MarioWiki:Proposals

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Current time:
Friday, November 15th, 08:10 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 15, 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
  • Consider Deep Cheeps' appearance in the Super Mario Maker series a design cameo rather than a full appearance (without Blurps being affected) (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)

List of Talk Page Proposals

Writing Guidelines

None at the moment.

New features

None at the moment.

Removals

Deleting shadow or shadowless versions of artworks

Occasionally (but often enough to have happened repeatedly), users including myself have uploaded both shadow and no shadow versions of the same artwork, and treated them as separate pictures in galleries. Several times, I've seen users questioning the necessity of having both versions stored on this website. Therefore I feel we are obliged to establish a decision through a proposal as to which version we should keep.

An example of the difference may be seen on revisions of File:Dixie Kong - Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.png. Most of the other artworks concerned by this proposal are versions of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U character artworks.

Proposer: YoshiKong (talk)
Deadline: August 18, 2016, 23:59 GMT

Replace shadowless with shadows

  1. YoshiKong (talk) – I would like to see us keep the artworks with shadows, as they would aesthetically be the most true and complete version of the artwork. Onwards, users should be more careful when cropping artworks with shadows. Sometimes it is difficult to be sure when a shadow ends, due to the pixels fading as they move away from the character. We would not want users cropping out parts of a shadow accidentally.
  2. Wildgoosespeeder (talk) - Per proposer.

Replace shadows with shadowless

Although this is not my preference, I will explain the advantages nevertheless. Artworks without a shadow are able to be cropped tighter (there will be less space around the image). This means that the artworks will be displayed more clearly when placed in galleries and other small thumbnails.
  1. Wildgoosespeeder (talk) - I'm OK with the other option as well.

Keep both versions available on the wiki

This would set a precedent to upload and document every minor variation of an existing artwork, which I believe is quite excessive.
  1. Bazooka Mario (talk) This is an incorrect premise. Supporting to keep both versions do not necessarily open invitations to keep every minor variation in the wiki. As Mister Wu pointed out, shadow and shadowless versions are both used in official media, which can bring up the question of which one is the "real" one. It's less complicated, I think, to just use our own discretion on what variation to use and which variation not to use. It's not much of a huge deal to keep both shadow and shadowless versions in the big picture either, so I don't see the harm in keeping both versions.

Comments

Frankly, I have good use for both versions on the wiki. I like having official shadows on some areas where I need to use artwork, like scene-building with artworks, and sometimes, when building a wallpaper, I prefer using the version without shadows as it's far more convenient that way than cropping out shadows. Though I don't believe in documenting every single minor variation of artwork, I'd keep having shadows and no shadows. BabyLuigiFire.pngRay Trace(T|C) 17:59, 11 August 2016 (EDT)

I understand that there are advantages in having both versions. But I have seen users bringing up time and time again whether we really should be storing all these versions. Websites like PidgiWiki are dedicated to documenting and archiving every artwork variation. I just felt that it wasn't within our goal. Of course we want to archive all the different artwork across all games and media, but I feel that the "different artwork" scope we are going by is becoming too narrow when it comes to shadows/non-shadows. Although they're nice resources to have (for user purposes, like you said), it's not necessary for our article/gallery commentary. – YoshiKong (talk) 18:25, 11 August 2016 (EDT)
I was one person that questioned needing shadow and shadowless where we should only require only one of the two but I never got a response. Gallery talk:Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U#Shadow and Shadowless? --Wildgoosespeeder (talk) (Stats - Contribs) 18:34, 11 August 2016 (EDT)
To be honest, I just stumbled upon the case of the arcade version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games that uses a shadowless versions of an artwork as main artwork of the character in the official site, while other versions use the same artwork with shadow in other contexts. So, there can be situations in which both of them are useful - if most artwork used in the page is shadowless, an artwork with shadow feels out of place to me.--Mister Wu (talk) 19:14, 11 August 2016 (EDT)

This may be a dumb question, but aren't the shadowless versions technically unofficial, as they have been edited out after the fact by a fan? Hello, I'm Time Turner. 19:27, 11 August 2016 (EDT)

I wouldn't really say so, because some files are kept in a .pdf format that separates shadows and nonshadows with different layers. You might argue that disabling the shadow layer makes it a "fan" edit, but that they separate layers in the first place is an official move. It's kind of like separating the characters in File:MLPSSXTour.png, but of course, the characters are more important than shadows, so it's not a perfect analogy. Icon showing how many lives Mario has left. From Super Mario 64 DS. It's me, Mario! (Talk / Stalk) 20:37, 11 August 2016 (EDT)

I would not support losing shadowless altogether. Look at Dixie Kong's infobox. Forcing the shadowed image would have the character on the left half of the image and nothing but empty space and a shadow on the right. I agree that galleries shouldn't show both. Shadowless has the advantage that it will always show more of the character. I could support 1) only shadowless or 2) status quo with a new rule that galleries should include one or the other and not both. --Steve (talk) Get Firefox 07:19, 12 August 2016 (EDT)

Remove critic ratings from the wiki entirely

So in a recent proposal, it was decided that series pages such as Mario (franchise) should have critic ratings removed. My proposal here is to go beyond the scope of that proposal, and expand the decision to every article on the wiki.

