Wikipedia:WikiProject Dispute Resolution/Proposals/Dispute resolution manual

This is the dispute resolution manual, a guide to everything you could possibly want to know about disputes on Wikipedia. This guide is aimed at prospective neutral parties, mediators, and editors involved in a dispute, you may also want to read Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. Here, we aim to show editors new to dispute resolution the strategies and techniques needed to understand the DR process, and to give editors with more experience some tips on how they can brush up on their skills and help them better understand conflict resolution. Wherever possible we use real examples of disputes on Wikipedia to illustrate our points.

Types of dispute

Content disputes

• What is a content dispute?

There are many types of conflicts on Wikipedia, however the main issue DR/N deals with is content. We do not deal with behavior or conduct issues. To determine whether or not an issue that has been raised is an actual dispute, DR/N has a minimum standard - extensive talk page discussion. This is not a time limit, but an issue only a day old, with few comments and replies is not collaborative editing. Consensus must be attempted on the talkpage formed in a collaborative manner. If no resolution is found on your own, then you should seek one of the various venues of the DR process.

• Before filing a content dispute

You should always attempt to discuss the contribution with the editors themselves. If you wish to clarify issues and keep from disrupting other discussions on the article talkpage, you may address your concerns on the user's talkpage. Preliminary attempts to resolve issues early with a reasonable outlook towards compromise can resovle conflict early in some instances.

• When to file a content dispute

Editors may use the Wikipedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard at any point in the Dispute Resolution process as long as extensive discussion has taken place. But it is not the only venue. When editors cannot agree on exclusion or inclusion of content, they can request assistance from a number of locations. If you are not sure what to do you may begin at DR/N and should be directed where to go next.

Levels of dispute resolution

If you are unsure if DR/N is the right venue for your dispute, you may want to consider these alternatives:

1. Disengage
2. Request a third opinion
3. Request for comment

You may also request assistance for specific issues through these noticeboards:

1. Neutrality noticeboard – for neutrality of an articles
2. Reliable Sources noticeboard – for whether or not a source is reliable
3. No Original Research noticeboard – to raise concerns about original research or source synthesis
4. Biographies of Living Persons noticeboard – for violations of our biography articles.
5. Notability noticeboard – for whether or not a subject is notable
6. Fringe theories noticeboard – theories given undue weight in articles
7. Conflict of Interest (COI) noticeboard – possible conflicts of interest
8. Ethnic and cultural conflicts noticeboard – for national, religious, ethnic, or other cultural conflicts
9. External links noticeboard – for issues with external links

• How to file a content dispute

The automated wizard makes filing a new DR/N filing easy, but you should keep a couple of things in mind:

1. Type just the name of the article as the dispute location. If this is a content dispute it should be located on the article itself. The talkpage will have the discussion and will be linked as well. Sometimes a dispute arises on the talkpage alone such as presenting sources that have yet to be edited boldly into the article and editors have already been to RS/N, or a line of proposed text that has gained no consensus and RFC has been tried or skipped for some reason. These diputes should be listed as the article or user talkpage the dispute is located.

Strategies for resolving disputes