Wikipedia:Act of Wiki

An Act of Wiki is a statute of the legislative body of the Wikipedia community. Enacting an Act of Wiki is the most careful, inclusive, and deliberative policymaking in which the Wikipedia community will engage.

An Act of Wiki may result in the establishment of a Wikipedia policy or guideline, although other processes may establish those rules. Although an Act of Wiki may establish a rule of less importance and impact than a Wikipedia guideline, in general, no one should expect for the Wikipedia community to go through the process of passing an Act of Wiki for anything less weighty than a Wikipedia guideline.

If anyone proposes an outrageous idea, then a fair response is "It would take an Act of Wiki for Wikipedia to adopt that idea." If someone expects extraordinary bureaucracy as a prerequisite to their support for a small idea, then a fair response is "We do not need an Act of Wiki for Wikipedia to adopt that idea."

History
The Wikipedia community loves political science, the primacy of the community in the management of the commons, electoral systems, social equality in Wikimedia projects, the rule of law, and the anarchy to be able to ignore all rules.

The process of developing an Act of Wiki is similar to creating an Act of Parliament or an Act of Congress, except that an Act of Wiki is more fair and better.

Significance
When anyone talks about a legislative change which requires an Act of Wiki, then that change might have importance on the level of a Wikipedia policy or guideline. These are the highest level Wikipedia policies, thus require the highest standard of rule making.

Any issue which is not as broad-ranging as a Wikipedia guideline should not require an Act of Wiki to resolve. Wiki strives to balance perfection in fairness with the practicality of seeking progress. No one should expect the standard of care required to pass an Act of Wiki for any matter of lesser importance than certifying a Wikipedia guideline.

An Act of Wiki will not indicate an end of controversy on a matter, nor does it even indicate WP:consensus. If an Act of Wiki passes then that will only be after the Wikimedia community's own standards for wide publication, support in deliberation to collect and note comments from all perspectives, administrative support to count the varying views and report insights on demographic trends in the polling. An Act of Wiki is not an impossible ideal, but instead, is a tool with changing standards for different times and situations. The point of passing an Act of Wiki is to bring a practical end to a controversy when the Wikipedia community must decide to do something, avoid something, or consciously choose to do nothing.

Enacting an Act of Wiki
Deliberating on whether to pass an Act of Wiki is a major draw on Wikimedia community attention, labor, time, and stress. While anyone can draft a potential Act of Wiki for legislative consideration, such proposals should only come for Wikipedia community issues of sufficient importance to require the broadest and most thoughtful consideration. No one should expect that an Act of Wiki is necessary to settle any issue which is of less importance than a Wikipedia guideline. Not all Wikipedia policies and guidelines are enacted with the backing of an Act of Wiki.

A Wikipedian in a position of trust, perhaps but not necessarily in an elected position, may close a discussion and pass an Act of Wiki after large groups of Wikipedians support something and the total support includes the more weighty arguments and an excess of about two-thirds of the !vote. Those policies where the most Wikimedia community members participated thoughtfully and which had the most agreement in resolution are the best candidates for being called an Act of Wiki.

List of Acts of Wiki
To date the Wikimedia community has not actually enacted anything which it called an Act of Wiki.

One might retrospectively see discussions in Category:Times that large groups of Wikipedians supported something as establishing an Act of Wiki.