Proposer: 3D Player 2010 (talk)
Deadline: August 18, 2016, 23:59 GMT

Eradicate critic ratings on the wiki

  1. 3D Player 2010 (talk) Critic ratings have bias to them based on the opinion of the critic, and biases are not desirable on the wiki.

Keep critic ratings on the wiki

  1. Time Turner (talk) Reviews are important for gauging the public's reaction to a game. They're also supposed to be professional, meaning that the reviewer's biases shouldn't make themselves apparent in the review.
  2. Tucayo (talk) - Very strong oppose; ratings are an important part of how the game was received and we don't feature just any review that pops up, only the more reputable ones.
  3. Bazooka Mario (talk) The reasons for removing critic ratings in the (series) pages, for a good reason, do not extend to here. The previous proposal was dealing specifically with the formatting of the ratings content in the (series) pages rather than having ratings information in of itself. This proposal also runs directly against an established MarioWiki policy: MarioWiki:Reception and Sales, so this proposal may not even be allowed, especially without any sort of lengthy discussion. As the policy puts it, "illustrating its real-world impact and popularity is just as important [as] detailing the fictional minutiae of the Mario franchise" and if this proposal passes, it will leave a major gap in our coverage of everything Mario, which runs against encyclopedia philosophy.
  4. AfternoonLight (talk) Keep it! Take Mario Kart 8 for example. Metacritic scored that game 88 out of 100. That is why I'm keeping it!
  5. Andymii (talk) Per all. It's an important part of the reception a game has received. IGN and GameSpot (the ones we usually feature) are very reputable sources, so there's no reason to remove them.

Comments

@AfternoonLight: no offense, but either I'm completely missing the point, but your argument seems a little weak. I know I'm supporting the same choice as you, but could you still explain how Metacritic's score of 88 on Mario Kart justifies that reviews should be kept on pages? --Andymii (talk) 23:44, 11 August 2016 (EDT)

Changes

Create a template for the TTYD badge drop rates

On most of the pages created for the badges that appear in TTYD, there's a handy infobox that shows the rates of badges being held or dropped by enemies during a battle. An example is shown below.

Badge Rates in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
File:PMTTYD Badge HPplus.png
HP Plus
Roll over Rate types for descriptions, and dotted-lined rates to show percentages out of 100.
Enemy Template:H:title Template:H:title
Gloomba Template:H:title Template:H:title
Spiky Gloomba Template:H:title Template:H:title
Paragloomba Template:H:title Template:H:title
Dark Paratroopa Template:H:title Template:H:title
Dull Bones Template:H:title Template:H:title
Dry Bones Template:H:title Template:H:title
X-Naut Template:H:title Template:H:title

It looks pretty clean and professional. Its code, however, is a much different story.

{|class= width=30% cellspacing=0 border=2 cellpadding=3 style="border-collapse:collapse;" colspan="3;" style="text-align: center;" |-style="background: #90ae80" !colspan="3;"|Badge Rates in ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door''<br>[[File:PMTTYD Badge HPplus.png]]<br>HP Plus |-style="background: #a9cb96" |colspan="3;"|Roll over Rate types for descriptions, and dotted-lined rates to show percentages out of 100. |-style="background: #c4d7ba" !Enemy !{{H:title|The rate of an enemy holding an item or badge in battle, that can also be stolen with Ms. Mowz's Kiss Thief, even if the object is not seen. If this item or badge is seen in battle, the likelihood of it dropping after the battle increases to 20%. Rolling over a hold rate on this chart will show its percentage out of 100.|Hold Rate}} !{{H:title|The rate of an enemy randomly dropping an item or badge after the battle. Rolling over a drop rate on this chart will show its percentage out of 100.|Drop Rate}} |- |[[Gloomba]] |{{H:title|1%|2/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |- |[[Spiky Gloomba]] |{{H:title|1%|2/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |- |[[Paragloomba]] |{{H:title|1%|2/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |- |[[Dark Paratroopa]] |{{H:title|1%|2/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |- |[[Dull Bones]] |{{H:title|0%|0/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |- |[[Dry Bones]] |{{H:title|0%|0/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |- |[[X-Naut]] |{{H:title|1%|2/200}} |{{H:title|0.67%|2/300}} |}

The code is fairly complex for such a frequently used infobox, and users inexperienced with code can easily ruin the entire infobox by making a typo in the wrong spot. I propose creating a template which streamlines the code found in these infoboxes, making them more accessible and far easier to edit.

