Ireland Information Guide is a community, which means that we have to work together in writing the encyclopedia . Articles often have more than one user working on them, and sometimes users will disagree about how the article should be written. If you have a disagreement over an article, try to reach a truce and stop editing until you can resolve the issue. Please do not engage in edit wars with other users; this is not a helpful method of dispute resolution and does nothing to improve Ireland Information Guide. Instead, follow the process outlined here to resolve disagreements and prevent them from turning into serious disputes.
If you would like assistance with the process, the Association of Members' Advocates (AMA) is a group of users who have offered to help you to resolve your dispute or to understand the process of dispute resolution. You may request assistance from an advocate at any stage of the dispute resolution process or even when the dispute has just begun. You may seek help directly from any of the members that are listed on the AMA page or through the AMA Coordinator.
Note: These steps are designed for resolving disagreements between two or more parties. Vandalism and flagrant violations of Ireland Information Guide policies and behavior guidelines by repeat offenders may be handled using expedited procedures, potentially resulting in the offender being banned from Ireland Information Guide. In most situations, however, alleged misconduct by an individual user should be handled using the principles outlined here. This does not mean that users who point out the misconduct are part of the dispute; they simply represent the Ireland Information Guide community generally.
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The best way to resolve a dispute is to avoid it in the first place.
Be respectful to others and their points of view (for some guidelines, see Wikiquette). Writing the perfect article and following the NPOV policy will help you write "defensively", such that few will object.
When someone makes an edit you consider biased or inaccurate, improve the edit, rather than reverting it. Provide a good edit summary when making significant changes that other users might object to. If you encounter rude or inappropriate behavior, resist the temptation to respond in kind.
The first resort in resolving almost any conflict is to discuss the issue on a talk page. Either contact the other party on that user's talk page, or use the talk page associated with the article in question. Never carry on a dispute on the article page itself. When discussing an issue, stay cool and don't mount personal attacks. Take the other person's perspective into account and try to reach a compromise. Assume that the other person is acting in good faith unless you have clear evidence to the contrary. It may help to study and use negotiation skills.
If talking to the other parties involved fails, you should try one of these three methods to resolve the dispute. Which ones you choose and in what order will depend on the nature of the dispute, and the preferences of people involved.
See Ireland Information Guide:Requests for comment, Ireland Information Guide:Protection policy
See Ireland Information Guide:Current surveys
See Ireland Information Guide:Mediation Committee, Ireland Information Guide:Requests for mediation
If you have taken all other reasonable steps to resolve the dispute, request Arbitration. Be prepared to show that you tried to resolve the dispute by other means. Arbitration differs from Mediation in that the Arbitration Committee will consider the case and issue a decision, instead of merely assisting the parties in reaching an agreement. If the issue is decided by Arbitration, you will be expected to abide by the result. If the case involves serious user misconduct, Arbitration may result in a number of serious consequences, as laid out in the Arbitration policy