page.

I don't think the remake pages need to be exact copies of what the pages for each original game say, but having them be a more general overview of how each game works (covering notable changes as well) before getting into the finer differences may be helpful. I represent WiKirby, and this is what we do for WiKirby's remake pages: for example, we have separate pages for Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe that both give a good idea of what the game is like without fully relying on each other to note differences between them. I think this is useful for not having to cross-reference both pages if you want to know the full picture of what the game is like.

This is my first proposal on this wiki, and in general I'm not good at proposals even on my "home" wiki, but I hope this explains what I mean. I think you can decide on a page-by-page basis whether "changes from the original" sections need to split into sub-pages (for instance, the very long TTYD section might, but something like Super Mario Advance could get by leaving it on), but I think having the remake's pages be more detailed and less reliant on the originals would only be beneficial to the quality of the wiki's coverage. This is admittedly just a suggestion, so if it's not ideal I'm fine if someone else wants to refine it into something more workable.

Proposer: DryKirby64 (talk)
Deadline: June 17, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Support

1. DryKirby64 (talk) As proposer.
2. Big Super Mario Fan (talk) I agree with this proposal.

Oppose

1. Nintendo101 (talk) I'm unsure what the best approach is to covering rereleases or remakes, but I do not think we should adopt WiKirby's model of repeating most of the same information as the original game.
2. DrBaskerville (talk) Opposing this particular solution, but agreeing that a solution to inadequate remake pages should be found.
3. MegaBowser64 (talk) Per all.

Comments

This is challenging. Whereas I agree with you that the TTYD remake page is basically just a list of changes (and that is something that should be addressed), I don't think that simply rewording most everything on the original TTYD page is the solution. When it comes to RPGs, its much more challenging to fully cover everything in the game because there's a long, detailed story and it would be senseless to reword what is on the original's page to include it on the remake's page. I presume that's what you mean by "general coverage of the game" anyway. This is a problem that should be addressed, but I don't know that either of these two options are the right solution. Dr. Baskerville 18:51, June 10, 2024 (EDT)

Mmhm, that makes sense. Like I said, I don't think it should be an exact duplicate of the original page or a paraphrase of it either... Maybe there's a place where I could discuss this with other users to get a better idea of what others think should be done? I went to proposals first since that's what I'm most familiar with, but maybe it would be helpful to iron out the exact issue a bit more to get a better idea of what to do. DryKirby64 (talk) 19:21, June 10, 2024 (EDT)

It couldn't hurt to ask for some guidance from staff on the Discord / forums or research previous proposals to see if something similar has been discussed. You're right to identify this as an issue; I just wish I knew a better solution. Maybe someone will come along with a helpful comment, so I'd at least recommend leaving this proposal up to bring attention to the issue. Dr. Baskerville 19:28, June 10, 2024 (EDT)

Me personally, I'd repeat gameplay information because that's the thing that's actually changed, whereas story isn't touched at all afaik. Ray Trace^(T|C) 12:52, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

I think the case-by-case way we do it is fine. For instance, the SMA games and DKC remakes have enough changes both major and minor it makes the most sense to just list everything out again, which in the latters' case we do (thanks to a project of mine). But listing everything in Super Mario 3D All-Stars would be over-the-top when that's just a fidelity increase for three games. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 17:34, June 13, 2024 (EDT)

In my eyes, the change list for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is very massive, despite my occasional efforts to subcategorize its change list. I could continue to try to compress that page's list, but even I would not call that a gold standard for "Remake changes" lists. DandelionSprout (talk) 17:00, June 15, 2024 (EDT)

Just as someone who does go on other wikis to read up about remake information, I actually sometimes don't mind somewhat overlapping information than simply a list of changes (I don't like to hop back in between articles to read up information, especially if, say, the remake is the first time I'm ever experiencing the game). It's the reason I did sorta go all in in Mario Sports Superstars article (I wouldn't want to jump to two different pages to read mechanics about tennis and golf). I think a very brief summary of the gameplay for TTYD remake would do fine (basic battle system, hammers, jump, partners, that type of thing). Ray Trace^(T|C) 12:50, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Use shorter disambiguation identifier (without subtitle) for Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3 pages

This is based on a proposal from last year about Super Mario RPG, which had passed. The proposal was about using (Super Mario RPG) as a disambiguation identifier over the full (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars) title because not only does the Nintendo Switch remake not use the "Legend of the Seven Stars" subtitle from the original SNES title while still calling it just "Super Mario RPG", but it would also be easier to navigate and would look nicer due to the page title not being so overly long in comparison.

