[WikiEN-l] "Consensus" and decision making on Wikipedia

[Zoney]

Consensus is a favorite word on Wikipedia, pulled out on all occasions
whether on AfD, policy decisions, or simple article content matters. Going
by the dictionary definition of "consensus" (e.g. on Wiktionary) or our own
encyclopaedia article on consensus, can we really claim that decision-making
on Wikipedia is by consensus?

Historically many decisions seemed to mostly go by majority (of small group
of debate/vote participants) or large majority for change. Now, partly on
the basis of "voting is evil", there seems to be more and more decisions
made after "debate", where realistically, the action taken afterwards (or
during) is either arbitrary, majority wish (going by comment
counting/argument weighting rather than vote counting), or simply rule by
the strong-minded who just do what they wish when they've at least some
people to back them up (indeed perhaps not even that). I would suggest few
decisions are made from truly forming consensus between debate participants,
let alone considering the wider community.

Really - is there any hope of having a fixed method of decision-making on
Wikipedia, rather than a shambolic pretence of achieving consensus that just
allows groups to make decisions in different circumstances according to
different methods as it suits them?

Zoney
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