A Guide to Posting Proposals

[Tom Paine]

A Guide to Curial Decisions and Amendments

Here is a quick guide explaining the posting of a proposal and how to go about it in true Curial style! There are generally three different types of proposals that are put before the Curia by Citizens, Amendments, Awards and Decisions and it is assumed that, regardless of what type of proposal is being put forth, that the proposer will maintain their OP and keep it updated with supports and updated versions of the proposal. Remember you cannot propose a measure where a similar one has failed within 28 days, so be sure to check the Archives if you think this might be the case, and that the Administrators may veto any proposal regardless of its support within the Curia, so anything detrimental to the site is unlikely to be implemented.

Amendments

There are proposals that that add, remove or alter text in the Constitution which can range anywhere from minor changes to he addition of new sections. It is generally the practice to use the insert tag when adding text and the delete tag when removing text instead of just adding or deleting it so people can easily see the changes you are proposing to make. A record of all passed Amendments can be found in the Annals of Amendments in the Tabularium sub-forum.

Awards

These are proposals that aim to grant the nominee a Curial Award (a list of such awards can be found in the Constitution), for example Opfiex or Novus. Usually the proposer will post the criteria and how they think the nominee has met it, citing examples where possible, in the OP. It used to be general practice to ask the nominee beforehand if they were willing to be nominated, but recently that hasn't been the case and as a proposer you are under no obligation to. A record of all granted Awards can be found in the Register of Medals Awarded by Vote of the Curia in the Tabularium sub-forum.

Decisions

Decisions are effectively requests by the Curia to the Administrator for some change in the site or its policy, for example the creation of new sub-forums, changing the user titles etc. although there have been some more unusual requests in the past such as asking CA to purchase the rights to the RTW engine, and you shouldn't feel limited with what you propose. I say a request because Administrators are not bound to implement Decisions even if they pass through the Curia, although this has rarely been the case. A record of all passed Decisions can be found in the Annals of Decisions thread located in the Tabularium sub-forum.

If you are under any doubt when proposing just ask in the Townhall thread, there a huge group of people who will be willing to help you out and answer any questions if you are unsure on procedure, and PM'ing the Curator is always a good option if you have any questions but don't want to ask in public. Remember also there is an archive forum which has a record of nearly all previous proposal put forth regardless if they passed or not so looking through there can also be helpful if you are looking for examples, are unsure how to word a certain Amendment or want to see how other people have formatted their proposals.

Hope this helps!

Spoiler for Old Guide: 

Would would-be proposers please read this before they post anything. It is currently very confusing and very time consuming to see what proposals are ready to go to vote. If you are the proposer of a decision or amendment or anything it is your responsibility to keep the OP of the thread updated with the most recent version of your proposal and a list of its supporters. This means things can be moved to vote a lot easier and it also means your proposal can get moving as soon as possible too.

Proposing a Decision:

1. Decide on the general idea or principle behind the Decisions.
2. Research details of the system, for instance by going to other (preferably vBulletin) fora and seeing if they have systems in place for such a purpose; if they do, decide on a system which looks good (not necessarily aesthetically in terms of graphics, just in terms of general placement) and fits the original concept. If no forum you can find has a system akin to that which you want, ask yourself why not.
3. Once a decision has been reached on a system that looks good and seems to fit the original idea, PM the administrator(s) of that site (once, and politely) to ask how the idea was achieved; also look at vBulletin support forums, using search terms to try to find the precise item being looking for. Collect and collate information that has been gathered.
4. Having worked out the nature of the system and how it can be implemented, word a precise proposal that has efficacy and use in terms of applying the idea, and that won’t be too much of a burden on the Technical staff to research specifics – posting a link to a specific hack, for instance, is preferable to asking for something generally.
5. Post the proposal! If you are unsure of how to word it, ask the Curator or post it and wait for someone to suggest some improvements - this will come quickly and will be useful, generally.

When amending the Constitution, be sure to use [ins] tags for added text, and [del] tags for removed text.

Example:

Text added.
Text removed.