Kurt Jansson wrote:
Is there some kind of procedure that has been established in the international Wikipedia? Do you stop working on the article and start a discussion? Or do you fight on an article until you come to a consensus (or enough people have given up ;-) )?
Does there exist in the German wikipedia the custom of /Talk pages?
I think we generally tend to simultaneously work on the article while also discussing (on the /Talk page) the changes that are being made.
I think that the most important thing is that all parties have a commitment to the NPOV. This doesn't always solve all arguments, but it does solve most of them.
One of the most effective techniques for avoiding controversy is to shift the article from "what is true" to "what people say". It is controversial, perhaps, to say that ghosts exists, or ghosts do not exist. But it is not controversial to say that some people believe in ghosts, but that the vast majority of scientists point to the lack of credible scientific proofs as a reason not to believe.