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Consensus is an ongoing process on Wikipedia; it is often better to accept a less-than-perfect compromise—with the understanding that the page is gradually improving—than to try to fight to implement a particular preferred version immediately.
Disputes on Wikipedia are settled by editing and discussion, not voting. Discussion should aim towards building a consensus. Consensus is a group discussion where everyone's opinions are heard and understood, and a solution is created that respects those opinions. Consensus is not what everyone agrees to, nor is it the preference of the majority.
Therefore, consensus constitutes not an inflexible number, but a range of criteria and factors which can mold to every one of the discussions on Wikipedia. Neither does consensus mean unanimity, and while unanimity or something near it would be an ideal result, one must remember that this is merely a subset, not the whole, of consensus.
Rough consensus, a term used in consensus decision-making to indicate the "sense of the group" concerning a matter under consideration. Consensus democracy, democracy where consensus decision-making is used to create, amend or repeal legislation. Consensus-based assessment, the use of consensus to produce methods of evaluating information.
Consensus is the key mechanism for determining what content ends up in the encyclopedia, and how editors behave towards each other. It is a long held principle, both in policy and in practice, that a consensus formed by a smaller group on a topic has less weight than one formed by a larger one.
Consensus is Wikipedia's fundamental model for editorial decision-making: when it doesn't work, nothing else does either. In situations involving consensus: DO:
The breadth of a consensus is determined primarily by how easy it is to find the discussion and (later) its outcome. Consensus breadth is the extent to which it represents the community's view rather than just that of some special interest.
Wikipedia should not be among the first to declare scientific consensus. Our guidelines on Reliable sources set the bar high for claiming there is an academic consensus : A statement that all or most scientists or scholars hold a certain view requires reliable sourcing that directly says that all or most scientists or scholars hold that view.