[WikiEN-l] ArbCom about to declare that the MoS is policy

Thu Jun 23 19:31:56 UTC 2005

1) Wikipedia has established a Wikipedia:Manual of Style for the  
"purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent  
format," see [1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_%28dates_and_numbers%29#Eras). The  
prescriptions of Wikipedia's manual of style are not binding, but it  
is suggested that with respect to eras that "Both the BCE/CE era  
names and the BC/AD era names are acceptable, but be consistent  
within an article."

Fred

On Jun 23, 2005, at 12:56 PM, Jon wrote:

> ArbCom, unfortunately, but at least now with good intentions, is  
> making another mistake on the BCE/CE arbitration. It appears to be  
> about to declare that the MoS (or at least an extract of it) is  
> policy. My understanding is this is not the case, and that the MoS  
> is just a non-binding guideline.
>
> This understanding comes from a recent discussion, initiated by  
> SlimVirgin, who argued that the MoS had never followed the correct  
> procedure to become policy. I argued that it had - as it was  
> followed generally by WPians and had been effectively accepted as  
> such by the community. However, SlimVirgin, supported by others,  
> argued that it would need a consensus vote. I didn't persevere in  
> countering this argument for too long, and the designation of the  
> MoS as "policy" was removed.
>
> It seems the ArbCom is about to reverse the effects of that  
> discussion and declare a basic guideline as policy. As there is  
> nothing in the general wording of the MoS to separate out the bits  
> on BCE/CE notation from the rest, it leaves open the possibility  
> that users not complying with the MoS (and most don't from time to  
> time at least in some respects) are leaving themselves open to  
> complaints.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Jguk
>
>
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