After much discussion, there is now a vote to reorganize the various deletion-related pages and to split the VfD process into two stages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Deletion_policy
This was initially one big vote, based on feedback I've now separated it into different parts.
The most significant proposed change is to split [[Wikipedia:Votes for deletion]] into two stages, [[Wikipedia:Deletion requests]] and [[Wikipedia:Deletion votes]].
The problem is that right now, different people have contradictory ideas as to what VfD is supposed to be. Some regard it as a "consensus only" page and oppose all voting, others have effectively already started deleting pages according to a 2/3 threshold.
This proposal tries to find a compromise between the "no voting, ever" faction and the "vote on everything" faction. It requires those who want a vote to undergo a 7 day consensus seeking stage, and to do the job of summarizing the arguments that have been brought up in that stage. If no consensus can be reached, they can list the page at "Deletion votes" (with the aforementioned argument summary being a mandatory part of such a listing), and if 80% of support can be reached, the page may be deleted.
I would like to urge the voting opponents to consider this compromise. It is very favorable to them, as it requires a high threshold (80%) and generally encourages consensus seeking over voting. I would also like to urge the voting advocates, who I suspect to be more numerous, to accommodate the opponents in this regard to avoid escalation.
The proposal is tied to a 30 day trial period. After that period we can argue and vote once again on whether we want to continue using this scheme, refine it, or go back to the old "VfD" scheme, whatever that is.
Please participate in this decision.
Regards,
Erik