Help:Dispute resolution

See also: Help:Interacting with humans

The best way to have all disputes resolved is to have no disputes. When you find yourself arguing, try to put the whole thing into perspective – at the end of the day, one out of a million pages on Wiktionary, one of the thousands of millions of websites in the world is not going to make a big difference to anyone’s life anywhere. Just relax and do something more important.

This is, of course, far easier said than done. It will occasionally get to the point where you need to bring in reinforcements – these can be found in many places on Wiktionary. If you choose to ask for help from outsiders, then accept what the outsiders have to say; if they all seem to be ganging up on you, you should probably admit defeat gracefully.

If your dispute is about:

Formatting, example sentences or trivia

Use {{rfc}} and leave a note on WT:RFC

Content, definitions, synonyms, pronunciation, etymology...

Use {{rfv}} and leave a note on WT:RFV

The page itself, the existence of a word or the relevance of an Appendix/Category/etc.

Use {{rfd}} and leave a note on WT:RFD

The way Wiktionary should do things

Start a topic on WT:BP explaining why your way is good. Do not be derogatory about the other person’s ideas, let the community decide

Another user

Ignore them, assume that they are eccentric and will thus never be able to see eye to eye with you. If they won’t ignore you, ask them to. If they still won’t ignore you then talk to a friendly Administrator. If you get nowhere, then you may have to leave a note in the Wiktionary:Beer parlour. Please don’t leave an angry or attacking message, these just make you look bad, it is possible to criticise politely.