Proposer: Lord Bowser (talk)
Deadline: August 17, 2016, 23:59 GMT

Create template

  1. Lord Bowser (talk) Per my proposal.
  2. Pseudo-dino (talk) That definitely seems a little complex for a template that's repeated that many times, especially with the alt-text on Hold Rate and Drop Rate.
  3. AfternoonLight (talk) Sounds like fun. We have created many templates including the staff, the games, and the companies so, let's do it!

Leave as is

  1. Time Turner (talk) Until I see what the proposed template would actually look like, I'm hesitant to support this proposal.
  2. Yoshi the Space Station Manager (talk) The code may look complicated, but if you use copy and paste for the main areas, you will have the thing right. If I see the proposed finish, I might change my vote, but it just needs to be just right. Otherwise, I will say "Leave as is." Reason why? There are a lot of badges. It will be used for all of them. If it doesn't fit like this one fits, I will have a lot of trouble trying to support this.
  3. Bazooka Mario (talk) A proposal merely pointing out the flaws in the current template design is no good.

Comments

Of course the coding looks complicated when you paste it without line breaks, that's not what is seen when editing a page. Anyway before I vote, I would like to see your proposed template coding. I think a template would be beneficial to standardize the "drop rate percentage", "hold rate" and "drop rate" messages on the top of the table, and a template would also allow that message coding to not appear on the article page.

However, I have concerns about how an automated template could calculating those percentages. Additionally, you would need to consider how you will allow users to input notes about the unused drop rates, such as those seen at Jumpman (Badge). – YoshiKong (talk) 06:08, 10 August 2016 (EDT)

I agree! AfternoonLight (talk) 09:13, 10 August 2016 (EDT)

I received an email from Zootalo (talk) just now. They said that these rates are now outdated. For example, the drop rate of HP Plus for Gloomba is now implied to be 2/249, not 2/200, according to the newer version of the document I cited below. I'm not sure if there is urgent need to update them, but if someone wants, I would suggest displaying the demical form on the page and the fraction form in the mouseover text, since fractions with varying denominators are hard to read. A gossip-loving Toad (talk)

Sounds like a Wikidata for MarioWiki :P (By the way, the original data is two-dimensional, meaning they can also be sorted by enemy. Would an update to {{pm2enemybox}} be appropriate? There are so much data in that document!) A gossip-loving Toad (talk)

But the enemy infobox already displays items which could be potentially dropped by an enemy. Unless I misunderstood your suggestion? – YoshiKong (talk) 16:51, 10 August 2016 (EDT)

Time Turner: I imagine that the created template would be a generic version of the templates that are currently used on this article (like the one shown above). Pseudo-dino (talk) 03:46, 11 August 2016 (EDT)

I'd rather see it put into practice first than simply imagine what it would look like. Hello, I'm Time Turner. 15:38, 11 August 2016 (EDT)
Here's an example of what I mean:
Badge Rates in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
{{{1}}}
{{{2}}}
Roll over Rate types for descriptions, and dotted-lined rates to show percentages out of 100.
Enemy Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{3}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{8}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{13}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{18}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{23}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{28}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
{{{33}}} Template:H:title Template:H:title
This might be bad template design, I'm not sure, but someone with more experience could do it better, I'm sure. It just matches the current design (but probably uses too many parameters). Pseudo-dino (talk) 18:50, 11 August 2016 (EDT)
It's... not exactly user-friendly. This kind of code can get easily tangled up with vague variables, especially when there are a lot of them. I'm also interested in seeing the proposer's rendition of the template. Hello, I'm Time Turner. 19:31, 11 August 2016 (EDT)
Or you know, just have the beginning of the design put in a template, then use it as normal:
Badge Rates in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
File:Jumpman.gif
Jumpman
Roll over Rate types for descriptions, and dotted-lined rates to show percentages out of 100.
Enemy Hold Rate Drop Rate
Poison Puff Template:H:title Template:H:title
Spiny #2 (Glitz Pit, Spike Storm) Template:H:title Template:H:title
Other than this option (which is actually preferred, because if a change is needed in the code, it's better to update it in one location), I wouldn't support the proposal, having countless parameters is just silly.--
User:MegadarderyUser talk:MegadarderyDashbot signature
06:45, 12 August 2016 (EDT)

Miscellaneous

None at the moment.