Wiki governance and voting policy

Wikis are governed (or managed) by bureaucrats, administrators or any other designated group with similar functions. Wikis on Miraheze generally function by the principle of community consensus. Miraheze holds the attitude that wikis are not owned by any user, but by their community.

Bureaucrats, administrators or any other designated group with similar functions must not take actions that are clearly arbitrary, unfair and for which no reason is given.

Personal wikis
In the following situations, the principle of community consensus is not applicable and the user who requested the wiki is solely responsible for governing their wiki The above list is representative but not exhaustive of all things which might be considered 'personal wikis'. Steward discretion shall be used in assessing wikis that do not fit into the stated examples.
 * private personal wikis wholly or substantially about the user who filed the original request
 * public personal e-portfolio
 * curriculum vitae (résumé)
 * blog
 * other narrowly-construed wikis with a similar purpose

Voting
A vote by a user who is clearly not genuinely connected to the wiki's community is to be weighed less than other votes.

This is to be interpreted narrowly. The presumption is that a user is connected to a wiki's community.

Examples of a user who is clearly not genuinely connected include but are not limited to: a user who has a very small amount of meaningful edits on the wiki, a user who very recently attached their account on a wiki, a user whose edits are clearly made in order to escape this provision.

An example where 'weighed less' would apply is a permission request or a proposal in which the supporting majority are overwhelmingly user accounts which joined in the last few hours, while long-time community members are uniformly opposed. Despite majority support, the proposal/permission request would be unsuccessful because the majority clearly does not represent the established community.

Canvassing
Privately asking multiple users to support a permissions request is not allowed.

Asking a large number of users who are not affiliated or genuinely connected to the wiki's community to vote in any request is not allowed.

Promising an advantage or preferential treatment in exchange for a support vote is not allowed.

Policies
All wikis are governed by Global policies and any local policies or practices that violate global policies are not allowed. This includes local policies that adopt lower standards than ones contained in global policies.

In most cases, local administrators and bureaucrats are responsible for ensuring that global policies are being respected on their wikis. Stewards and, in some cases other global groups, are also responsible to ensure that global policies are being respected across Miraheze.

This policy imposes certain minimum standards but wikis are encouraged to develop their own policies and may provide higher standards than those contained in this policy.

Background

 * Requests for Comment/Wiki governance and local elections (created) (April 2023)