Portal:ConsensusPolls
Welcome to the Consensus Polls portal!
The Consensus Polls portal makes available a platform for collaborative decision making. Feel free to participate and contribute in any of the ongoing polls. You can also start a new consensus poll by visiting the Create page.
Please see the Guidelines section for further information on AboutUs consensus polls; you might also want to glance through our Featured Polls section to see some good examples of successful consensus polls. If you are new to this site and need assistance, please visit our Help page.
This portal is still in its early stages, and has an enormous scope for further improvement. However, this improvement can only be realized through our collaborative efforts and active participation from the community at large.
Consensus polls enable communities to resolve issues and reach decisions in a collaborative manner. They aim to leave the group feeling "whole," rather than conflicted.
With many decision-making methods that rely on voting, choices are static, and may be too few to encompass a wide range of opinions. This can lead to nearly half the group being unhappy with the outcome. Consensus polling offers dynamic and editable solutions. Participants can edit the proposed document to meet their opinion at any time during the process; this continues until 90% says "YES" to it, a very strong agreement.
Following is a description of various consensus poll roles. (The first two are not formal roles, but "types" of people who may be involved with a consensus poll.)
Following is the list of featured AboutUs consensus polls:
Active
- To select a Universal Wiki Edit Button
- To clarify page naming conventions
- To provide a definition of ourselves
Completed
- To decide company's policy regarding employee-owned laptops
- To select the AboutUsLogo
- To decide upon an AdultContentPolicy for AboutUs
- Creating an automatic counter and percentage calculator for the polls.
- Next, we will be introducing Staged Consensus Polls to this Portal.
- Here is a model-example for the same, showing format and requirements for the three stages of its development:
For more about consensus polls see:
- See the Guidelines before you begin.
- Type the name of the consensus poll you want to create after the word "Portal:ConsensusPolls:".
- Click the "Search/Create" button. (This will create a consensus poll page, including specifications and some predefined content.)
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- Enter the proposed article/policy, specifications for the static contract etc.
- Save the page. Your consensus poll is ready!
- Invite other community members to participate.
- Make sure you are logged in; anonymous users cannot participate in AboutUs polls. If you don't have an account already, click on the Create an account link.
How to participate
If you feel strongly about this decision, please engage in the consensus poll by:
Entering your name and leaving a yes status. Feel free to articulate why you are at yes so that others can benefit from your thinking. Also, please feel warmly welcomed to engage with those at not yet to help them articulate their thoughts and improve the policy.
Entering your name with a not yet status. If you don't agree with the policy as written, make EfficientlyExpressedSuggestions, either by editing the policy itself, or by commenting in your section near your not yet status. If you feel that we're about to be done even though the decision is flawed, you have a responsibility to engage with the other participants and ensure that they understand your misgivings. You can alway give yourself more time to articulate your concern by making edits; edits always reset the DoneTimer. If you do nothing, however, the decision might be adopted without your agreement.
If you don't feel strongly about this decision, feel free to work on other things. If you are feeling ProcessFatigue you may want to take a break. Before leaving, please consider leaving either a yes or not yet status with an explanatory comment.
Taking a break while leaving a yes status means:
- "Given the GoThresholds for this poll and the people who are participating, I have high confidence that the final decision will be a good one. I trust you all to watch out for my interests and come to a good decision. If the GoThresholds were lower, or if Suzy Trustworthy were not actively participating I might feel otherwise. I know that Suzy Trustworthy will ping me if I need to become involved again. So, have at it; I support your effort in spirit, even though I can't participate right now."
Taking a break while leaving a not yet status means:
- "Given the GoThresholds for this poll and the people who are participating, I'm concerned this poll might pass with a decision I can't endorse. If the GoThresholds were higher, or if Suzy Trustworthy were actively participating, I might feel otherwise. But since the thresholds are so low and no one I know from my own personal experience to be trustworthy is involved, I'm leaving my status at not yet. If there is strong enough support among others, the poll could still succeed without my approval."
We're Done When…
We are done if we can reach and maintain the levels of consensus described in the static contract below.
GoThresholds: It is critical to be clear that there are two elements. The minimum number of participants, and the percentage of all those who have chosen to participate who are at Yes. (There is no maximum number of participants; anyone who wants to participate is welcome to do so.) So,
- We need at least "X" ActiveMembers to participate. We need at least "Y"% (recommended = 90%) of those who do participate to be at YES on this document to "go."
- The document stays above the GoThresholds and remains unchanged for at least "Z" hours. Each time the document changes the DoneTimer resets to zero.
Consensus polling process summary
Initially, even before the dynamic document has begun, everyone interested in participating sets their status to "NotYet". Gradually, participants begin to set their status to "Yes" when they feel their opinions have been efficiently expressed and included in the dynamic document. The document evolves and changes while participants strive to build a consensus. Eventually, the GoThresholds are reached, as the number of participants increases, and the document grows to include the views of most participants. The DoneTimer clock starts ticking every time the GoThresholds are crossed. However, the timer is reset whenever the document is edited; and is stopped if we fall below the threshold levels. We are done when the DoneTimer expires.
Definitions of some consensus polling terms:
