Commons:Centralised community discussion

Shortcuts: COM:CCD • COM:CENT

This page is a work in progress page, not an article or policy, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. Please offer suggestions on the talk page.

Centralised community discussion (CCD) is a formal dispute resolution process on Commons. Involved users may request outside opinions. The process can be used to help resolve conflicts with other editors, as well as to deal with disputes about policies or content that have otherwise failed to resolve successfully. Parties should understand that they will be given the opportunity to express any concerns they have, but this form of dispute resolution should not be seen as a court hearing. The decision to resolve, and to abide by, the result of centralised community discussion is subject to consensus. Editors are obliged to abide by the consensus from a centralised community discussion. Anybody is welcome to discuss issues they may have from a centralised community discussion at the noticeboard. Honest mistakes are acceptable and sometimes expected; that does not mean abusive behaviour will be overlooked.

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Requirements

Prerequisites

Note that this should be considered a last resort and should be used when other attempts to resolve the dispute have yielded no benefits.

As noted above, please do not use this process as your first way to try solving a dispute. At least two users have to endorse a request, and show that they have tried to solve the dispute in another way. Other venues can include Commons:Administrators' noticeboard, Commons:Administrators' noticeboard/User problems, and the discussions should show substantive involvement in trying to resolve the dispute in an appropriate way. Diffs are helpful when trying to prove a particular point.

Discussing with the other party

When discussing, parties are advised to stay civil; refrain commenting on users; and focus on the topic at hand in an effort to resolve and reach a solution.

Removal of rights

Try dispute resolution first before requesting removal of a user's privileges. This process has the ability to remove privileges from all user groups, except CheckUser and oversight. The group have the authority to remove administrator and bureaucrat privileges. If a specific user has misused the tools, this process can be used to investigate the issues further. Those repercussions, however, must be derived from a fair and transparent process. Removal of rights will only be considered in serious disputes/egregious user conduct, and is not taken lightly. A vote will be initiated by the group, from which they will give the outcome for the final decision on a user's access. All administrators may vote. However, a removal vote needs reasoning. If one simply votes remove, with no reasoning, it will be discounted. The group may dismiss any votes at their own discretion. The group will try to produce a fair, impartial outcome.

Removal of rights can be temporary, or indefinite, depending on the outcome of a centralised community discussion. This includes all user access levels, including CheckUser and oversight. See below for more information.

CheckUser and Oversight removal

Currently Commons doesn't have an arbitration committee. The community can vote removal of access. See meta's policy for removal of CheckUser and oversight privileges from a user.

Process

Group

The bureaucrats that are a part of this group are volunteers who have been selected for this task. If they prefer not to be involved in a specific topic, they must state so upfront giving a reason. Otherwise they are expected to be active on the topic discussion.

Closing

A centralised community discussion may run for about 3 weeks to allow wide participation, allowing matters to be carefully reviewed, and possibly be dealt with. The final decision and the result of a centralised community discussion will be left to a group of uninvolved and neutral administrators, who have been selected (for a specific discussion/topic).

Requests

To request a centralised community discussion: Discussions are created on subpages of Commons:Centralised community discussion Example: if you want to request a centralised community discussion on User:John Doe, enter the text: Commons:Centralised community discussion/John Doe Then click "Request a centralised community discussion". You will be taken to a page where you can fill out the request. Please make your request there brief and concise. Requesting a centralised community discussion Use the box below, and type in the user you want my attention of

Instructions

To make a request, please follow these steps:

1. First create a request under the section named #Requests, and follow the instructions in the input box.
2. Parties will be given the opportunity to present their own statements, but are generally advised not to write excessively long statements unless it is necessary.
3. Remember that staying on-topic is essential for a chance to successfully resolve the issue(s). Participants who do not abide by this may have their irrelevant posts removed. Off-topic discussions are to be moved elsewhere and are not part of the procedure. Discussions are monitored by the group selected to follow the discussions, and/or by other uninvolved administrators.
4. Please refrain from accusing a party. Accusations are generally not helpful.

Archive

The archive is located at centralised community discussion/Archive.