User:Raidarr/Local election

This is the steward-sanctioned 'global way' to get advanced rights on a Miraheze wiki where no local process or bureaucrats are active/able to handle them, among rarer situations. This is not how every wiki needs to set up its management. However, any differences that a Steward should consider if brought in should be outlined in easily found local policies which were made with the consent of the active userbase at the time, or which were brought up as conditions when the wiki was requested. If said policies/contingencies cannot be found, this process will be used.

This cannot be used to become the dictator to change the scope of the wiki (any scope changes must be explicitly stated and approved), or replace a functioning process locally of assigning management. However (say, for reopening a wiki), this can be used to become the new operator of a wiki if its creator effectively abandoned it (was closed per Dormancy Policy and there is no sign of the founder anywhere on Miraheze or communities attached to the wiki in question).

If said founder or any active operator exists (a bureaucrat, an admin), they should be notified and able to participate in/see the process. Likewise if any users are/have been active and contributed to the wiki, they can give input as well. These votes/opinions generally outweigh an outsider/newly registered account's input unless the outsider brings something interesting/important to the process. IPs will be disregarded entirely aside from any arguments of merit they might raise.

This does not need to be used for Stewards to grant minor local rights when a wiki's administration is absent, such as confirmed.

Finally, this cannot apply at all to wikis that are private (unless the community within has its own election to bring to Stewards) or wikis that are more private in their requested scope, ie, a personal wiki or wikis with an extremely tight knit community/limited scope relating to that. In other words, only wikis that have open subject matter. If you have any doubts about the validity of a local election, please consult a Steward.

Setup
A local election should be done on its own page or on the wiki's 'central discussion area' - often (if not stated otherwise) this is the talk page of the main page. It is best to advertise it where possible, ie, via the main page and sitenotice (you can ask a Steward to do this if you lack the rights yourself).

Any local community that may exist must know about it - per the above with remotely active bureaucrats, admins, users. Of course, if there is nobody there and there hasn't been for some time then this won't take long. Otherwise you should notify the interested parties by their talk page. If there's a discord/third party community for the wiki and they have accounts which have contributed before/operate the wiki, they should know as well.

The election should contain
 * 1) The rights you want (to operate the wiki including config changes, this is administrator + bureaucrat)
 * 2) Why you should have them (past contributions, association with the community, interest in the subject, anything that would help)
 * 3) A section where any registered user can discuss

How this is presented is not critical, as long as it is clear and contains the above.

Local elections must go for a bare minimum of 4 days; the preference is around 7. If there are complications or active discussions, these must be resolved before the election is called. A Steward can be brought in to review the election at that four day minimum, and will call the election when they are comfortable from there.

Again, if there are any questions about this process, please ask a Steward, ask on the Stewards' noticeboard, or even use the talk page here.