This proposal is the same principle, but with articles concerning Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! instead (in fact, this idea was also suggested in the aforementioned Super Mario RPG proposal). Both their respective GBA ports have entirely omitted the subtitles from the SNES originals, much like Super Mario RPG's Nintendo Switch remake, yet articles that make use of a disambiguation identifier still make use of the full title of the SNES originals (see Category:Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest levels per example). I think it'd be much easier to navigate if the identifiers went from (Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest) and (Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!) to simply (Donkey Kong Country 2) and (Donkey Kong Country 3) respectively. I believe this makes sense because both the SNES originals and GBA ports are still called Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Country 3, and it's the same as what we have done with the Super Mario RPG identifiers.

Proposer: Arend (talk)
Deadline: June 18, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Support

1. Arend (talk) Per proposal
2. DrippingYellow (talk) Makes sense to me. Donkey Kong Country 3 at the very least is even officially abbreviated as just "DKC3", rather than "DKC3:DKDT", in Wrinky's dialogue in Donkey Kong 64.
3. SolemnStormcloud (talk) Per proposal.
4. Pseudo (talk) Per all.
5. DrBaskerville (talk) Per proposal
6. SeanWheeler (talk) The proposal to get rid of the need for specifying the console for remake-exclusive content had passed. Might as well extend that rule to shorten every game's dab terms.
7. Dive Rocket Launcher (talk) Per proposal.
8. LinkTheLefty (talk) Might as well.

Comments

If this proposal passes, I think it'd be worth discussing changing "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island" identifiers to just "Yoshi's Island" per Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3. Dive Rocket Launcher 17:32, June 12, 2024 (EDT)

I feel like that's a bit more of a stretch since it replaces (and reorders) the subtitle rather than just removing it. Also, "Yoshi's Island" isn't quite as immediately obvious what it refers to compared to "Super Mario RPG" and "Donkey Kong Country 2/3". Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 17:38, June 14, 2024 (EDT)

Include "The" for Glitz Pit team articles

Many of the Glitz Pit teams use a "the" moniker when listed in rankings and when introduced by Grubba, however most of our articles don't do it with the explaination given when "The Koopinator" was moved to "Koopinator" being that "the" is lowercase when tattling him outside of battle. I get that this means "the" may not be part of the name proper, however this is the sort of thing that does roll of the tongue better when it is included even in the article title. I'm not trying to set a precedence with other wiki subjects in a similar boat (e.g I would still prefer leaving Koopalings as is), I'm really trying to just limit this proposal for the Glitz Pit teams. Anything outside of this would remain a case-by-case basis.

Wings of Night, Spike Storm, Craw-Daddy, Hamma, Bamma, and Flare, and Chomp Country are exempt from this proposal due to their names not using "the" at all.

Proposer: Nightwicked Bowser (talk)
Deadline: June 20, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Support

1. Nightwicked Bowser (talk) Per proposal.
2. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - Honestly, for a team name, this makes more sense. If necessary, we can have the category order go to "Koopinator, The" for example, but as they are presented in-game, the "The" is part of their names.
3. Scrooge200 (talk) - This is the clear intent. or example, "Fuzz": what is this? In-game, it's always called "The Fuzz", which makes sense because that's a slang term for police, not just "Fuzz" on its own.
4. Sparks (talk) Makes sense! Per all.
5. Pseudo (talk) Per all, and I'd say that exceptions to this like Wings of Night are actually strong evidence that this is an intentional part of the team's full name; they're not the "Iron Adonis Twins" but "The Iron Adonis Twins".
6. DrBaskerville (talk) Per proposal. I'm the one who moved Koopinator's article for consistency, but I support adding "The" to the article names as that makes the most sense. I probably should have said something about this when I moved the article.
7. Nintendo101 (talk) Per Nightwicked Bowser.
8. LinkTheLefty (talk) The original is consistent about this, and if the remake is the same, let's do it this way.

