[WikiEN-l] Active discussion of policy (and forming community consensus)

[John Lee]

I'm at my wits' end over how to handle [[Wikipedia:Preliminary 
Deletion]]. Half the oppose votes oppose the policy for no reason other 
than that they prefer a different course of action - how am I to address 
that when it's clear that a majority of the community prefers this 
proposal to the alternative this substantial opposition proposes 
(namely, the expansion of speedy deletion criteria)? Others called it 
instruction creep, which I've tried to address, though how this proposal 
can be viewed as complex is beyond me, A minority suggested housing it 
on the same page as VFD (when a central reason behind this is that VFD 
is overcrowded).

Now, I've added a section to the proposal answering these objectors, and 
tweaked it here and there to see if I can make it palatable. The 
problem? Nobody is coming to discuss. I've advertised this on the 
community portal and the pump as well as this mailing list, and a grand 
total of one user came to discuss why he voted no - he soon changed his 
mind on the proposal after we discussed his reasons for opposition. How 
is one to gather consensus for a divisive and controversial policy when 
it's impossible to gather discussion at all? Anthony argued that polling 
stifles discussion. Well, at least it created one user who came back and 
discussed the policy with me. Before, very few users were discussing the 
policy.

Am I appealing in this email for those who voted against preliminary 
deletion to discuss? Hell, yes. But this is also an appeal to stimulate 
discussion about how to avoid post-voting apathy - visit once to vote 
and never come back to discuss. The problem is that "hot discussions" 
don't appeal much to anyone. It's so much easier to cast a vote and 
forget about the issue. But how are we ever going to reform VFD (or any 
of our other more enduring institutions) at this rate? We're bogged down 
in vast non-consensus because a substantial minority want to have their 
cake and eat it too, and the fact that most of them won't discuss the 
issue only adds to the burden.

John Lee
([[User:Johnleemk]])