Fanlore:Managing Conflict

Policy:	Managing Conflict
In summary:
Related Policies:	Deceptive Practices, Ethical Standards for Community & Content, Identity Protection

Registering a complaint or flagging content

Nobody "owns" an article. By contributing to the wiki, users agree to let others edit their work. This is central to the philosophy behind the wiki software and writing, and users ought to be aware of this before they begin. The hope is that each edit will improve, amend, correct, or diversify the available viewpoints on a matter.

Wiki editors may disagree on an edit without it being a malicious edit; therefore, the dispute resolution process asks editors to begin with the presumption of benign intent. For a non-comprehensive list of what counts as a malicious edit and what does not, visit our Hostile Editing Policy page.

If there is a case of policy violation, deceptive practices, malicious edits or other conflict on the wiki, please follow the steps below:

If it is a time-sensitive issue that requires immediate attention, such as violation of the Identity Protection policy

• Contact the Administrators directly with details of the violation, including a link to the page in question. You do not need to be the subject of the outing to register this complaint, but if you are not, please include evidence that the subject objects to the outing (as this is not always the case).

• The Administrators will revert or erase the material that is in violation of the policy and delete the revision from the article's history, preventing the information from being stored on the wiki.

If it is a violation of policy, but time is not as critical

• If the violation does not appear to be malicious, edit the article in an attempt to resolve the violation.

• Leave a note on the talk page of the article to point readers to the policy and explain why the edit was made.

• If the other user repeatedly reverts the article to their original text, contact a Gardener, who will leave a comment on the OP's talk page and offer assistance with using the wiki should they need it.

If it is a dispute with another user, perhaps over a malicious edit

What is a malicious edit?

A malicious edit is a change made to a wiki page

• under false pretenses, such as by creating a Sockpuppet to obscure the change history or create the illusion that the edit has support,
• to destroy useful information, remove a dissenting point of view, or introduce misinformation or untruths,
• to reduce the utility of the wiki as an information source by posting non-information. This is vandalism.

Procedure for resolving a dispute with another user

• If two users disagree with each other's edits of a page, their first method of resolution should be to address it with each other, via the article's or user's talk page, or some method of contact given there.

• If they are unable to resolve the dispute this way, an attempt will be made to resolve the dispute via a third party; contact the Administrators via their talk page or email.

• If this fails, the matter will be escalated to the discretion of an Administrator. At that point, users will not have a direct say in the outcome, which will be the purview of the Administrator or beyond:

• If Administrators cannot resolve the matter according to guiding principles and editing policies, the Fanlore Committee will deal with the dispute.

Reporting & dealing with Deceptive Practices

• In the first instance, report the occurrence to a wiki staffer - either a Gardener or an Administrator. If appropriate, any user may revert the edit to remove the vandalism or offensive material.

• The staffer will investigate and follow up with the article and user in question following administrative procedures, such as suspension, banning, and/or deleting.

Spam

• Spam can and should be dealt with by any user by reverting the page. Please also email the Gardeners OR add the spam notice to the page, and someone will ban the spambot (and delete the page if it was created solely for spam). Fanlore has in-built spam protection extensions, and Gardeners are also patrolling for it in their usual operations.

If you have a complaint regarding the conduct of official wiki staff

Please contact the Fanlore Committee via email if you'd like to discuss any problematic behaviour of Wiki staff.

If you have a complaint regarding Fanlore Policies

Policy pages are protected so that only the Fanlore Committee can edit them. This does not mean, however, that they are static. If you have suggestions for or problems with any of Fanlore's policies, please leave a comment on the policy's associated talk page or email the Committee. Feedback is regularly reviewed; you will be notified via the wiki of any changes to policy, and may also be contacted for further discussion if you make a suggestion.