Conlang:Policies

Foreword
This page and all its contents detail the policies and both specific and general rules which ensure proper function. Any and all rules and policies on this page are subject to change with or without notice. In their current form, the rules are written by Elector Dark, administrator of the wiki.

Meta-Policies
Meta-policies detail the methods, policies and guidelines on application of the wiki's policies for administrators to adhere to. They detail proper procedure, limitations of application of policy and proper methods with dealing with misuse, abuse or lack of adherence to them, and general laws that do not apply elsewhere.


 *  1) - Role of Administrators 

On the Conlang Wiki, administrators are users with sysop privileges, thus giving them access to more advanced tools, including page protection and the Administrator Panel. These users are the de-facto leaders of the community on the wiki.

Administrators usually come to power in one of three methods:
 * 1) Due to being promoted by a bureaucrat to the position of administrator, preferrably with consent of already-present administrators.
 * 2) Due to being elected to power by local users in an enviroment where there is an active bureaucrat.
 * 3) Due to being elected to power by local users in an enviroment that lacks an active bureaucrat.

All three methods have their own proper procedure and general sequence of events.


 * 1a) Bureaucratic Promotion

All elections by promotion by a bureaucrat either begin by the bureaucrat's announcement of promotion of a user or a call to vote by the administrators whether to promote the user in question or not.

In the first case, the bureaucrat can promote the user by himself and without any initial feedback from any of the administrators. After promotion, the bureaucrat is obliged to notify the administrators and regular users of the wiki of the promotion that had taken place. In event of notification, every administrator has the right to veto the promotion of the user provided that he give a proper reason for his veto. Following the veto, the bureaucrat must revoke the user's sysop privileges and cannot again grant them to that same user for the next three months. In event that the bureaucrat does grant privileges before the end of the three-month time period or does not revoke them in the first place, users and administrators can contact Wikia with request to demote the bureaucrat to administrator.

Administrators cannot veto the same user thrice in a row and bureaucraats cannot put forward a proposal to promote, or actually promote the same user thrice in a row. Furthermore, vetos and promotions out of spite are forbidden. All four actions previously mentioned are valid demotion reasons.

Bureaucrats cannot promote users without their consent, nor can they promote users without a reason. The first two times this happens they shall be warned and the user in question demoted - the third time constitutes a valid demotion reason.

As administrators, users can demote themselves - this should not be done until at least three weeks after promotion, instead a refusal of promotion and message of resignation should be composed.

In event of a promotion by administrator vote, all administrators have equal votes, users may be, with consent, nominated by every administrator, and bureaucrats have no votes at all. The nominator has no votes as well while the other administrators have all one vote.

Votes are counted in a pro/con manner - the score can be both positive and negative.

Voting should last up to seven days but may be extended to three months at the very most. During voting, each of the administrators can change their votes as many times as they'd like. Each vote and change of vote must be accompanied by a proper elaboration of the choice and the motivations behind it. Votes without any elaboration are not counted, and votes may be discussed upon to decide whether the elaboration is adequate or not.

Upon tallying the votes, in case that the nominated has won, each of the administrators, including the nominator, has a veto vote available to him - he can call a veto and thus must explain his reasons. An administrator cannot veto the same user more than twice in a row, the third time carries a warning and the veto is ignored, the fourth is a valid demotion reason.

Nominators must have the consent of the nominees for promotion. If no consent is given, the vote is dropped.

Administrators cannot nominate the same user more than thrice in a row - anything more is ignored. Nominations, pro- and con-votes, vetos and changes of vote out of spite aren't allowed and are valid reasons for demotion.


 * 1b) Promotion by Election (first)

All elections of administrators by the users of the wiki begin by a petition from one or more users to the bureaucrats or administrators to start such a vote. The administrator or bureaucrat to which the petition was given must give his consent to such an election. Election consent cannot be vetoed by anyone, be it bureaucrat or administrator.

The users should but do not need to have a candidate or a list of candidates ready beforehand.

Voting is carried out with points and pro/con votes. Only non-nominated or non-nominating users are allowed to vote, and only administrators and normal users are allowed to nominate people. Users that haven't nominated anyone have one pro-vote and one con-vote. Each of these counts as one point. Users must provide an elaboration for their vote. Votes can be changed but must be accompanied by an explanation. Votes may be withdrawn without any explanation, only a notification.

Nominated users can choose not to be voted upon or not promoted. Nomination out of spite is a valid reason for a nullification of nomination the first time it is proved, a one-week block the second and permanent banning from all further votes the third.

When voting concludes, the user with the most points is considered to have won the election. He can petition a bureaucrat to promote him, with evidence of the vote and his victory. Tampering with the results is punishable by a permanent ban on voting and a seven-day block from the wiki the first time it happens, a three-month block the second and a 99-year block the third time.

Upon conclusion of voting and the petition of promotion by the victor, administrators have veto power on the promotion. Each veto must be accompanied with an appropriate explanation - lack of explanation renders the veto void. Vetoing someone's promotion out of spite is a valid reason for demotion.


 * 1c) Promotion by Election (second)

In case there are no active administrators, the voting is carried out as above save for the fact that the petitions go to administrators only and upon conclusion, Wikia Staff shall be contacted.

Usage of administratorial powers, abuse of said powers, context-specific demotions and blocking rules shall be discussed elsewhere.


 *  2) - Usage of Policies 

Policies on this wiki act as both a limit and a form of law. Disregarding policies and breaking the rules is punishable by whatever judgement deemed apt by whoever punishes.

Policies on this wiki cannot be applied retroactively save by petition from users or by consulting other administrators. Retroactive application without prior petition or consulting and approval the first time is to be reverted, the second time is valid reason for demotion.

New policies can be made by:
 * a) Discussion in the forums by users and petition to administrators or bureaucrats
 * b) Administrators or bureaucrats without prior discussion

New policies made by administrators and bureaucrats are liable to discussion after creation with both regular members and members of administration and bureaucracy.

Application of policies may be appealed to and solved by discussion - the appeal must be directed to members of the administratorship or bureaucracy.

Blocking of Users
Users can be blocked for an amount of time from editing on the wiki.


 * 1) - Durations of Blocks

There are several standard lengths for blocks on this wiki:
 * 1) One-week block
 * 2) Two-week block
 * 3) One-month block
 * 4) Three-month block
 * 5) Six-month block
 * 6) One-year block
 * 7) Two-year block
 * 8) Ninety-nine-year block

Users should be blocked for one of the above durations. Other durations are uncommon and shall most often be reanalysed as one of the above.

While blocked, users cannot create new accounts from the last IP address they used to log on or from the e-mail address they used to register and authenticate their account, cannot edit any page on the wiki and can edit their own talk pages (usually).

Attempts to circumvent blocks shall result in a step-up in block length.

Blocks must be of the perscribed length - any block that is either longer or shorter than perscribed is fit for questioning - any block shortened or lengthened due to personal opinions towards the blockee is a valid reason for demotion. Removal of ban due to personal opinios towards the blockee is a valid reason for demotion.

Blocks may be appealed to by non-blocked users. Circumventing blocks to appeal to them is allowed but after the appeal is over (regardless of result) the appealing account is blocked.

Language
The Conlang Wiki is a project about languages and as such needs to have rules detailing both languages and the content written about them.


 * 1) - Content

English is the standard language of this wiki and as such it is encouraged for use on language pages. Languages other than English are allowed, in the situation that there might be a reasonable user base that can understand them (so, no languages such as Tsez, for example).

Code-switching isn't allowed except for a few words - no articles written in several languages are allowed, except if they are both well-written and that such code-switching is specifically intended.