Wikipedia:Method for consensus building

This is a recommendation of a consensus building method for Wikipedia talk pages and other discussions. Participants should observe from their experience what changes are needed. The intent is to adhere to keeping it simple and avoid instruction creep as much as possible.

Wikipedia typically uses consensus to make group decisions. Left to their own devices, discussions often don't end well. Wikipedia's decline in participation has been the subject of a Wall Street Journal front-page article. Dissatisfaction with unproductive discussions has been cited as a major problem for participants. A WikiMedia Strategy task force also considered ideas for improving consensus-building processes. And that decline has still continued for years.

This consensus-building method encourages results that include all the editors' stated positions. Importantly, it also mitigates the ability to filibuster or obstruct a discussion. It does that by requiring editors to state their positions up front, and obligating editors who object to a proposal to make a better proposal that includes all sides. An editor who does not make an effort to meet those obligations is more visible in having not made an effort to include others' views, and may be excluded from the discussion if necessary to reach a conclusion. It makes it easier to show who is acting in good faith.

Even with that said, we're all human. So it can't possibly be perfect. We're looking for an improvement good enough to make Wikipedia more fun, or at least not setting up valuable volunteers to drive each other away, while retaining its basic principle of large scale consensus-based decision making. Remember the saying, Perfect is the enemy of done. So let's find what it takes to achieve these needed improvements in consensus building!