 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
A great deal of policy discussion affecting the Wikipedia community takes place on off-wiki forums. Sometimes this is essential to the proper functioning of Wikipedia for a variety of reasons. Whenever possible, policy discussions should take place in the venue most suitable to the context, rather than any single venue. It can even beneficial to have multiple discussions over time. For example, a problem might be identified on social media and discussed in a mailing list before a proposal is made on wiki.
Discussion venues varied across the years. Mailing lists and IRC have been used since the beginning. Later, some discussions have been absorbed by social media. In the 2020s, group-based chat systems like Discord, Telegram and Matrix are also common.
"Consensus" in the Wikipedia context means consensus amongst comments posted on Wikipedia. Off-site discussions do not contribute to "consensus".