User blog:ReverieCode/Resolving Disagreements


 * (Note: I’m a Fandom Wiki Manager available here to help the community, which is why I'm publishing blog posts like this. As part of that position, I have direct access to Fandom staff members.)

Hello everyone! I hope you all are well.

For those of you that haven't been editing regularly here, there has been a conflict ongoing lately, with too many reversions of others' edits and arguing. In a previous blog we tried to sort out these things. The wiki feels somewhat calmer now, but there are still some disagreements here and there, so there are still some issues to deal with regarding making decisions for what goes in articles (in cases where people disagree with each other).

I have observed that whenever there is a big disagreement, it tends to be one user against another, and other members don't really participate (probably because arguments get uncomfortable). I think that if we organize it so that others can participate, it will be easier to reach a "community decision" on whatever the topic is - and then that will put an end to the reversions.

If we can get this to work, arguments will get solved, you won't have to edit under the pressure of "not doing three reverts" and admin rights will be restored (for those who have been demoted).

Example
To give you an example of what I was thinking we could do - let's say I want to name a character A, but another user thinks the right name for it is B. Then I revert it back to A, but he reverts it again, and it starts becoming frustrating. Clearly, a decision must be made.

At that point, I go to another space on the wiki to address all users, so that they can vote/comment if they prefer A or B. There are many options for this:
 * You can create a blog post explaining each side and letting people vote in the comments (to create a blog, just go on your user page and look for the "blog" tab);
 * You can comment below on this post (and have the comments under the main comment be the votes);
 * You can go to Discussions;
 * Or you can create a project page specific for these cases, such as Project:Community Decisions.

So for example, let's assume I created a blog and explained each side. The blog gets promoted for the whole wiki, the users vote (for a week or so) and decide to name the character B. I would have to accept it as it's what the community wants.

That allows us to move on because I can't revert the page back to "A" again - if I do, I'm going against the community choice. The point being, it should be "B" because the community decided "B", and there's no reason to spend more time here (unless something happens in The Bold and the Beautiful that makes us question it again, but that's another decision entirely).

It's probably worth saying that this process is for reasoned voting, and not more hostility. It's supposed to be clear, with the comments having a "Yes - I agree with X" or "No - I disagree with X" or something along those lines, but not more arguments as then it becomes impossible to continue.

Next steps
If there's something any of you feel needs to be decided right now, I encourage you to go ahead and start the process based on the above. I can use a feature to promote it so that other users get a notification on the top bar, so it should be seen by anyone who edited recently.

(I will also promote this blog, so you can read this of course - but you may see how the notification works.)

Though in my previous blog post things got a bit hostile, I consider some aspects of it as a good start and I know you care about contributing here. So let's make this work!