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Shortcuts: WP:PRO WP:PRC WP:PROC WP:PROCESS

On Wikipedia, processes are the patterns and the methods of routine and semi-routine actions. It is a technical, methodical, and semi-formal means of accomplishing goals and resolving disputes. These processes are deferential to policies and overlap with guidelines.

Exact processes are subjective. Each editors often expresses distinct patterns and methods. At the lowest level, editors are given the greatest discretion over the exact means of accomplishing a goal. As interests grows, disputes are fostered. Formal process becomes essential in resolving these conflicts.

Article-making is a loose process beginning with creation and continuing to a featured article review; it may in some cases be deleted.

Articles and group of articles are tagged into semi-hierarchical categories, and grouped into portals.

Contents 1 Decision making 1.1 Consensus making 1.2 Widening consensus 1.3 Policy making 2 Articles 2.1 Construction 2.2 Deletion 2.3 Moving 2.4 Merging 3 Organization 3.1 Categories 3.2 Portals 4 References

[edit] Decision making

[edit] Consensus making

“	The real struggle is not between the right and the left [...] but between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks. And no side of the political spectrum have a monopoly on either of those qualities.	”
—Jimbo Wales, interview at the TED conference, 2007[1]

Decisions are made through the consensus of all involved parties. Low-profile articles, templates, and pages receive little traffic and editors often work alone. Editors are granted greater discretion over the means used to accomplish their goals. Consensus at this level is often implied (WP:SILENCE).

As the number of editors involved in a particular edit space increase, potential disputes increase. Goals differ and the involved parties attempt to articulate their basis in the discussion. Decisions are made with the threshold of consensus, which requires all or most of the editors to concede with a specified action.

If the involved editors lack the adequate means to resolve the dispute, such as reliable sources, community notice boards provides a linkage institution to attract greater visibility to the issue. A neutral message is placed on the appropriate board: third opinion (WP:3O), conflicts of interest (WP:COIN), request for comment (WP:RFC), fringe theories (WP:FTN), biographies of living persons (WP:BLPN), original research (WP:ORN), reliable sources (WP:RSN), or certain content specific disputes (WP:WPR).

When involved parties are unable to resolve. The discussion may become stale. A Bold, Revert, and Discussion (BRD) cycle is a proactive means used to reestablish participation or accept consensus. An editor readds a proposal in whole or in part, which prompts the involved parties to identify the objections to edits, keep discussion moving forward, or concede with silence (WP:BRD).

If the discussion is intense, the BRD cycle may increase contentions, and the dispute would be unresolved. Behavioral policies and guidelines become essential in retaining the integrity of the discussion. If a participant fails to adhere to these behavioral policies, a set of community notice boards are available as linkage institutions to sanctions either on the dispute itself in the case of a cool-down period, or on specific editors. A neutral message is placed on the appropriate board: civility (WP:WQA), request for comment on a user (WP:RFC/U), reverting (WP:AN3), incidents (WP:ANI), or administrative actions (WP:AN).

Some disputes cannot be resolved by the involved parties alone. Contentions may be too high, parties too persistent, or communication too incoherent—to resolve the conflict by reasonable means. Two last resort institutions are available. The first is Mediation (WP:MEDCOM), the second Arbitration (WP:ARB). Mediation provides either an informal (WP:MEDCAB) or a formal (WP:RFM) neutral third party to mediate disputes. Mediation is the second to last step and requires participants to remain voluntary to the processes involved. The arbitration process (WP:ARB) is the last resort means of providing binding solutions to disputes. Arbitration is formal, participants are required to adhere to specific policies (WP:AP), or be blocked in contempt.

[edit] Widening consensus

Community norms provide a consistent means from which decisions are made. Consistency builds integrity and are focused on providing value to the reader. Norms are articulated in essays or declared in policies and guidelines. Norms are a loose consensus, which begins with individual editors and ends with far reaching policies and guidelines. Widening consensus is the process from which individual decisions reaches acceptance by a larger community.

Editors construct articles according to their beliefs, which can be modified by another editor according to their beliefs. For example, verifiability and notability dictates the criteria of inclusion, while consensus dictates how the criteria of inclusion is applied.

Grassroots consensus building among editors on an article is widened when larger standing committees are borne. Wikiprojects link groups of editors to facilitate discussion. They may operate with little activity and with loose enforcement or may become far reaching entities requiring articles within their scope to adhere to specific cr

They provide the means for consistent article making and organization, and provide linkage institutions to policies and guidelines. To join or leave a Wikiproject requires no obligation or requirement.

[edit] Policy making

Policies and guidelines hold authority in decision making. They are cited in discussions, where its scope reaches so far as to: guiding writing style (WP:MOS), defining appropriate behavior (WP:CIVIL), defining a criteria of inclusion (WP:N and WP:V), and even the number of reverts an editor may make within twenty-four hours (WP:3RR). All policies and guidelines are written with original intent (WP:5P), which are designed to supplement commonsense as to replacing it (WP:IAR).

Policies and guidelines are living document, which change according to the community's philosophy towards improvement. Changing a policy or guideline requires consensus, and the level of which generally entails that it changes be publicize depending on the scope of the change.

A minor change such as rewording or improving the prose of the policy or guideline are made on the page's discussion. Some editors choose to use the project page's discussion as a preliminary measure for large amendments before using either a linkage institution or request for comment.

New policies and guidelines must are created by either: (1) tagging a project page with {{proposal}} or {{promote}} and running a Request for Comment, or (2) through a linkage institution such as the village pump (WP:VPP) or a parent project (e.g. WP:WPMOS) which help editors step through the proposal process and to provide feedback.

[edit] Articles

[edit] Construction

Articles are created either by requested from an anonymous user, or immediately by a registered user (WP:UAL).

[edit] Deletion

Articles must express notability (WP:N) and verifiability (WP:V), otherwise it may be deleted. The exact procedures are detailed in (WP:DPR#AFD).

If the deletion is non-controversial, it may be applicable under a criteria of speedy deletion (WP:CSD).

[edit] Moving

Each edit is saved into a history, when a page is moved the history is retained. Only the name space is changed. Only autoconfirmed users can move pages (WP:UAL)).

[edit] Merging

If an article's content is not sufficient or notable enough for its own article, it may be able to be merged into an article on a related and wider subject.

[edit] Organization

[edit] Categories

[edit] Portals

[edit] References

v • d • e Key Wikipedia policies and guidelines Overview Policies and guidelines · List of policies · List of guidelines Project-wide principles What Wikipedia is not · Editing policy · Consensus · Dispute resolution · Ignore all rules Article standards policies Neutral point of view · Verifiability · No original research · Biographies of living persons · Naming conventions · Deletion Behavioral policies Civility · Edit warring · No personal attacks · No legal threats · Ownership of articles · Sock-puppetry Behavioral guidelines Assume good faith · Etiquette · Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point · Please do not bite the newcomers · Gaming the system Classification guidelines Categories, lists, and navigation templates · Lists · Categorization · Template namespace Content guidelines Conflict of interest · Do not include copies of primary sources · Disambiguation · Do not create hoaxes · Notability · Patent nonsense · Reliable sources Editing guidelines Be bold · Linking · Edit summary · Hatnotes · Signatures · Talk page guidelines · User page Style conventions Article size · Manual of Style