Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2009-08-25/Wikipedia:Five pillars

Where is the dispute?
There have been 40 edits to Five pillars since August 20th (as of 03:46 on Aug 27th). Discussion of these edits spans Wikipedia talk:Five pillars (section 39) to Wikipedia talk:Five pillars (section 42).

Who is involved?

 * User:Agradman
 * User:Kim Bruning
 * User:Izno
 * User:Hiding
 * User:RoyGoldsmith
 * User:M
 * User:SlimVirgin
 * User:JamesBWatson

What is the dispute?
Because some editors edit the main project page without achieving consensus (under "Be bold" and "Ignore all rules"), the content of the Five Pillars varies wildly from hour to hour. A new editor, accessing WP:5P for the first time might get a totally wrong idea of what the Five Pillars (and by extension, Wikipedia itself) is all about. In addition, significantly changing one or more of the pillars may have wide-ranging effects on some of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Some of us do not believe that the Five Pillars should be changed without consensus.

Please note that the edits died down about two days ago but they seem to be heating up again. (Six edits in the last 24 hours.) At a minimum, a mediator should be aware of this situation and be prepared to step in.

What would you like to change about this?
Some editors believe they can edit what they want, including the Five Pillars or anything else. Others believe that, on certain Wikipedia policies and other important principles, the editors should reach consensus before changing the project page. We would like a mediator to help us resolve this.

How do you think we can help?

 * First, you can help us by reaching a consensus on whether a consensus (for altering the contents of the Five Pillars) is really necessary in this case or if "Ignore all rules" works here.
 * If we do decide in favor of consensus then we should decide on what that consensus should be; for example, not performing significant edits on the main page until everyone has agreed. Or letting only one person make the changes. Or something else.
 * Finally, if we've gotten this far, how should those restrictions be implemented: a sandbox where all ideas can be written and discussed; getting a sysop to fully protect the main Five Pillars page for a time, etc.
 * Also, how to back out any changes that were already made before implementing this procedure.

Mediator notes
I was overseas for a few weeks and only saw this case today. Judging by the lack of activity here or at WP:5P the issue seems to have died.

Discussion

 * Wild suggestion: how about just make it Six pillars and add Edit war? Durova  311 19:36, 4 September 2009 (UTC)