 | This is a failed proposal. Consensus for its implementation was not established within a reasonable period of time. If you want to revive discussion, please use the talk page or initiate a thread at the village pump. |
 | This page in a nutshell: A delegable proxy system could help answer the question, "If more people got involved in this discussion, what would be the likely outcome?" |
Delegable proxy is a proposal to allow each user to designate a trusted user to speak on his behalf in debates in which the user does not participate personally. It would enable an analysis that reflects what the outcome might have been had more users participated. Its implementation would be rather simple, requiring only a proxy table. Delegable proxy does not contemplate forcing matters to a vote. Rather, it would provide an additional source of information for analyzing the results of our existing decision-making processes. In those processes, objective facts and policy take precedence over opinions; alternatives can be suggested and debated simultaneously as the original proposal; and discussion is used to present relevant facts and persuade others in an effort to reach a consensus. Certain debates more closely resemble a poll than others because the nature of the subject matter precludes creative alternatives, limiting the available options to a small set of choices (e.g. support or oppose; keep or delete; etc.) discussed in one central location. In such cases, delegable proxy's ability to analyze representativeness of the results may be particularly useful to closing admins.
Delegable proxy would initially be an experimental, optional, advisory tool, with no changes to current guidelines or policies needed to implement it. The community could examine the results of the experiment to help decide whether it would be a good idea to turn delegable proxy into a binding aspect of Wikipedia's control mechanisms, and some proponents of delegable proxy oppose making it binding even if it is successful, considering that advice is actually better than control.