Define consensus

The requests that Chen makes on the article page are nothing new. WP:CIVIL and policies telling us not to bite newcomers have been around since the beginning. Simply asking us again is not likely to make any changes.

I've been on WT: MoS for a few years now, and certain problems keep cropping up over and over. We almost always end up resorting to polls because we have no clear definition of consensus. There are lots of arguments about things like en-dashes vs. hyphens, whether or not the singular they is too informal for Wikipedia, and what constitutes appropriate gender-neutral language.

The Manual of Style, which contains guidance on grammar, punctuation and style for Wikipedia articles, contains several sections that are in direct conflict with professional style guides and what people are taught in school. They're there because a small number of editors (but a majority of the people on WT: MoS) decided that they liked or didn't like a certain way of writing and managed to shout down anyone who disagreed. For example, American-style punctuation is banned. British-style is required for all articles. People have been brought up on AN/I for using American punctuation, even on articles with American subjects.

I feel that some way of defining consensus, something other than "it's not just a poll" would help with matters like these. We could also use some guidance for what to do when the majority of editors say one thing but the majority of sources say something else.

Consensus is reached among a tyranny of elitist editors whose goals are the protection of their fiefdom and status. New editors do not have the time or inclination to play the political game wikipedia has required for a long time.

And that with English as a world language! And then - just imagine a non-established language or language variant such as Bavarian!: The point is that principally everybody has the the right to use his own system - but: What is a system actually? And some people do not agree that a certain system, such as the Bavarian Book Language. though having been existing for decades, is a system in its own right ... --Hellsepp 16:38, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

The latest MOS brouhaha to hit en.wp ArbCom seems to be hyphens vs dashes. Dashes are favored by Oxford English it seems, so MOS mandates them.