Comments

Note to self: the Koopinator example mentioned in the proposal text should probably be incorporated into The Koopinator's article as "The Koopinator, also spelled with a lowercase "the" as the Koopinator^{(insert Tattle dialogue reference)}, is a character in...", or that sort of thing, if this proposal passes, since it's still a valid name reference in its own right. Pseudo (talk) (contributions) 19:18, June 13, 2024 (EDT)

He's only "the Koopinator" because no one else I think had the chance for their name to be mentioned outside the beginning of a sentence. LinkTheLefty (talk) 21:27, June 13, 2024 (EDT)

At the start of matches, "The" is capitalised even when it's not at the start of the sentence. I'll leave this livestream here for reference; The Koopinator is at about 1:37:40. Nightwicked Bowser 21:35, June 13, 2024 (EDT)

Ah, that's kind of tricky because the game breaks up the text strings in that dialog box and calls in whatever name in memory. Looks like the remake's the same way. LinkTheLefty (talk) 21:41, June 13, 2024 (EDT)

Hm, fair enough. This is pretty insignificant anyhow… Pseudo (talk) (contributions) 03:42, June 14, 2024 (EDT)

Replace sticks' direction notes in games' control lists with Unicode arrows

I've noticed for many retro games' pages, for instance Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels#Controls and to a lesser extent Mario Kart: Super Circuit, have pretty wordy explanations that make the tables taller than they should ideally have been. An instance from the former page at the time of writing is " (left and right)", which if my proposal would pass would be mass-converted to "↔", especially since The Lost Levels was nominated for "Spotlight notice" earlier tonight, for which its note "(...) help to contribute in any way that you can." seem like a fitting time for me to see if this idea floats well with other users than me.

D-pads for newer consoles are more or less unaffected (except in particular the Nintendo 64 D-pad that doesn't currently have an icon in Template:Button at all), and motion control info for Wiimote/Joy-Con would also be unaffected due to their very high complexity, but for non-N64 analog sticks there are no other viable options at all to reduce the table boxes' text lengths.

Other examples, though theorethical ones instead of the above ones:

• " up/down" → "↕"
• " left" → "←"
• (Optional) "Rotate " → "↻"

There's only really one option that I can see, with no possible alternate options to vote for instead. I personally do not consider the vote as a matter of "Mass-implement" or "Prohibit forever", and I would not object to if anyone applied the idea to arrow-application edits on individual pages if they were to so wish.

Proposer: DandelionSprout (talk)
Deadline: June 22, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Support

1. DandelionSprout (talk) I've tested it with fairly good success on Mario Kart 64#Controls.
2. GuntherBayBeee (talk) Makes sense to me.
3. DrBaskerville (talk) Per proposal

Oppose

1. Shadow2 (talk) It might seem silly, but I think the unambiguous English word "Left" is a more direct representation than just an arrow. Someone might look at your second example replacement and think "Why is there an arrow pointing at the control stick icon?" Comparatively, "Left" means "Left". This is especially more prudent with the stick rotation. It might be obvious to you and others, but not everybody is going to see "↻" and understand that it means "Rotate the control stick". Again, the unambiguous English word "Rotate" is better.

Comments

I like this in principal, but I will sometimes use "→" to convey the order of button presses, as apparent on the Super Mario 64 page. - Nintendo101 (talk) 20:15, June 15, 2024 (EDT)

Well, I guess if instead "▶" is being used (◀▶, ▼▲), I guess it wouldn't be much of a problem? Or maybe any of these? Nevermind, these don't work on iPad. rend (talk) (edits) 09:46, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

We already have stuff like and . Is there any way that this could be implemented on examples like those? BMfan08 (talk) 12:30, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Not for analog sticks by any realistic means that I can tell. DandelionSprout (talk) 12:33, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Wondering if gif would be supported, since some games have animated gifs of stick movement. Ray Trace^(T|C) 12:58, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Standardize sound test page titles

Something I've noticed in some of the sound test pages is if they're given an in-game name for the sound test mode like "Jukebox", "Sound Gallery" etc. that name gets used instead of "List of (game) in-game music" "(game) sound test", but this makes things very confusing (especially when you have Juke Box and Jukebox, two separate lists) since it's not clear which of these is for which game, and these sound tests can have many different possible names. Some of the "in-game music"- "sound test"-titled lists even have sound test names and currently don't use them (e.g. "Music List" for Odyssey).

I propose renaming these exceptions to "List of (game) in-game music" "(game) sound test" and having the original names redirect to them (and add {{redirect}} linking to the category if necessary). Of course, this would be applied to future sound tests in games as well.

