FamilySearch Wiki talk:Dispute resolution

Is there an official dispute resolution policy yet? Not yet, but we invite all community members to review the following ideas, add comments, or add additional ideas to the list. A great model for ways to resolve disputes is at Wikipedia: Dispute Resolution. For additional ideas see, Wikipedia: Negotiation; Wikipedia:Etiquette. FamilySearch Research Wiki invites your comments and other ideas related to the tools that might be implemented:

Request another opinion

 * Ask another community member for their opinion.
 * How would someone find another community member to ask?
 * Is there a sign-up list to participate in the Wiki as one who would volunteer to give a third opinion?

Requests for comments

 * If community members have a dispute about content, they could ask the "community" for their comments on the subject being disputed.
 * How would a member request comments from the entire Wiki community?
 * Does the Community Portal page have a section for "Requests for Comment" ?
 * Should a specific page be created for use as "Requests for Comment" ? If so, how would the page be maintained?

Ask for policy clarification

 * If the dispute is related to a policy, the community member could ask for clarification on the policy if needed.
 * Who should the member ask? Administrators? Someone else?
 * How does a member request clarification?

Civility issues

 * If disputes are a result of civility issues, then what?

Protecting pages with unresolved disputes

 * Should pages be protected when disputes are not resolved?
 * How would someone request that a page needs protecting due to an unresolved dispute?
 * Who reviews the request? Who protects the page from further edits until the dispute is resolved? Who verifies the dispute was resolved and removes the protected status?
 * What happens if the dispute is never resolved?

Brief clarifications?
I don't have time to research and write these myself, but I'd love to see some clarifications added to this page:


 * On the bullet list item about consulting a third party, some explanation as to where to find a third party who is objective.
 * A brief explanation of the difference between mediation and arbitration and whether one is expected to pursue them in a certain order.

Text shouting?
The policy currently states that "rude... impolite communications are unacceptable. Does that include text shouting, or the use of caps to "shout" a point across in a discussion page or email? RitcheyMT 22:38, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

What exactly is rude or impolite?
Since "rude... impolite communications are unacceptable," does that include telling someone they are "way behind" in their understanding of how to construct Web pages? RitcheyMT 22:38, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

Criticizing the person rather than the idea
It seems a good addition or rule of thumb to add to this page is that one may express polite criticism of ideas, but one should not criticize people. So if you don't like the heading Joe added to a page, don't tell Joe he's backwards; talk to Joe about the merits of the heading and offer a possible alternative. RitcheyMT 22:38, 21 July 2011 (UTC)