Template:Answers/Dispute



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How do I resolve a dispute?

Wikimedia wikis are collaborative projects, and so anyone may edit their pages. They do have policies governing page development, which were also created by community collaboration.

For Wikipedia, in a nutshell, information in articles must be verifiable to reliable sources, as defined by the community, and must be written from a neutral point of view, representing all majority and significant-minority views fairly and without bias. (See the short Five Pillars explained in your languages for more details, and for links to the relevant policies and guidelines.)

There is no central authority over Wikipedia or our other sites. The Wikimedia movement is based in part on the premise that good contents are achievable through the checks and balances editors provide for each other. When editors disagree on how to achieve these goals, they must resolve disputes through consensus, drawing on the wider community where necessary. You can read more about the dispute resolution processes. You will note in reading those pages that dispute resolution process also exist to resolve behavioral disputes - if editors believe that others are obstructing the proper development of Wikipedia, the community is the avenue of appeal for that as well.

If you believe that content is being developed in a manner inconsistent with the policies discussed above, or that editors are obstructing the proper development of a page or project, we would encourage you to join the community in working through the issues within the dispute resolution process. You don't even need to log in to edit, although creating an account gives you more options and helps you keep track of your contributions. The pages Introduction and Tutorial are useful reading for newcomers.

We hope you will join in the community in helping to develop a reliable resource for all.