In the wake of the recent naming policy poll, which was sparked by the
debate on [[Talk:Kiev]] as well as the poll on the New York City talk
page, it cannot be denied that a firm policy needs to be adopted
regarding the naming of articles about places.

The current policy at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(city_names)
is neither supported by consensus nor complete enough to handle the
variety of problems with these articles' names.

I have drafted a proposed policy on the naming of articles about
geographical places. I expect that there are some aspects of it which
will be controversial, and some aspects which will be changed, but I
have tried to justify the particulars of the policy. It is formulated as
a set of principles and rejected principles.

It includes a proposed policy for dealing with disputes about article
names, which would work for any kind of article, not just articles about
places.

The draft proposal is at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geographical_names_naming_policy_(proposed)

I propose a 4-week discussion and revision period followed by a two week
binding voting period with a 70% majority rule. There will be separate
votes for each section: "Multiple names", "Ambiguous names", and
"Exceptions and naming polls". There will also be a separate vote about
whether the naming polls policy shall apply to all articles or just to
geographical place articles if it is adopted.

Unless there is strong objection to this voting proposal, the voting
period will begin at midnight UTC June 11 and end at midnight UTC June 25.

For discussions about the details of the policy, please discuss on the
relevant talk page. You can voice your objections to the voting proposal
either here on the list or on the wiki.

I strongly urge that we have congenial discussion and make compromises
in the proposed policy so that the vote will succeed, because I believe
having a firm policy on naming will go a long way towards reducing the
amount of energy expended on naming debates.

- David

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