Board Thread:Wiki discussion/@comment-18014300-20190622193214

Approximately ten months ago, our community held a poll on whether the  notation should be used following some concerns that it would be confusing for our audience. Although the poll was concluded, our handling of it created more confusion than it solved, and for that, I apologize.

While the text formally read "Use floruit only when both birth & death are unknown", I had introduced this last option on behalf of another contributor based on my understanding which was a mistake on my part. It was then modified along the way by this contributor along the way of the voting to be applied exclusively to a new parameter in the infobox (i.e. "active"). Subsequently I was informed after the poll had ended that the intended purpose of the parameter had been to replace the usage of the notation entirely. More recently, I was informed once more that whether the notation is used with that parameter or not is not the concern of that option, but only that date ranges which are not fully known should not be in the lede but relegated to the infobox field. Because of this constant shifting of interpretations of the result, because of how it deviates so much from the original text of the option, and because the final interpretation I was given does not actually resolve the question at the center of the debate of the usage of fl., our wiki has witnessed some low-scale edit warring over the implementation of this poll's result by various contributors over these past months since it was closed. I have seen editors who revert one another's edits on this matter simultaneously cite the poll to justify their position.

As a result, after some deliberation, the admins have decided that it is clear from this that a new poll needs to be redone. Henceforth, the former poll has been voided.

It will take a while for us to introduce a new poll because we are testing a new method of voting which would offer greater clarity to the results. The problems we experienced with this last poll stemmed partly from the new format of Fandom's forum where new options cannot be clearly added to a poll which is independent of the OP's post.

In the meantime, I will ask that our community respect this by refraining from editing over this further. Because the poll has been nullified, there are two options before us: revert to the original style of unknown or maintain the usage of each page prior to it first being contested. Since the former has still proven divisive, we should resign to simply not fighting articles over this in the meantime. Whether an article is using unknown, fl., using the infobox parameter of "active", using the parameter with c., leaving the endpoint entirely blank, and what other variations I have seen across this wiki, please leave it alone.

This is to recognize that no consensus has been concluded on the formatting style and that therefore, no one has the exclusive right to impose their preference over others. Changing it to conform to one's own preference only brews more contention, invites edit warring, and is disrespectful of the reality of this lack of consensus. A new author of an article would inevitably have the choice in the matter to use the style they like, but subsequent attempts by others to bring it in line with their style elicits the statement that they are dismissive of the style used by the author.

If anyone has seen me also reverting some changes on this matter, this is mainly because my practice for these past months has already been to undo any attempt I noticed to contest the current style on the page.

I thank everyone for their patience regarding this matter, and once again earnestly apologize for our handling of the former poll.

tl;dr

The former poll on what notation to use for unknown dates of a character's death has been voided. A new poll will be held in the future. Contributors should respect the current style used by a page and not contest it any further or bring it in line with their preference. 