However, there's also the issue of some music lists being incorporated into other, location articles (e.g. Musée Champignon) or some being treated as its own location article (e.g. Sound Studio), and I'm not fond of the idea of renaming a location to a list since the MarioWiki is supposed to document locations. I think these exceptions named after physical in-game locations (listed in bold below) should be left as is, and "Category:Sound tests" would be added to "List of (game) in-game music" "(game) sound test" redirects linking to their respective sections for better standardisation and consistency on the category page.

Another, obvious solution would be to split these lists off from the location pages to their own "in-game music" "sound test" pages, which I've added as another voting option, but I personally don't like the idea of keeping all of the other sections on Musée Champignon together and intact while having its Sound Gallery somewhere else. (Then again, I noticed Prisma Museum doing just this with its art gallery at the time of writing this... Maybe the art can be moved from Gallery:Paper Mario: Color Splash#Concept art gallery to there to be consistent with Musée Champignon. But I digress.)

(EDIT: I just realised that Juke Box is a physical item in Mario Party. For the sake of this proposal, it will be considered one of the bolded locations.)

Relevant pages:

• Juke Box
• Jukebox
• Musée Champignon
• Music Player
• Music Room
• Prisma Museum
• Scrapbook Theater
• Sound Gallery
• Sound Player
• Sound Room (EDIT: Excluded from proposal; see comments)
• Sound Room (WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!) (While the name suggests a location, it's actually just a sound test mode like the other unbolded ones here.)
• Sound Studio
• Sound Test
• Sticker Museum

Proposer: Mario jc (talk)
Deadline: June 23, 2024, 23:59 GMT

Rename sound test modes (unbolded), create categorized redirects to others (bolded)

1. Mario jc (talk) - Per proposal.
2. Ahemtoday (talk) Supporting on the condition that we rename these articles "[game] sound test" instead.
3. DrBaskerville (talk) Per all
4. Hewer (talk) Second choice, just because I really don't like the idea of indiscriminately splitting specifically the music lists from articles that cover a lot of different information, and I feel like it would look messy. For instance, it would look super weird for Scrapbook Theater's page to just be an enemy list with the music list (which is actually shorter than the enemy list) split into its own page. Keeping the lists on the pages also helps make it clear we're using the ordering and naming from the list of music shown in that place in the game, including any other oddities, such as Scrapbook Theater's music list ending with "Yoshi's Woolly World Medley" that's just a button to play a random song. I don't think there's much of a way to justify splitting just the music lists and nothing else from pages like this.

Rename sound test modes (unbolded), split sound tests from locations (bolded)

1. Arend (talk) Honestly, I feel like the sound tests found from locations/items should have their own dedicated article, given that articles like Musée Champignon are jam-packed with so many files that some devices (e.g. my iPad) have trouble loading the page (although this issue is also a thing with the TTYD remake's Sound Gallery). Not sure if the Sound Room of Wario Land 4 should be included, given that all the CD songs included there are unique to that Sound Room (with none of the tracks appearing anywhere else in the game), and we already have a dedicated article for Wario Land 4 media with the actual level music and stuff.
2. Camwoodstock (talk) Per Arend. We feel like this makes the most sense from a perspective of performance, which if we're being real here, is our main concern here.

Do nothing

1. Hewer (talk) This change doesn't feel super necessary to me and seems to just create more complications than it's worth. We're already using official names here, I don't really get the need to change that, especially not to "sound test", since that's not always the official name. Not every article title needs to specify the game it's talking about, otherwise we'd use identifiers on like every article. (Odyssey's page can be moved to "Music List" too if necessary)

Ahemtoday (talk) As someone with a vested interest due to renaming this category a while back, I think the thing with me is... I don't think the phrase "in-game music" makes much sense as a name for these articles. I only changed the name of the category because I really don't have a better name for these articles, but "in-game music" in no way conveys that these articles are about sound tests. As such, I don't really relish the concept of changing more articles to be named that. My issue with this has been solved, see the comments.

Comments

First of all, I think you forgot to add a comments section. Second of all, as the creator of the Sound Room (WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!) page, I only created it like that cause there already was a Sound Room page made. I asked members of the Discord if they thought I should move the other one (which belongs to Wario Land 4) but received no reply. BMfan08 (talk) 12:30, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Yeah, the Musee Champignon page takes a couple more seconds for me to load, too. It's in the top 170 largest pages (and would be smaller if it weren't for all the Mario Kart Tour list pages). Something curious is that Color Splash has a full media page, while for Origami King and Thousand-Year Door Switch, they just have the files embedded onto the museum/sound gallery pages. I did this for CS because I wanted to upload extra fanfares and unlisted tracks, but I'm wondering how to handle it now. Scrooge200 (talk) 18:27, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

@Ahemtoday The point of the proposal is to keep the naming consistent. The "in-game music" can be renamed to something else later if needed. Mario JC 22:51, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

I think where I'm at right now is that I prefer naming these articles after the menus/areas in which they play, even given the inconsistency, over the unfitting "in-game music" title. I'll support the proposal if someone suggests a more suitable we could move all these to instead. Ahemtoday (talk) 23:26, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

I was thinking just "(game) sound test", like "(game) bestiary". Mario JC 23:48, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Ooh, that's a good way to handle it. I'll vote for this proposal on the condition that that's the naming scheme we use. Do I need to make a separate proposal for that or something, or is it uncontroversial enough that we can just do that? Ahemtoday (talk) 03:29, June 17, 2024 (EDT)

Looks like Porple went ahead and renamed them, so that takes care of that. Mario JC 10:40, June 17, 2024 (EDT)

@Arend I forgot the Sound Room songs are unique and not from the game's levels, so an "in-game music" title wouldn't be accurate. I've removed it from the list (so it would be the only name exception in the category). Mario JC 22:51, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

A bit tangential, but do you think List of records in WarioWare: D.I.Y. would qualify as an exception? I know it's not in the category right now, but it's reminiscent of that situation. Ahemtoday (talk) 23:26, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Yes, I would count that as an exception alongside Sound Room. Mario JC 23:48, June 16, 2024 (EDT)

Seconding that the WarioWare D.I.Y. records should probably be an exception. Those are all exclusive songs that don't appear in any of the other modes (unless you input music from them into one of your own Microgames, of course). ~Camwoodstock (talk) 00:05, June 17, 2024 (EDT)

So my naming issue has been solved, but let me say my thoughts on separating these out. See, the thing is, these articles are not all in the same situation. Yes, Musée Champignon, Prisma Museum, Scrapbook Theater, and Sticker Museum have enough content in the article that a split-out list would function. It's extremely justifiable for Prisma Museum, which is already split; but maybe a bit less necessary for Sticker Museum, whose other contents are mostly plaintext. However, Juke Box and Sound Studio have basically nothing outside of the content that would get split off; in option 2, they would be basically nothing but stubs leading to another article. And then there's Music Room, which covers multiple games; I can only describe it as an edge case. I'm not sure it makes sense to treat all these articles the same way. Though I suppose this proposal is about creating consistency. If we're dead-set on doing that, I have to support option 1 — I value MarioWiki:Once and only once over fast load times. Ahemtoday (talk) 03:29, June 17, 2024 (EDT)

Miscellaneous

Allow quotes of characters being voiced by their official actors in unofficial media

Voice actors whose performances are heard in official works may also go on to voice their usual character(s) unofficially, such as Charles Martinet goofing off as Mario, Luigi, and Wario on a trip to Chile in a series of Vines or the voice actors of the DKC cartoon reprising their roles in the fan-made Return to Krocodile Isle, with the former example already being quoted on the wiki. What this proposal aims to do is explicitly enable the practice of quoting unofficial performances through a statement at MarioWiki:Coverage, section "Fan work by creators officially involved with the brand", specifically as an extension to its policy on fan artwork. To be eligible on the wiki, the quotes must only reproduce lines of dialog that are perceived as directly tied to the character in a given piece of media, and not frivolous performances that can be determined to be demonstrations of skill on the part of the performer while they are engaged in an interview or other such interaction. For instance:

• Charles Martinet cracking jokes about crabs in those Vines will be allowed to be quoted, because the lines can be attributed to the Mario Bros. figures shown in the video.
• Charles Martinet saying "All toasters, toast toastie!" in his Mario voice at a convention panel is not to be quoted because Martinet is still being himself as he changes his pitch to sound like Mario.
• even outtakes can be quoted as long as they are incorporated into a fictional blooper portraying the character being interpreted, Pixar-style. Ben Campbell's King K. Rool stutters and says a bad word while singing a line in front of a mic.

Proposer: Koopa con Carne (talk)
Deadline: June 24, 2023, 23:59 GMT

Support

1. Koopa con Carne (talk) Chile today, hot tamale!